Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, in Point Defiance Park at 5400 N. Pearl St., is the only combined zoo and aquarium in the Northwest. Most of the zoo's animal residents are native to the Pacific Rim.

The 5-acre Asian Forest Sanctuary provides a lush habitat for Sumatran tigers, clouded leopards, siamangs and Asian elephants. The Rocky Shores habitat is home to seals, walruses, otters and puffins. The Arctic Tundra exhibit features such cold weather-loving mammals as polar bears, Arctic foxes and musk oxen, a shaggy-haired, formidably horned relative of sheep and goats that is native to the Arctic areas of Canada and Greenland. Kids' Zone is an interactive play area for children that has animals from around the world, including lemurs and meerkats.

The Pacific Seas Aquarium includes the Baja Bay habitat with green sea turtles, hammerhead sharks and eagle rays, Northwest Waters with Puget Sound marine animals, giant Pacific octopus, a Tidal Touch Zone and more. The South Pacific Aquarium displays tropical fish, sharks and touchable stingrays.

See a live animal show at the Wild Wonders Outdoor Theater, feed a budgie in a walk-through aviary in summer, and from late November through early January gaze at the Zoolights display with more than 700,000 lights illuminating life-size replicas of zoo animals.

Food is available. Time: Allow 2 hours minimum.