For a half-century the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum has enchanted millions of visitors with its exhibits of live animals in astonishingly natural settings, while intriguing and instructing them with fascinating educational programs. At the same time, the Museum has gained a worldwide repute in the scientific community as an institution committed to researching and protecting the land, plants, and the animals of the Sonoran Desert region.

The mission of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is to inspire people to live in harmony with the natural world by fostering love, appreciation, and understanding of the Sonoran Desert.

In a nutshell - The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a world-renowned zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden, all in one place! Exhibits re-create the natural landscape of the Sonoran Desert Region so realistically you find yourself eye-to-eye with mountain lions, prairie dogs, Gila monsters, and more. Within the Museum grounds, you will see more than 300 animal species and 1,200 kinds of plants. There are almost 2 miles of paths traversing 21 acres of beautiful desert.

Accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and a member of the American Association of Museums.

Founded in 1952 by William Carr and Arthur Pack, the Desert Museum is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of the Sonoran Desert. Our current operations and future growth are funded entirely by admissions, memberships, contributions and grants.

Annual membership dues ensure the future of the Desert Museum - our work, our programs, collections and our actual museum site.

• Providing educational programming for our community - for children and adults
• Conserving the Sonoran Desert environment - protecting native plants and animals
• Maintaining and improving the Museum's collections of live plants and animals as well as our other natural history collections
• Supporting ongoing research and advancing scientific understanding of the desert and shaping people's sense of stewardship