Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

OUR MISSION AND VISION: 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. HOW WE DELIVER OUR MISSION: We are a natural history museum, zoo, aquarium, botanical garden, conservation center, and art institute.

The ARIZONA-SONORA DESERT MUSEUM is ranked on TripAdvisor.com as one of the Top 10 Museums in the country and the #1 Tucson attraction. Unlike most museums, about 85% of the experience is outdoors! The 98-acre Desert Museum is a fusion experience: zoo, botanical garden, art gallery, natural history museum, and aquarium. It encompasses: 21 interpreted acres with two miles of walking paths through various desert habitats; 230 native mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and birds including a walk-in, multi-species hummingbird aviary; 1,200 types and 56,000 individual speciments of plants; one of the world's most comprehensive regional gem, mineral, and fossil collections totaling 14,095 cataloged specimens; conservation and research programs which provide important information to help conserve the Sonoran Desert region; an art institute that inspires conservation through art education and gallery exhibits; and a publishing division, ASDM Press, which has produced over 40 books and guides on the natural and cultural history of the Sonoran Desert region.

The Desert Museum does not receive significant tax or government funding; instead, we rely on donations (such as from Arizona Gives!), admissions, memberships, and fee-based programs to sustain and enhance our exhibits and programs.

The Museum was founded in 1952 and is dedicated to the interpretation of the bi-national Sonoran Desert region. More than 22 million people from around the world have visited the Desert Museum. It open for public visitation every day of the year. The Museum hosts 400,000 visitors annually and reaches 35,000 school children each year though field trips and outreach programs.

PROGRAMS AND EXHIBITS:
- The Desert Museum's newest exhibit, PACKRAT PLAYHOUSE: is an indoor (air-conditioned) play space which allows children to discover the desert through the eyes of a packrat. Kids can slide down a Gila monster's tail, climb through prickly pear cactus pads, slither through an oversized rattlesnake, explore secret tunnels, find hidden objects, scramble in giant rope netting, and much more!
- STINGRAY TOUCH: where you can experience the touch of a stingray. Although the Sonoran Desert may be known for its dry climate, the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez) and the stingrays that flow through it are critically important and the primary reason the Sonoran Desert has been named the "lushest desert on earth." Visitors are able to create their own moments with these captivating creatures. The pool features cow nose stingrays that are regularly debarbed, a process compared with trimming a fingernail. This provides a comfortable environment for guests to interact with the stingrays.
- VULTURE CULTURE: which humorously displays intriguing facts about these oft-misunderstood bird.
- WARDEN AQUARIUM: a freshwater gallery focuses on the region's rivers, native fish and conservation efforts while the salt-water gallery showcases marine life from the Gulf of California. A hands-on tide pool encounter offers twice-daily interpretations for visitors.
- EARTH SCIENCES CENTER: recreates an underground cave, complete with stalactites and stalagmites, and houses one of the world's most comprehensive regional mineral collections in the world.
- LIVE ANIMAL PRESENTATIONS: "Live and (sort of) on the Loose," showcasing often-misunderstood venomous reptiles, "Fur, Feathers & Fangs," featuring native mammals, reptiles and birds, and "Raptor Free Flight" (seasonal), where visitors watch from the flight path as native birds of prey whiz by so close visitors can feel the brush of feathers.
- DAILY, ON-GROUNDS EVENTS: include complimentary interpretive orientation tours, animal keeper interactions where visitors can watch feedings, enrichment activities or animal training sessions for veterinary care procedures, and docent engagement stations.
- ART INSTITUTE: founded in 2001 to promote conservation through art education. The Art Institute has a permanent traveling collection and offers a variety of visual art classes throughout the year.

Testimonials

"Best (most diverse, exceptional outdoor exhibits that blend seamlessly with the surrounding desert, docents with creatures, rescued native fauna, beautiful landscaping that blends into the desert vista whenever you look up, kind and knowledgeable staff) and most unique museum EVER!!"
- Visitor from Grand Rapids, MI

"We are visiting the area, and my dad said he wanted to take me and my girls to a 'museum.' We were amazed when we arrived at the Desert Museum, and spent an amazing three hours exploring the grounds and enjoying the landscape, habitat, and live animal exhibits...