Cincinnati Zoo Links
Related UC Programs
UC Stories
Visit the Cincinnati Zoo
Discounted Zoo Tickets - Valid Everyday
UC staff, faculty, students and alumni can buy discounted tickets for admission, rides and meals. Bypass ticket booth lines by printing admission tickets from your computer. Present them, along with your UC ID, at the entrance turnstiles.
Purchase discounted tickets by visiting the Cincinnati Zoo online tickets site. Enter "UC" as the store name.
Throughout the year, the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden offers special events for all ages. Celebrate spring with Zoo Blooms and visit the zoo's newest adorable additions during Zoo Babies. In the summer, you'll get the chance to feed a giraffe at Giraffe Ridge and watch Zoo Tales with your child. For fall, HallZOOween will entertain everyone in your family and you won’t want to miss the spectacular holiday event, the PNC Festival of Lights.
When you visit the zoo, don't forget to say "hello" to Lucy the bearcat, member of the UC cheerleading squad.
Find out what's happening this month at the Cincinnati Zoo by visiting the events calendar.
Bearcat, Arctictis binturong -"Lucy"
Birthday: January 17, 2008
Hometown: Spring, Texas
Length: 4 ft
Weight: 20 lbs
Favorite Food: Grapes, bananas and musketeers
Also known as the binturong, the bearcat is agile like a cat in the canopy and less adept on ground, walking flat-footed like a bear. However, it is neither a bear nor a cat, but belongs to the civet and mongoose family. Spending most of its time in the trees, it slowly and skillfully walks along branches at night while foraging for fruit and small animals. Curling its prehensile tail around a tree limb, the bearcat pulls fruiting branches to its mouth with its forepaws. As it climbs down a tree headfirst, the bearcat turns its ankles so it can still grip the trunk with its claws.
The bearcat has a very distinctive odor; it smells like hot popcorn!
Although it is classified as a carnivore, the bearcat primarily eats fruit.
A bearcat eats a fig, travels a ways, then passes the seeds out the other end, helping fig trees grow in new places.
Visit the Cincinnati Zoo's website.
UC at the Zoo 2012
We had a spectacular day at the Cincinnati Zoo on Sept. 8. More than 5,400 UC fans, friends and employees participated.
Photos from the photo booths are listed on the
- uofcincy Facebook;
- proudlycincy Facebook; and the
- Visit the Cincinnati Zoo site.
Check them out!