The Little Rock Zoo briefly stopped admitting visitors on Friday morning while authorities investigating a bomb threat that was found to be a hoax.
Zoo officials called emergency services, set a perimeter and searched the property after receiving the threat around 9:33 a.m., the zoo said in a news release. Little Rock police and the Fire Department bomb squad assisted with the investigation, the release says.
The zoo never fully closed or evacuated, but new guests were not permitted to enter during the search, zoo spokeswoman Joy Matlock said.
The threat was found to be non-credible around 10:23 a.m., zoo curator Hanna Baker said. The zoo resumed operations with police remaining onsite as a precautionary measure, Baker said.
According to the release, zoo officials believe the threat was “part of a growing national trend” of hoaxes in which phony bomb threats and “swatting incidents” are directed at zoos and aquariums.
Jacie Sellars
Jacie Sellars is the morning breaking news reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. She joined the newspaper in May 2026 after graduating from Ouachita Baptist University with degrees in multimedia journalism and Spanish.
Title
