Detroit Zoo, Royal Oak

Visitors can take a trip around the world with the Detroit Zoo's 125 acres of exhibits featuring everything from Japanese macaque snow monkeys to kaleidoscopes of butterflies. Some exhibits bring guests into direct contact with the collection of more than 2,600 animals, including the giraffe encounter, where guests can feed the animals. Conversely, the zoo's 4-D theater takes the animal experience into the realm of cinema, blending 3-D wildlife films with in-theater special effects for a more immersive experience.

Still, the zoo continues to push forward with new innovations—not by teaching its birds to blog, but by opening a pair of new habitats in 2015. The first is a new, two-acre wolf sanctuary that features meadows, dens, and rock outcroppings that mirror wolves' natural environment. The other impending expansion, the Polk Penguin Conservation Center, will house the zoo's rockhopper, Gentoo, macaroni, and king penguins in a spacious iceberg-shaped building with a 326,000-gallon, 25-foot-deep swimming area where visitors can observe the birds underwater.