Standing over 27 feet tall and weighing more than 20,000 pounds, Rex is the largest cantilever bronze animal statue in the world, according to Artworks Foundry in Berkeley, CA, the company that cast Rex. His unique pose—standing on a single paw—was accomplished with an impressive feat of engineering by the firm of Thornton Tomasetti. It took thousands of hours of craftsmanship to create Rex, based on an original sketch from former San Diego Zoo Global illustrator Tim Reamer. Jim Burt of Blue Rhino Studios turned that sketch into a three-dimensional model, which was later enlarged to its current size through a revolutionary 3-D printing process. Rex was funded through a generous donation from brothers Craigar and Mark Grosvenor, philanthropists and longtime San Diego Zoo supporters.

2018

Integration 2017 - 2026

A monumental surprise was unveiled on March 25, 2018, when the San Diego Zoo revealed Rex, the more than 27-foot-tall bronze lion at the Zoo’s entrance. The crowd cheered and “roared” to welcome the newly created statue that was designed in honor of the lion that inspired the creation of the Zoo in 1916.

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