San Diego Zoo Rex's Roar

When the San Diego Zoo unveiled him in 2018, the first thing a visitor met at the entrance was a lion that appeared to be leaping out of the ground. Rex's Roar, a bronze sculpture more than 27 feet tall, touched down on a single front paw while the rest of the animal hung in the air.

The zoo unveiled it on 25 March 2018 at its entrance in Balboa Park, as the centennial year closed. According to the zoo's announcement, it weighed more than 20,000 pounds and was funded by a donation from two brothers who were longtime zoo supporters. The zoo said Artworks Foundry in Berkeley, California, which cast the statue, described it as the largest cantilever bronze animal statue in the world. That is the foundry's claim, and the zoo repeated it. The San Diego Architectural Foundation records that about 200 bronze pieces form the body over a stainless-steel skeleton, and that the pose works because of a 50-ton concrete footing under the paw.