Located on the west side of Kaohsiung City, Shoushan, where Shoushan Zoo is located, is a standalone mountain standing on the low plains. It borders the Taiwan Strait and stretches for 6 kilometers from north to south and 2 kilometers from east to west. The ridgeline is located in the center and lies along the north-south direction, where its highest peak is the Kaohsiung Mountain which is 355 meters above sea level. As the strata are tilted by geological folds, the rock strata in the west are apt to collapse, forming the single-sided mountain terrain with a cliff surface of more than 3 kilometers and a cliff height of 60 to 100 meters. Lying on the northeastern side is a limestone quarry owned by Taiwan Cement Corporation. In recent years, large-scale collapse of rock masses have occurred in area, thus resulting in major disasters, due to the fact that the area is a forward slope and there are lots of joints and fissures overlying the rock masses, coupled with the slip surface easily formed by low permeable mudstone at the bottom. At present, limestone mining activities have stopped, and vegetation recovery has been carried out on the surface of the area.

Shoushan Zoo is located at the southern end of Shoushan, Kaohsiung City, about 75 to 90 m above sea level, with a surface which is less wavy. The west side of Shoushan is a steep slope which is near 160 m above sea, whereas the east side of the mountain descends to a valley which is approximately 30 m above sea level. Further to the east lies the vast, low-lying Kao-Ping Plain.