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Children's Zoo

How to view Owl Vision: It's easy! Simply hold your mouse button down while scrolling over the image, moving it left, right, up or down. You're now able to get a panoramic view of the exhibit area! Click on the "+" or "-" buttons at the bottom of the frame to zoom in or out. QuickTime plug-in is required. Click here to download for free

It's not just for kids

Don’t let the name fool you–our Children’s Zoo is for everyone to enjoy! But there are more than 30 special animal exhibits and activities designed with our younger visitors in mind. The popular Petting Paddock allows kids a chance to feel the wooly coat of a sheep or comb a gentle goat’s hair. Our animal nursery has large viewing windows to let you watch animal babies being bottle-fed or cuddled by our caring keepers. The Children’s Zoo has animals not found anywhere else on Zoo grounds, such as spider monkeys and our ever-fascinating naked mole-rats. Best of all, about 45 of the 200 critters living here are trained as animal ambassadors, so you might get to feel how sharp a hedgehog’s quills are, or hear how quietly a horned owl can flap its wings.

During the summer, weekends, and other seasonal holidays our wacky resident scientist, Dr. Zoolittle, delights audiences with some zany science shows. At various times of the year the Children’s Zoo is host to special animal-themed events that include craft stations, up-close animal encounters, and more. And our famous racing pigeons are fun to watch as they fly overhead before returning to their Children’s Zoo roost.

The Children’s Zoo also has a variety of gardens that are both educational and functional: My Color Garden has plants grouped according to color; the Butterfly and Backyard Habitat gardens have plants to attract butterflies, birds, and other wildlife; Wig L. Worm’s Composting Garden shows visitors how easy it is to turn garbage into garden mulch with the help of earthworms.

Spineless Marvels is the name of our new insect house! It's home to more than a dozen types of arthropods—creatures with joined legs and no skeletons inside their bodies such as hissing cockroaches, millipedes, whip spiders, leafcutter ants, and giant stick insects.

Fun facts

• Admission to the Children's Zoo was originally 15 cents. Today, admission to the Children's Zoo is included in your San Diego Zoo admission!
• Dr. Zoolittle hosts interactive shows on weekends, holidays, and during the summer.
• Don't be dismayed if there are no baby animals in the nursery when you visit—it just means all our animal babies are being cared for by their mothers and don't need our help!
• Hide your Zoo map! The goats in our Petting Paddock love to eat any paper they can snag from unsuspecting visitors.
• The Mouse House is made of a specially prepared huge loaf of bread. A fresh loaf is provided for the mouse residents once a week. You can get the recipe here!
• Children will enjoy climbing on a life-sized statue of Lonesome George, a Galápagos tortoise that used to live in the Petting Paddock.