A complete redesign of the Children’s Zoo experience offers a fresh opportunity to provide authentic exploration of nature that intrigues and delights kids. The San Diego Zoo’s new Denny Sanford Children’s Zoo will be a two-acre tapestry of diverse habitats that will transport young visitors to a land that is rich in adventurous, intimate, dramatic, and playful opportunities to explore nature at their own pace.

Insect statues and a bright, colorful arch announce the entrance, and a huge water globe that little ones can run their hands in beckons. Kids can follow a stream into a grasslands habitat, where desert tortoises, burrowing owls, and prairie dogs live.

Kids can hide behind a waterfall, dabble and splash in a gentle, rocky creek, or dash across it from above: this multi-sensory experience is sure to delight little visitors and expand minds.

An insect house features leaf-cutter ant colonies, butterflies, stick insects, and a beehive behind glass where kids can watch bees work. Another surprise is an entire wall of underground tunnels and burrows for naked mole-rats. Nearby, child-sized burrows beckon to be explored, as kids discover what it’s like to be a mole-rat.