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 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.

A rope bridge and net hammock for climbing lead to an inviting treehouse, a treetop canopy experience that is accessible by foot or elevator and offers platforms, crawl tubes, and lookouts for kids to explore. Nearby, spider monkeys swing, dash, and leap in their own treetop exhibit, giving children an example of how another primate does it.

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.