What animals have you seen in Petting/Children Zoos?

Thylaco

Thylaco
In the petting zoo section of my local zoo (the Adelaide Zoo) there's mostly domestic animals, with the main outlier being Quokkas.

List of animals in the Petting zoo
SpeciesAbility to be petted notes
Llamatechnically able to pet from fence, though often not in reach
Guinea pigfence is too high to allow reach
Chickenfreely allowed to wander, runs away from pat
Helmeted Guineafowlfreely allowed to wander, runs away from pat
Domestic Goatin fenced area people can enter, easily enticed with pellets
Fallow? Deer (only female)in fenced area people can enter, tends to keep it's distance
Quokkain separate fenced area people can enter, very much accepting of pat
 
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SotF

SotF
Most of them tend to be farm animals. Cows, pigs, sheep, goats, donkeys, horses, chickens, ducks, turkeys, alpaca, and llama along with a turtle pond. They also tend to have handlers there for some other animals such as rabbits, tortoises, turtles, snakes and the like that can be brought out and handled that have been trained for it.

There's also a zoo I was to a few years ago that had wallaby's...and I think that I remember Kings Island's old animal area that they removed had them as well. There was also a great garden/farm store that used to be nearby which closed due to the owners dying and the family not wanting to bother where they had imported some Key Deer and a few other animals for a zoo thing to entertain kids while the parents shopped.
 

NZFanatic

NZFanatic
Yeah that seems pretty standard. Odd that they keep llama at a distance, they're pretty mellow animals. Both my local zoos have up-close encounters with llamas - one takes their male around on walks to receive pets from children and the other has them as part of the general barnyard where they can be hand-fed. Typically it's always domestic breeds, though, for petting/children's zoos, or curiosities that kids might know about (one I went to had three tanks showcasing the life cycle of the frog, for example).
 

SotF

SotF
NZFanatic said:
Yeah that seems pretty standard. Odd that they keep llama at a distance, they're pretty mellow animals. Both my local zoos have up-close encounters with llamas - one takes their male around on walks to receive pets from children and the other has them as part of the general barnyard where they can be hand-fed. Typically it's always domestic breeds, though, for petting/children's zoos, or curiosities that kids might know about (one I went to had three tanks showcasing the life cycle of the frog, for example).
Click to expand...
Some of that depends upon their mood at the time and if they've had issues with kids recently...a lot of them are in a pen where they can interact as they choose.
 

DrAkula87

DrAkula87
We went to a tiny petting zoo last weekend. (This is in Japan.)
They had a bunch of free roaming animals, most notably Capybaras, Maras, various rabbits and Meerkats (which surprised me), some larger tortoises and a pig (no clue what species, pretty low to the ground with black hair). There were different species of goats, a sheep and a Llama. And then, in cages or behind glass, were some smaller monkeys, Coatis, marmots, lemurs and a variety of birds. You could feed the caged off ones, too.
They had a warning sign that the monkeys like to steal masks. ^^
 

RedPandaReggie

RedPandaReggie
My local zoo the Hunter Valley Zoo in New South Wales, Australia, its petting zoo animals are some Domestic Sheep, Goats, European Fallow Deer, Red Junglefowl and at one point Alpacas. The Sydney Zoo has some Hereford and Jersey Cows, I think its a jersey cow, domestic sheep and goats.
 

Cynogale bennettii II

Cynogale bennettii II
The petting area at my local zoo currently has the following:

  • Oxford sandy-and-black pigs: Cannot be petted
  • Domestic rats: In the indoor house for the pigs, living in a mock-up kitchen
  • Cameroon and Somali fat tailed sheep, African pygmy goats and domestic helmeted guineafowl: Can be petted and fed; live in a walkthrough enclosure
  • Large draft horses (Shire, Clydesdale and Suffolk punch) and donkeys: Mostly live off-show in large fields but each day one is walked up through the zoo to an on-show stable where they can be petted
  • Fantail doves: Live in a dovecote built into the roof of the horse and donkey stable
  • Llama, alpaca and Darwin's rhea: Live in a mixed paddock with a small barrier to prevent the animals getting too close to the viewing platform
  • Red-necked wallabies: Live in a walkthrough enclosure

This area also has the house and enclosures for Aldabra giant and African spurred tortoise (formerly also Asian giant tortoises mixed with the Aldabra giants), as well as an animal encounters building with a few common pet shop reptiles (corn snake, royal python, blue-tongued skink and bearded dragon) along with periodical appearances by encounter animals such as guinea pigs, spur-thighed tortoises, giant snails and armadillos.

In times gone by, there was also an enclosure for Patagonian mara, one for banded mongooses (with a tunnel going under and glass bubbles you could stick your head up into to see them running around) and the wallaby enclosure was originally home to Rocky Mountain goats. There was also a large barn (now converted into other displays) where as well as being the original home for the shire horse, there were three glass small mammal displays that, over the years, were home to chinchillas, degus, zebra mice, domestic rats, African grass rats, domestic rabbits, tailless tenrecs and feathertail gliders.
 

ZooMan

ZooMan
goats. every petting zoo i been to were goats. but also chickens ducks and sometimes ponies cows mini pigs llamas alpacas and sheep.
 

DarthQuell

DarthQuell
My zoo, the Houston Zoo, is renovating half the zoo, so the petting zoo is closed. (I've never said the word "zoo" so many times in 1 sentence) But from what I remember, they only had goats. Hopefully we get another species. Supposedly the plan is to make the children's zoo (where the petting zoo is located) into a Texas themed area, so maybe we'll get Texas animals in the pz
 
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