Animal Adventure at ZSL London Zoo review

London Mums’ contributor Bibi and her kids Leo and Oliver recently went to an exclusive press preview and launch of Animal Adventure, a new children’s play and discovery area at the heart of London Zoo aimed at connecting children to wildlife this summer. Kids can delve secret and surprising lives of animals and follow some of nature’s most epic journeys – encountering meerkats, porcupines, eagle owls, mongoose, coatis and more along the way.

Capturing little ones’ imaginations, child-sized hot air balloons and a replica HMS Beagle will ‘transport’ them to animal kingdoms around the world, connecting youngsters to animals through magical up-close experiences and adventurous play.

Animal Adventure has been designed to start youngsters on a nature-loving journey of wildlife discovery that will last a lifetime – we’d be delighted if you would show your support for connecting children with wildlife by attending this exclusive preview.

A fun morning for all ages, you’ll have the opportunity to meet international conservation charity ZSL’s animals and zookeepers – and experience Animal Adventure before anyone else.

 

This is what Bibi and her kids had to say about Animal Adventure: 

 

‘This exciting new children zoo and play park at London Zoo will inspire young explorers and discoverers to get closer to nature.  It is specially designed for small children, I would say under 8 years old.  The new play area includes a mini water splash zone which we did not try out to the disappointment of Oliver and Leo as it was raining heavily.   The play area has a mini climbing wall, mini monkey bars and many interesting areas for little explorers to discover and enjoy while bringing them closer to over 40 furry, feathery and four-legged very cute friends.

 

We were fortunate to have met some of the zoo friendly keepers who introduced us to some of the animals including the Coatis, mongoose, porcupines and a very large pig as well. The keepers explained the secret lives of the animals and how they live in the wild. 

 

Our highlight of the morning were feeding the Coatis, Scientific name Nasua Nasua.  Coatis are members of the racoon family.  Both Oliver and Leo made the largest box of delicious treats for the Coatis, it consist of straws, vegetable chunks, herbs and perfume, yes that’s right perfume with  huge worms.  Once the food was thrown into the enclosure, the Coatis use  their narrow skull and long squidgy nose to smell and snuffle for the food.  The boys had lots of adventures alongside the animals behaving as if they were in the wild.  

 

There’s a catering kiosk with hot and cold drinks on offer, sandwiches, snacks and sweet treats but I must add that it is a bit pricey.  

 

We also had a little exploring around the rest of the zoo and we particularly loved the butterfly zone, so beautiful and colourful.   We loved the interesting bug zone and spend a lot of time in there exploring the insects.  And my favourite session were the penguin beach, so adorable I just didn’t want to leave, love them very much.  We highly recommend the animals adventure play area for very young ones which is included in the price of a normal Zoo entry ticket.  

 

Accessible entry 

London zoo is wheelchair accessible with ramp access.  There are accessible toilets. 

Unfortunately, assistance dogs are not currently permitted inside the Zoo because they have free-roaming animals such as mara, wallabies, Chinese water deer and muntjac around the Zoo.’

 

Check out London Zoo’s website for up to date access information.

Kids Club rating: 10/10

London Mums’ rating: 8/10

Related features:

Winnie-the-Pooh and ZSL London Zoo