America’s Teaching Zoo

This zoo is great, small and my toddler loves to run around it. I live in walking distance and wish sooo bad they had a «membership pass» for regulars. I also wish t was open on Fridays! I hope they see my review and take these changes in consideration!

After reading about this place over the summer, i took my 3.5 year old niece yesterday. It was just perfect for her age and attention span. We got there around 1230 and left around 2:45. The students there were all nice, friendly and helpful. We watched the animal show which we both enjoyed. I have never been that close to a lion before, so that was pretty awesome! It’s a small place, perfect for young kids. I saw a few people enjoying a picnic lunch at the tables and they had a little table to buy snacks. I would take her back again another day!

This zoo, although tiny and located allllll the way in Moorpark is simply AMAZING!!!
I was there for a 3yr old’s birthday party and was pleasantly surprised by my experience.
Right inside the entrance of the zoo, there is a small theater where the animal handlers put on animal shows. We were treated to our personal show which featured a talking parrot named «Cowboy,» a skunk (de-​cented of course), a pig, a wild dog, turtles just to name a few.
The real magic of the zoo is seen when you venture deeper towards the back part. Here, you will encounter dozens of birds (including a bald eagle), several types of monkeys and 2 adult lions — YES, that’s right, a male and female lion that you can come literally within a few feet of. I’ve never been so close to a lion before outside of China. My gf and I felt really bad that they were in such tiny and confined cages, but when we expressed our concern to one of the zoo keepers, she said to rest assured that they have a large arena where they are let out on a regular basis to exercise and play.
To me, it’s worth the price of admission alone just to get a chance to see the lions up close.

This zoo is very small and ran by students. However saying that, it is a wonderful park and everyone there is extremely knowledgable and helpful. I would definitely recommend it to families with children and just about everyone else!
Plus they have VIPS tours, which are totally worth it!

This is the perfect zoo! I love coming here and spending a couple hours looking at the great variety of animals. It is the perfect size; small enough that you don’t feel exhausted after walking around all day but has all the cools animals you go to the zoo to see. You are able to get SO much closer to the animals and their enclosures than at other zoos. It is amazing being able to feel so close and you truly get a better idea of the animals and their behaviors. I spent this past weekend there for their spring spectacular and spectacular does not even begin to describe it! So many fun shows, interesting vendors, and delicious food trucks! The students who manage the zoo are so knowledgeable and friendly. They are full of interesting facts and are more than happy to explain things and let you get even closer to some of the animals that they are allowed to walk around. What a fun place! I love this zoo!

A great zoo for learning about animals. It’s free for Moorpark College students and though there aren’t a lot of animals, it is a great experience.

Love this zoo. It’s 20 min from my house, and is such a more relaxing experience than schlepping over to LA or Santa Barbara. What’s unique here is the visitor to employee ratio and visitor to animal ratio is really low – meaning a lot of alone time with you and the animals and zoo keepers without a bunch of people around you. They also have a really cute show, which once again is great since nearly everyone has a front row seat.
Finally, the animal sponsorship program allows you to interact with your adopted animal once a month, which is both really cool and also an amazing value. For the cost of membership somewhere else, you can have a full year interacting with your adopted animal, and then just go with another animal next year.
Honestly, I am shocked this is such a hidden gem.

I’m sooo bummed out about this place, I get that it’s a teaching zoo but you would think there would be more interaction if not interaction at least more closer to the animals or something. One thing that I did not like is that I’m standing by the birds and they have cages i’m not putting my hand or anything by the cage or anywhere near and the girl working there said I needed to step back well how the heck am I supposed to look at the birds than. Another issue I have is that they have so many monkeys/​gorillas they are protected by gates/​fences and one of the gorilla was upset because there were so many people around so they asked everyone to leave. I get it but really? What’s the point of coming to the zoo than, the animals are caged and we are not in their habitat. There was really not much to do, they had owls, a large tortoise, eagle, gorillas, birds, lions which of course were asleep and caged. All in all I thought this was a big taste of money and wouldn’t ever come back again.

What an amazing place to have a birthday party, we had a great time, staff made sure everyone had a great experience,
Show was so much fun ! and birthday twins were thrilled to be part of it!
Overall 5 * all the way!

We really enjoyed being closer to the animals and loved having the students teach us about them. My 10 year old son was interested and we spent about 2 hours there, a great way to spend an afternoon.

We got a groupon deal so wanted to take kids there to try it out. It is a tiny zoo at moorpark and they had pretty good selection of different types of animals. It was great to see that a lot of staff who are working there were knowledgable and getting along with animals. I could tell that they really like these animals there. I think this place is definitely different than regular zoo places that you can see some the other side of the zoo as you watch staff working with animals.

Great little zoo, especially for the low admission price ($ 7 for adults, $ 6 for kids 13 and under, 2 and under are free). They have a decent variety of species, even some large carnivores.
You can tell that this is an educational environment because there were a lot of staff members from the EATM program who were on hand to answer questions. Everyone there was so friendly and informative. While we were there, two staff members were at the back of the birds of prey enclosure handling a red-​shouldered hawk. They noticed that I was trying to take pictures, so they brought the hawk closer to the fence so that I could get better pics and they could answer my questions. We also saw a hyena feeding/​training session which was really interesting. The staff member who was handling the hyena talked about the training techniques (apparently, this hyena had learned 75+ behaviors!), and she patiently answered my gazillion questions. 5 stars for the animals and 5 stars for the staff!
As others have mentioned, it is a very small zoo so don’t expect to spend too much time there, but it’s well worth it if you have an interest in animals and what it takes to care for them. Highly recommended!

This is an amazing place to take young children! It’s small enough that the kids aren’t too exhausted and cranky at the end. They get to see everything. There are docents everywhere, many with displays to show and teach interesting animal facts.
They have animal shows throughout the day showcasing the trainers and animals talents. They even have public feeding times where the trainers will answer all questions regarding their animals and you can experience something that is usually done beyond public view. Small, yet impressive! Definitely go!

Very tiny zoo located in Moorpark College. You can definitely tell it’s a teaching zoo — we visited here with family and it felt more like I was walking around the back of a zoo than really visiting the zoo itself. There’s definitely a few rough edges, so don’t expect something shiny and commercial like the LA or San Diego Zoos. That being said, there are probably more students here than people, so there’s always someone to talk to if you want to know more about the animals. They have some pretty awesome creatures — a gorgeous female lion, a reptile room, a primate section, and some pretty cool birds. There’s at least two stages, and a lot of little displays for kids to compare their hands to a lions paw print or a cow hoof.
Tiny zoo — I wouldn’t say you could spend more than 90 minutes here, but it was really fun and a great place to take your kids.

Amazing venue for a kid’s party. Fun, unique, beautiful setting, and the birthday child gets to be a part of the show. They have a covered area w/​picnic tables reserved for the party. And it’s the best bargain in SoCal! Our guests keep talking about what a great party it was. The kids have the run of the place — it’s never crowded, and they get to have close up animal encounters. We love it so much that we just held our daughter’s birthday party here for the 3^rd year in a row. I even promised that I’d post a review — my first ever, ’cause that’s just not my thing.. Now that’s love!
Yes, the show is a little cheesy — to be expected when it’s being presented by students. But the kids LOVED it! My daughter is already asking to have her next birthday party there!

A really cute zoo, very nice!!! The EATM students are completely knowledgeable of what’s going on at the zoo and very helpful, I would love to see more animals!

Went with my toddler who loves animals. It was really great and he had a blast! The worst part of the trip was when we were turned around at the gate because I had no cash to pay admittance fees; had to load everything back up and drive down to nearest ATM. I’m surprised people still take checks. P.I.T.A. My fault for not reading up on it, first. So many things to see, and worth visiting – again!
Pros–
Enormous collection of wild animals.
Great animal shows.
Not expensive.
Cool, inexpensive seasonal programs (e.g. Spring Spectacular).
A lot of trainers available for «meet & greets», arts and crafts and questions.
Staff are very friendly.
Cons–
Doesn’t take plastic – cash or check ONLY.
Nearest ATM is a mile downhill at the gas station.
Some exhibits are hard to see because they’re behind others.
Not allowed to physically touch animals (which is reasonable).

We just had our daughter’s 6^th birthday at the zoo. It was Amazing! They were so helpful; especially ronna and the handlers. We have gotten so much positive feedback from our guests. Our daughter was the star of the day, she had the run of the zoo. Highly Reccommend!!!

For the price, this zoo is fantastic! Normally $ 5 a person, we had a coupon for $ 2.50 a person… sweet. I’ll go just about anywhere for $ 2.50. This is a teaching zoo used for training vet students and such, and is located on the Moorpark College campus. On the weekends they open it up to the public, and the parking is free.
They have quite the variety of animals, mostly smaller types. You’re not going to get crazy with your typical zoo fare like giraffes, zebras, and elephants, but they have plenty of monkeys, crazy birds, and a giant 80±year-old Galapagos tortoise from the age of Darwin. Throughout our visit, we encountered several of the staff walking or carrying various animals around outside of their cages, which provided fun interaction time. It took us about an hour to casually walk through the entire zoo.
The highlight for me was definitely the monkey area… they have a howler monkey that just wouldn’t shut up! Fantastic!

Cool little learning zoo. When I was there they hand fed a mountain lion and a huge lion. That alone was worth the five dollar entrance fee.
I recommend anyone with kids or anybody that wants to check out some cool animals up close and personal to check this place out.
It’s pretty rare to have somewhere you can get this close to some amazing animals. The zoo sits up on a hill over looking rolling hills and the college.