Encounters at the Animal Zone

Junior Keeper for the Day!

Is your child an aspiring zookeeper? We are delighted to offer a Junior Zookeeper experience where children aged 7-15 can get hands-on and help our keepers clean, feed, and care for a wide range of animals at the Animal Zone!

The cost of the Junior Keeper experience is £50 per child. This will include the cost of the adult that accompanies the child. Children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian at all times.

• Being a keeper is a messy job, so your little one will need to wear suitable old clothes and shoes, such as wellies. They may be working outside, so remember to bring waterproofs in case it rains.
• Junior Keeper for the Day is available on Saturdays and Sundays during term time, as well as every day during half-terms and school holidays. Time slots are either 9am-1pm or 12pm-4pm.
• This experience also includes discounted lunch and a presentation certificate as a memento of the day.

To book a Junior Keeper experience, please email azbookings@southstaffs.ac.uk with the date you are looking for, and our friendly Visitor Centre team will come back to you with our availability!

Become an Adult Keeper
for the day

Available to ages 16 years + this experience is perfect for people who would love to get up close to some of the Animal Zones favourite species!

Your experience includes:

• 9am – 1pm exclusive keeper experience
• Feeding some of our most loved animals alongside our keepers
• Undertaking of daily keeper tasks to ensure the animals are well cared for
• Participating in enrichment activities for our animal
• Participate in animal handling and training
• Meeting and handling of reptiles
• Discounted refreshments
• Access to the Animal Zone after your encounter for the remainder of the day

The cost of this experience is £50 per person.

‘Meet Our Animals’ Experience

Get up close to our majestic Ring-tailed lemurs, our hungry meerkats and our friendly, but scaly reptiles.

Our VIP encounter’s include a 30-minute feeding session and a personal talk from the keeper.

These are priced at £20.00 per person (up to a maximum of 4 people in one party).

Availability:

• Lemur experiences available between 11.30am and 1.30pm daily.
• Meerkat experiences available between 1.30pm and 3.30pm daily.
• Reptile experiences available between 10 am and 12pm and 1.30pm to 3.30 pm daily.

VIP experiences are available to adults and children over 5 years of age. Children between 5 and 12 years of age must be accompanied by an adult.

‘Face your Fear’ Experience

Scared of snakes? Terrified of tarantulas? Creeped out by creepy crawlies? Our ‘Face Your Fears’ experience is a 30-minute encounter with a range of different reptile and invertebrate species all designed to help you face some of your fears.

Prices:

• One person: £50, which includes one free adult admission whilst accompanying child of 5-12 years.
• Additional people £30 per person (up to a maximum of 4 people in one party)

Availability:

Experiences available between 11.30am and 12.30pm and 2.00pm and 3.30pm

Package includes:

• Private access to the Zoo’s off show reptile area.
• The opportunity to interact with and handle some of the animals under the guidance and supervision of one of our experienced keepers.
• An age-appropriate private talk from an animal keeper.
• Souvenir certificate of Face Your Fear Experience

Children between 5 and 12 years of age must be accompanied by an adult.