Where to see the Wild Things in Los Angeles
This post was written by Debi Huang, a Los Angeles-based wife, mom and adventure guide for two young boys. Her blog, Go Explore Nature, is all about getting kids and families outdoors and connected to nature, whether that’s in Los Angeles or beyond. I love how her site is packed full of activities that can be created in any space, near or far. Want to build a roly-poly terrarium? Do you know the best way to explore a tree with kids? This mom has tons of ideas!
Kids love animals. And my two sons are no exception. The trick when you live in a big city is finding good places to spot them. Here’s a selection of our favorite places in Los Angeles to see the wild things.
Best place for up-close-and-personal animal encounters: STAR ECO Station
STAR Eco Station is an 18,000-square-foot wildlife rescue center for illegal, abandoned and abused exotic wildlife in Culver City. Your visit involves a volunteer-led, small-group guided tour, which lasts between 45 minutes and an hour. Expect to see fish and turtles, big cats, reptiles and tropical birds galore. During the tour, guides usually take out an animal or two for your group to see up close and even touch.
What I like about the ECO Station is that every visit feels like a personalized tour. Volunteers are extremely knowledgeable and talk at a kid-friendly level. Guests learn a ton about why the animals are there, why they don’t make great pets and what we can do to protect them.
Best place to see fishes: Aquarium of the Pacific
The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach is one of the largest aquariums in the United States with more than 500 different species of sea creatures native to the Pacific Ocean. In addition to glass tank enclosures, the Aquarium of the Pacific provides plenty of hands-on activities – from feeding lorikeets to touching sharks, rays and horseshoe crabs. There are also educational talks, presentations and an outdoor play area just for kids.
Our favorite thing to do at the Aquarium is to go on a treasure hunt. The Map & Visitor Guide you receive when you enter comes complete with a circle-shaped embossing space on several of the pages. Find each of seven embossing stations throughout the Aquarium, emboss the Guide and discover the image.
Warning: This place is popular and pricey. To beat the crowds, try to avoid a summer visit when tickets are doled out on a timed entry basis. And to cut costs, seek out discounts online.
Best place to see endangered animals: America’s Teaching Zoo
America’s Teaching Zoo is the training ground for students at Moorpark College’s Exotic Animal Training and Management Program. Although this is a no-frills kind of place (there isn’t a petting zoo or even a concession stand), it’s a great place for kids to get up-close views of several engendered animals they might not otherwise see. During our visit, we saw a Galapagos turtle, Bengal tiger, gray wolf, African lioness, spotted hyena, mountain lion, howler monkey, macaws and more.
The Zoo isn’t that big – we were able to see the entire thing in about an hour. We especially liked watching a free, 15-minute animal presentation where we learned that hissing cockroaches can live up to two weeks without their heads!
America’s Teaching Zoo is only open on the weekends and can get incredibly hot during summer months, so bring plenty of sunscreen and water.
Best place to see kid favorites: Los Angeles Zoo
The Los Angeles Zoo isn’t my favorite zoo by any means, especially when compared to the likes of the San Diego Zoo just a few hours south. But it’s the spot in L.A. to see most of the kid favorites, including lions, bears, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, gorillas and more.
There’s a petting zoo, tram ride (albeit, an archaic one) and even a playground at the top of the zoo. To cut costs, we bring our own lunch and enjoy it at the tables next to the giraffe exhibit (my 5 ½ year old loves giraffes). The place gets hot and there are plenty of hills, so try to avoid visits during hot weather and be patient with little legs. When it’s warm, keep an eye out for wasps – they swarm around trashcans.
Best place to see farm animals: Underwood Family Farms
Sure, you can probably see farm animals at a petting zoo. But I prefer taking my kids to a farm instead. Our favorite is Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark, about an hours’ drive from L.A. This is a working farm where not only will you see chickens, cows, goats, sheep, pigs and the like, but you can also pick your own fruits and veggies.
You can purchase feed to give to the animals through long tubes. This is a great way to prevent the deluge of hungry animals that scare off my kids in petting zoos. The animals here aren’t just babies, so kids get a chance to see what a grown cow, goat and sheep look like. Combine your visit to the animals with some produce picking and the kids will be begging to come back!
What about you – where’s your favorite spot to see animals?
Never been to the Star ECO station! Actually- never even heard of it. Went to school with the Underwoods and half of my high school went to Moorpark. LOL. Small world. Debi is awesome. Glad to see two of my favorite bloggers working together!
Love this list, great idea for a theme. I had read about the Teaching Zoo at Debi’s blog and now I found out about the Star ECO station too. Way to go Debi!
@Sharlene and @Carolina: Debi sure makes me want to head down south again. She has some great ideas, its been so fun connecting with her!
Who says traveling with kids is just purely fun… traveling with kids can be most of the time educational and good thing there are already travel spots that caters to this. Well bringing the zoo in the city is really a great opportunity for kids to have a close and personal interaction with animals even wild animals.