Family Farm - From Storyland to Goats

A stop on San Francisco Zoo: Exhibit by Exhibit, a free self-guided tour.

You are in the Fisher Family Children's Zoo, six acres the zoo now calls the Exploration Zone. It began in 1959 as Storyland, a playground of life-size nursery-rhyme scenes, and in 1964 the Zoological Society turned it into a children's zoo built around meeting animals up close. Before that, this corner belonged to the Fleishhacker playground, with a wading pool for small children.

At the Family Farm, kids can step into the contact yard with goats and sheep and sometimes help brush them, while keepers explain how domestic animals are cared for.

Elsewhere in the zone you may see red pandas in their treehouse, meerkats and prairie dogs on lookout, parrots and freshwater turtles, plus rare Yosemite toads, a California amphibian few zoos display. Crawl-through tunnels let kids pop up for a prairie dog's view of the world.

Getting here: Continue through the Exploration Zone to the barns and contact yard of the Family Farm.

Did you know?: Goats have horizontal, rectangular pupils that give them a wide view of the ground around them for spotting danger.

Photo op: Crouch to a goat's eye level in the contact yard for a friendly portrait.

For kids: If keepers offer a brush, groom a goat - always brush the way the hair grows.

Nearby: Wash hands after the contact yard; restrooms are by the Great Hall at the west edge of the zone.

More on Wikipedia: Yosemite toad · Red panda · Meerkat

Family Farm - From Storyland to Goats

Stops on this tour