Open Weekends and Select Holidays

Plan Your Visit

Experience all the Animal Park has to offer!

On a tour of our Park, you’ll walk the three-quarter-mile path with an experienced guide and gain an understanding of each species’ ecological importance. You’ll also get to see and learn about each animal’s individual behaviors, characteristics, and quirks. Every visit is a new conversation! Reservations required for most tours and events, held only on weekends and select holidays. Group tours and Wild Field Trips are available Wednesdays through Sundays with advance booking.

Tree Toss logo in blue
Trekkie Gray Wolf with gift wrap in front of a fir tree

Want a wild start to your new year?
Tree Toss returns on January 20, 2024!

Tree Toss is a much-anticipated event that’s become a tradition for our Animal Park family. Each year, the generous folks at Cranberry Tree Farm donate their unsold Christmas trees to the Park, and we give them to our animals as a special form of post-holiday enrichment. They love the strong scent of evergreens and the scratchy texture—perfect for rolling all over. It’s fun “fur” all! Learn More >>

Age range: 12+
Duration: 1.5 – 2 hours

Age range: Any
Duration: 1-3.5 hours

Family Adventures

Age range: Any
Duration: 1 – 1.5 hours

Adult Adventures

Age range: 12+
Duration: 1.5 – 2 hours

Twilight Tours

Age range: 12+
Duration: 1.5 – 2 hours

Seasonal Events

Age range: Any
Duration: 1+ hours

Photo Safaris

Age range: 18+
Duration: 1+ hours

Private Tours

Age range: Any
Duration: 1+ hours

Gift Cards

Gift a Tour to Friends
or Family!

Birthday Parties

Age range: Any
Duration: 1+ hours

Large Group Tours

Age range: Any
Duration: 1+ hours

Wild Field Trips

Age range: Any
Duration: 1+ hours

Wild Overnights

Age range: Any
Duration: 6+ hours

Important Information

Know Before You Go

Learn more about your upcoming visit to the Animal Park at the Conservators Center.

Accessibility, Safety, and Pets

The Animal Park is not wheelchair accessible; however, accessibility accommodations are available for visitors with mobility issues. Please note that we are not able to allow unauthorized vehicles, including scooters or motorized wheelchairs, in the Park. Find more information about disability accommodations and access in the Tour FAQ on our Plan Your Visit page.

If you are planning to visit the Animal Park, please take a moment to review your confirmation email and text to complete our online tour waiver.  Waivers will also be available in the gift shop for visitors to complete during check-in.

For safety reasons, the Animal Park cannot allow visitors to bring pets on site. Any visitor who brings an animal to the Park will be asked to leave immediately. No animals may be left unattended in a vehicle.

Due to the uneven surfaces of our tour path, for children’s safety, we cannot allow them to ride in wagons in the Park, and we encourage child sling carriers over strollers. Strollers are allowed, with children secured inside, but at the parent’s sole discretion.

Family Adventures

Have you ever looked a lion, tiger, leopard, or wolf in the eye? Had a “conversation” with a jungle cat? Witnessed the flickering tufts of a caracal’s ear? What on earth is a binturong—and why is it so important to its natural ecosystem?

Discover all this and much more when you join us for an Adventure tour at the Animal Park!

Winter Events

Celebrate the season on Saturdays in December! Our animals love the chilly temperatures, so bundle up and plan your visit.

Tree Toss - January 18, 2025

Decorate gifts and enjoy our animals interacting with donated fir trees and the presents you made for them in this self-guided safari visit! 

Happy Howlidays

Visit with Santa, tour the Park, play games, and celebrate the season. 

Adult Adventures

This tour isn’t a lecture; it’s a conversation! Our knowledgeable guides are passionate about the Animal Park and the animals who call it home, and they love to answer your questions. You’ll meet curious lions, tigers, leopards, and wolves who enjoy greeting and observing our visitors. And we bet you’ll be equally enchanted by our smaller species, including binturongs, New Guinea singing dogs, caracals, ring-tailed lemurs, servals, bobcats, and jungle cats.

In addition to seeing our beautiful residents, you’ll learn about:

  • their unique behaviors
  • each species’ ecological importance
  • how we care for the animals

 

Twilight Tours

As twilight falls, listen in while a fascinating chorus begins: Lions call to one another. Wolves howl. Singing dogs yodel. Experience the thrill of seeing a leopard or tiger emerging from the shadows. Keep your eyes peeled for a chance to spot nocturnal species like the Geoffroy’s cat. Listen as your guide describes a binturong’s preferred snack or a lynx’s favorite scent—and watch as the animals enjoy it.

On a Twilight tour at the Animal Park, you’ll explore with an experienced guide at the time when our residents are often the most active. And you’ll see animals receiving special scents and treats while you learn how we keep them engaged and happy.

Seasonal Events

Events planned throughout the year provide fun educational opportunities and one-of-a-kind experiences for all ages!

Photo Safaris

Capture breathtaking photographs of wild species like lions, tigers, leopards, and wolves!

Photo Safaris at the Animal Park are thrilling experiences and an opportunity to go behind the scenes to take your very own one-of-a-kind images of our animals. Regardless of your photography experience, it’s always a fun adventure!

Private Tours

A Private Tour is the perfect way for animal enthusiasts of all ages to discover a new world at the Animal Park. Private tours are limited to intimate groups of up to 15 people. Our knowledgeable tour guides are happy to cater to your interests and let you decide where the tour will go next!

Group Tours

Looking for an amazing group activity for scouts, camps, senior centers, college groups, or other social groups?

Group tours are perfect for any large groups of any age. 

Wild Field Trips

Teachers and administrators: Take your students on a Wild Field Trip! On a one-hour tour, our trained guides will introduce them to over 20 species, connecting each animal’s characteristics and adaptations to science concepts tailored by grade level. Tours are designed to meet North Carolina Standard Course of Study science goals and objectives.

Wild Overnights

Sleep under the stars with a chorus of lions, leopards, wolves, and more while you camp just outside of the Animal Park.