Please follow our policies to encourage a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone:
- Please respect all animals and plants. This is their home and you are visiting them. Please do not touch, chase, tease, or yell at any animals as it causes them unnecessary stress. Please stay out of all garden beds as the plants that we toil over won’t grow if you keep stepping on them.
- Respect all barriers and signs. They are there for the safety of both the animals and guests at the Zoo.
- Do not feed the animals.* The diets of all our animals are closely monitored to ensure their optimal health and well being. Feeding anything not approved by the Animal Care team is prohibited as it can lead to health issues or be potentially fatal. This includes human food you bring or buy as well as flowers and greenery onsite (local plants can be toxic!).
- Do not touch the animals.** Zoo animals cannot be touched without permission from a zookeeper to ensure everyone's safety and to reduce stress on the animals. Inappropriately touching the animals may result in bites, scratches, or worse, as well as disease transfers between you, the zoo animals, or your pets.
- No outside food or beverage. Outside food and beverages are not permitted inside the zoo. However, guests are welcome to bring bottled water. If you wish to enjoy your own food, please leave it in your vehicle. If you need to leave and re-enter the zoo, we offer hand stamping for easy access.
- We are a smoke-free & vape free environment. Guests who wish to smoke are welcome to have their hand stamped for same day re-entry when leaving our grounds to smoke in the parking area.
- We do not allow balloons or confetti inside the zoo. This is to avoid accidental ingestion by the animals as well as to be environmentally responsible.
*One of the best ways for the keepers to know if an animal is sick is whether or not it is eating. If visitors feed them, we cannot properly monitor their health, which may also lead to obesity or disease.
**All contact with the animals is carefully monitored by the Animal Care staff to ensure the animals are not stressed. Guests in your home are one thing, but guests in your room or touching you without consent is very different.
Service Dogs
Service dogs certified by B.C.’s Guide Dog and Service Dog Act, or a dog accompanied by a trainer with a valid ID from a GDSDA school, are permitted on zoo grounds while following our Service Dog Policy.
For the safety of our animals and yours, no outside animals are permitted on Zoo grounds (please see FAQs for more information about Service Dogs).
Adult Caretakers
With the presentation of an Access 2 Card a caretaker will be permitted entry to the Zoo at no charge. To receive free entry for a caretaker an Access 2 card must be presented, with no exceptions.
Photography/filming
You may be filmed, video-taped or photographed during your visit with us. Entrance on the Greater Vancouver Zoo premises serves as permission for the Greater Vancouver Zoo and guests to use your image.
The commercial use of photographic, video, and film images of the Greater Vancouver Zoo and its animals is strictly prohibited without the written consent of the Zoo. Please contact socialmedia@gvzoo.com for further information.