My 6 year old granddaughter and I got to see all the new babies at the zoo! So much fun for us!

We visited the Sedgwick County Zoo to celebrate my nephew's birthday in March. When you arrive you'll find ample parking, and a nice big plaza to meet up with folks and purchase tickets. I was a little disappointed that our membership to the Kansas City Zoo wasn't a 1:1 reciprocal, but we did get a small discount on tickets which was nice. The zoo is a good size and has a train, a farm area, and tons of animals from all over the world. We were there for maybe 2 hours and I feel like we definitely did not see it all. Overall, it feels like a fairly standard zoo, I thought the gift shop was a bit expensive for what it was, but the zoo was clean, the animals seemed well cared for, and we had a good time. read more

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I try to go to as many zoos in the country as I can. Living in Topeka, we have a smaller zoo but this was quite nice. We really enjoyed the seeing the new baby elephants. Was happy to see the otters playing. The grounds themselves were fairly clean. Not too many food options here or at least I didn't see too many. Only giving it 4 stars because of layout. Many walking paths end up at dead ends where you have to then go back the way you came rather than leading you to something new. Many were also oddly placed where you go in a full circle yet no exhibits were there. Odd. read more

How dare y'all charge full price when half the zoo is closed. What a rip off. Drove two hours for this nonsense. Never coming back.

my wife got bit by a duck at the beastro!! what a of load quack! i cant believe she got bit by a duck!!! practically unwarranted. what the duck is going on at this zoo. also too many geese. snake selection was adequate. read more

Sedgwick County Zoo - THE DUCK IN QUESTION!! - Zoos Near Me - Wichita, Kansas

Don't miss the four new baby elephants! We went on Wednesday and admission was only $5! What a deal.

Excellent zoo! My son is a major animal lover. We spent tons of time reading all the plaques and info on all the animals. We thoroughly enjoyed this zoo. We loved the bird aviary the most. One bird loved my son's black and white shoes and we sat down and just let the bird enjoy looking at his shoes. After a while, the bird did what was maybe a mating call with my son's shoes? It was the highlight of our day. We will definitely be going back to this zoo at some point in the future when we are back in Kansas as tourists. read more

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My husband and I are not big fans of zoos. While we recognize that their main value is educating children, zoos are bad places for animals to live... with the possible exception of those caring for injured animals or those that cannot be returned to the wild. That said, it takes a lot for me to rate any zoo as a 4-star experience. While we were sad for the animals at the Wichita zoo, we felt that effort was made to house the majority of them in reasonable habitats. In some cases we noticed dirty water (which should never be the case). Of all the areas we visited at the zoo, we enjoyed the bird house the most. I felt the birds had space to move, places to hide, and ample food and water. The animals that appeared to be saddest were the big cats. The tiger looked like it had a recent surgery (based on a shaved section on its paw). If you're going to visit a zoo, the one in Wichita seems as if it treats animals better than many...so deserves your time and money. read more

Sedgwick County Zoo - Some of the birds we saw in the bird house and elsewhere - Zoos Near Me - Wichita, Kansas

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My boyfriend and I decided to have a Zoo date on a nice Saturday... and we were not disappointed!! The Sedgwick County Zoo is one of, if not THE best zoo I've ever been to! Not only did they have all the animals we were interested in seeing, but they actually seemed lively and well taken care of! The zoo is MASSIVE but this is due to the really great sized enclosure's, so pack your walking shoes. They also had really cool experiences to break up the visit in between just looking at and admiring the animals. We fed the giraffes and had such a blast! My only complaint would probably be the prices (For example we paid $6.95 for a small cup of cantaloupe, but I have a hard time being mad at them with the zoo being in such awesome condition. To me it was worth it! Plus you can bring in outside food and drink so if it really bothers you, you can totally work around it! Overall impression: Fantastic! read more

Sedgwick County Zoo - Giraffe feeding! - Zoos Near Me - Wichita, Kansas

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Looking for something to do with my niece to keep her busy. All she wanted to see were the lions. But they were sleeping. Dang it. But she had a fantastic time viewing other animals. read more

The Sedgwick County Zoo is a fantastic place to visit. The zoo has exhibits of animals from all over the world. The zoo was well laid-out and there are animal exhibits every couple of feet. This is a great place to visit solo or with friends and family. This is a great way to spend day and the staff are very friendly. I highly recommend the Sedgwick County Zoo. read more

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My family and I came here to see what the zoo was all about. There were many animals out and Interacting. You could go and watch them train elephants and they even have a cute little petting zoo. During the week it's not crowded at all but wear your walking shoes and bring something to drink. Most vending machines we found didnt work or were sold out. The staff were friendly and to get In it wasnt expensive. I'll be back with my kids read more

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Pretty solid zoo. Kid enjoys it. Very clean and staff was all very friendly. Very nice layout and scenery was very well done. It's insanely expensive for everything food wise. So if you don't want to spend a lot, make sure to bring all your own stuff with you. I'm very use to extra spending at places like this, but $15 for 2 small soft drinks is a little overboard. I think we spent close to $40 for 2 soft drinks, 2 ice drinks, and one thing of popcorn. Makes the movie theater look cheap. If you ride the train from the backside at least, not much to look at. It takes you by the elephants, and then you get a very nice view of the highway and traffic the rest of the time. read more

This is one of the best zoos I've been too. Tons of animals, beautiful scenery. We loved how it's broken up into continents. Lots of fun for all ages. Only downside is the train. Don't really see anything while riding it besides buildings and some plants. Not really worth the 5.00 to ride. read more

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This zoo is awesome! I'm a major animal lover and I'm hoping to work at the zoo when I grow up. It has all kinds of animals that I like.

One of our favorite places to go! A variety of exhibits with lots of space and foliage for the animals to explore and enjoy. I wish the signage was updated more regularly as many signs are outdated or incorrect. It's been fun seeing the improvements over the years as well as after hours experiences like Wild Lights, Zoobilee, etc. read more

Although overpriced unless you buy a season pass and go frequently; our zoo is B-E-A-U-tiful! Animals are life! I love watching them! Every. Single. One. From the cows to the birds to the reptiles to the tigers and the elephants which are my absolute favorite! I don't like the fruit bats though! Ewwwww! But really; if you haven't been to our zoo then you are missing something spectacular!!! read more

Sedgwick County Zoo - Zoos Near Me - Wichita, Kansas

Great zoo! Wish it was warmer so more things were open. Pretty much had the zoo to ourselves 31 degrees outside. The bird pavilion was awesome, loved seeing the huge fruit bats. And the 18' cobra was pretty cool. read more

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We are zoo members and we love most things about the zoo, but I feel the need to put a review here that is helpful for families with young kids like ours(2 and 5). The worst thing about this zoo is their continuous lack of planning for kids, which I would think would be the main customer base. Even after the latest renovations in 2021, very few bathrooms, no changing stations except in the main building(not actually a building for visitors) at the very front of the zoo, and the renovated restaurant has made it very hard to feed kids and keep them hydrated. You used to be able to pop into the restaurant(Bistro), grab some snacks, water or juice bottles, and quickly get food. Now they cook to order from a very limited and hard to read menu, have next to no snacks, no bottled beverages, and don't even offer straws for drinks. Instead of straws they offer sip lids which barely work for adults but are near impossible for my kids to get liquid out of. Essentially they were put in the stroller because they were too hard to drink from and just spilled throughout the walk around the zoo. I understand the need to be more environmentally conscious but this decision is nuts. I highly suggest you take food, drinks, etc so your kids don't end up dehydrated like mine did. One other note, they have also removed the hand sanitizers from all areas including the petting zoo area. They do have bathrooms there for hand washing but are regularly out of soap. At least put sanitizer back in the petting zoo area please. Besides those failures the zoo itself has great exhibits, is continually growing, and is loads of fun for the kids. Membership fees are up again this year as with most places, but if you want to go once for free download the sunflower app. read more

Sedgwick County Zoo - Sip cup. No straws, impossible to drink from. - Zoos Near Me - Wichita, Kansas

Came here with the Wounded Warrior Project and had an amazing time. Plenty of things to see and do. My kids really enjoyed the petting zoo and all of the feeding stations for the fish throughout the zoo. Some of the best enclosures I've seen. The Gorilla, Lion and Wolf exhibits were great. Very innovative and different from the standard zoos out there. Only wish that the boat tours were running when we went. read more

One of the better zoos you can enjoy. Plenty to see and experience. Be prepared to walk a while. They train ride was pleasing and enjoyable. I will keep visiting with the grandkids. read more

LOL. As a tourist I wanted to do this zoo trip. I went with my gf and we had an ok experience. Let me start off by saying tickets are around $15. That's super cheap but then again that comes with limited amount of species lol! We started with the flamingo pond then moved on. For a Saturday, the zoo was completely empty; quiet atmosphere. About 18 people on total walking around the zoo, lazy animals who didn't want to do anything, and such a vast area of space with not enough animals. I literally saw, a goat, sheep, camels, some small reptiles, leopards, lions and tigers, a couple monkeys. Everything was just bland. There was NO ACTION whatsoever lol. I was laughing hard! This zoo needs a major renovation and they need to add way more animals. I wish they made the zoo more presentable to the guests. Walks seem like miles because it's all flat land and wide trails. Hope they fix it up soon! read more

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The best zoo I have ever been to! Great set up and an easy way to spend ALL day somewhere.

I went to this zoo for the first time as an out of state visitor. I was very disappointed as most of the animals were not out and I was not able to view many of the animals I was looking forward to seeing. One exhibit I did see was the prairie dogs. I may not know a lot about prairie dogs, but most of them were beat up, had scars around them, and looked as if they needed to be separated or better taken care of. In addition, the goats hesitated when I went to pet them as if they have been hit or played with roughly. Lastly, Koi fish are always a treat to see, except when I find out people have thrown coins which are very dangerous to fish because they think its food and there were no signs around warning people. I feel as though the animals were not being taken care of properly, and a lot of animals weren't even out for viewing, but the zoo had many decorations and was kept pretty clean. read more

Here's the sitch: Zoos are IFFY. Every zoo thinks they're the best zoo and they're not. And there's reasons why Yelp and reviews are so popular and one of them is bc businesses think they're so amazing and over charge and then you spend your money and are disappointed. THAT IS NOT HERE!! We were sssooo pleasantly surprised by this place. Firstly parking is F R E E and plenty of it honey! Secondly it's inexpensive imo and they let us upgrade our tix to season passes! The animals were active and I felt there was an exhibit at every turn, yay! This is Wichita and it is cold sometimes but they have where you can see some of the animals indoors too like the hippos and giraffe. We loved it and we will be back. I just want this place to be open longer than 9a-5p Sunday-Saturday. At least on the weekend until 6:30 or 7 sundown:) read more

One of the best zoos in the nation tucked into the plains. As a Kansan I didn't know how good we have it in Wichita zoologically. As I began traveling and going to out of state zoos this was the zoo that I held has my standard. I have never walked out of another zoo and felt ours was deficient to it. If you are visiting the area the zoo will be a highlight of your trip. Lions, tigers, bears oh my! Plus rattlesnakes, bison, wolves, apes, chimpanzees, birds, leopards, elephants, penguins, prairie dogs........you get the point. Plan on spending a good portion of your day :) read more

If you are visiting Wichita, don't miss the Sedgwick County Zoo. It is home to 3,000 animals of nearly 400 species in spectacular settings duplicating their natural habitats. Exhibits include: Africa, Asia, North America, Tropics, Children's Farms, Amphibians and Reptiles, Orangutan Chimpanzee Habitat, Penguin Cove, Gorilla Forest, Family Tiger Trek and South America/Australia, which is among the largest walk-through aviaries in the US. The zoo is recognized for its support of field conservation programs and breeding of rare and endangered species. Most locals buy season passes and visit all year long. Kids especially enjoy being about to pet the animals in the Children's Farm. read more

Sedgwick County Zoo - Moving out of the shade and into the sun. - Zoos Near Me - Wichita, Kansas

It was cool, a lot added after not going for over 12 years. My daughter loved the stingray exhibit.

One of my favorite zoos. The layout of the zoo is well planned. Even on a day when it was almost 100 degrees there were plenty of places to get out of the sun. Our favorite was the tiger because of how active it was while we were there. Oh and the penguins are always a hit. read more

Very impressive & spacious exhibits, a great variety of species and like like, with current construction, it's only going to get better. Really enjoyed variety of reptiles & birds, the world farm area was super cool, and one of the largest elephant exhibits I've seen. read more

Wowser this zoo was Most Excellent! Being an avid zoo goer and having moved to Kansas recently I was recommended to visit this zoo and finally I got around to it. Boy was I surprised! I've heard nothing but bad stuff about Wichita but this zoo just about blew me away! The layout of the zoo was phenomenal! It perfectly allows you to see everything in the zoo without backtracking, checking your map, or getting confused. There's always animals to see every step of the way, and plenty of maps and signs posted in case you want to find a specific exhibit. The farm exhibit was by far the best farm exhibit I've seen in any zoo. There was an Asian, African and American farm with so many animals you could feed and pet. It really showed a good perspective of different types of farming all over the world that are very different from the typical American farms we think of. The rest of the zoo is set up geographically which really works out well here. There is a great North American exhibit with long boardwalks where you can get great views looking down on a large variety of the most interesting North American animals. The Amphibian and Reptile house is clean and well lit unlike many zoos where it is dingy and hard to see many of the small animals. There is a very cool Aladabran Tortoise exhibit inside although the tortoises were outside when I went, which was also very nice. The Asian section, while very small, has a great Tiger exhibit. Australia was also very small, but had a nice walk through with free roaming birds and wallabies. South America and Africa were wonderful! Both very large, had a great selection of animals and each exhibit provided great views. I could get very up close and personal with some of the large animals that most zoos rarely allow you to get anywhere near. Watch out for the Guanacos, they spit if you get too close! read more

So this is a review solely on the new train running around the zoo. I'm surprised to not see reviews about how silly this new feature is given the train only lets you pass by two animal enclosures. We took the train this morning and we're very underwhelmed by the three parking lots, dozens of animal silhouette signs (couldn't actually see the real animals), maintenance buildings and tall grass foliage that blocked all ability to see the animals in the zoo. As an aside, we were able to that there was a Nissan Altima with low tire pressure; probably need to address that soon. read more

I find it very difficult to say something substantially bad about this zoo. It's easy to find, easy to navigate, and there is plenty to see. It is a rather large zoo, so it is challenging to see every exhibit in the same day. I don't have the stamina for something like that. It would take all day. But when I visited, we saw MANY of the exhibits. I think we were unable to see the Australia section. The Jungle exhibit is a treasure. It's great fun to walk the dirt paths with birds flying overhead, and the large fish are amazing to watch through the glass. They have more gorillas than any zoo I have been to before. I enjoyed getting up close through the glass with them. Tiger exhibit was really nice with glass as well. Loved the lion exhibit with the mockup of a dead zebra half eaten. The lion sounds in the grass near that actually scared me. Hippos were amusing and fun begging for food with their mouths open. I saw Okapi in a zoo for the first time - two of them. Enjoyed a closeup through glass again with a bear playing with a carrot. The only problem was in the Children's Zoo area. It just seemed like that area needs some love. It lacked energy. But they do have several cattle species to look at, and I loved the giant horses. Also, the one playground I saw was small and overcrowded near the gorillas. It would be nice to see them invest some more play areas for the kids. Maybe in the Children's Zoo area. Great zoo though. We had a great time. read more

So sorry to give a mediocre review. I know it's very hot but honestly, where are the animals???? We walked forever in the North America area and only saw fish! Very disappointed. Train ride was ok. But they charge extra for everything! read more

Went here yesterday. Admission is $15.95 I believe. Parking is free. Weather was nice. Its an ok looking zoo with some definite potential. I can see they are trying to improve certain areas like the elephant exhibit. It will be amazing when completed. However...other areas need serious attention. The lion and tiger exhibits are lacking and sad. Very small considering the animals that are suppose to be living in those areas. I thought the gorilla outdoor area also needs more. Seemed smallish. We arrived a little after noon and left at closing. There were a lot of animal that were absent. Not sure if they were gone or just good at hiding. Have visited the Tanganika,OKC and Tulsa Zoos and actually prefer them over this one. Can't review the food since we didn't eat any. The gift shop is plentiful and lots to choose from. read more

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This is a fantastic zoo with really reasonable prices and so much to see and do. Restrooms and snacks are conveniently located throughout the zoo and the cost of an annual pass is reasonable enough that you can, and should, go back quite often. read more

Favorite Wichita destination. It's clean, happy, fun, and wholesome. Can't wait for our next visit!

This zoo was overpriced for what was on display. A lot of the animals wasn't on display due to construction or doing work on their enclosure. I guess my expectations was to high before going. Wasn't worth the money in my book. Won't be back. There's a lot better zoos around. read more

Nice little zoo for a day's outing. Parts seem a little run down but it looks like improvements are in the works. Really hard for me to rate zoos of any kind seeing animals in cages makes me feel sad. It was great for wearing out my grandchildren. Be sure to take water and a few snacks. Food choices seemed limited. read more

We have one of the best zoos in the country Our zoo does not remain stagnant. New additions with animals and now sharks and sting rays. There is a lot to see and it's always worth the trip. Kids birthday parties at the zoo are a great experience. read more