Orange County Zoo

About Orange County Zoo

Orange County Zoo sits on 8 acres inside the much larger Irvine Regional Park, a 477-acre county park in the city of Orange, California. The zoo is owned, staffed, and operated by the County of Orange, part of the OC Parks system. It officially opened in 1985 under the name Irvine Park Zoo before later becoming the Orange County Zoo.

The collection is built around a specific idea: animals and plants native to the Southwestern United States. Rather than trying to represent the whole world, the zoo focuses on the wildlife of the western and southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico, the kinds of creatures a visitor might actually encounter in the hills, canyons, and backyards of Southern California. Many of the zoo's residents did not arrive as planned acquisitions. They came in needing emergency care after being injured, orphaned, abandoned, illegally kept as exotic pets, or confiscated by authorities. Having lost the instincts needed to survive in the wild, these animals stay on at the zoo as what staff call "animal ambassadors," used to teach visitors about the wildlife around them.

A barnyard area rounds out the grounds with domestic animals such as goats, Jacob sheep, doves, and pheasants, where visitors can buy grain to feed and pet the hoofed animals.

History

The land's animal history predates the zoo itself by 80 years. In 1905, red foxes were introduced to the Irvine Park area and bred by J.A. Turner. In 1920, Tustin rancher Sam Nau started a small private collection featuring a pair of mule deer, eventually building a corral that held an additional male mule deer. For years, an alligator exhibit was the site's main attraction, until a bird exhibit was added alongside the deer pens in 1935, housing cockatoos, quail, doves, and parakeets.

The modern zoo did not open until 1985, when the County of Orange formally established it as the Irvine Park Zoo. It has since been renamed the OC Zoo (also known as the Orange County Zoo), and the county continues to own, staff, and operate it today.

Exhibits and habitats

The zoo does not organize its grounds into large named exhibit complexes the way some larger zoos do; instead, individual animal exhibits are numbered and tied into the zoo's free audio tour, which visitors access by phone. Each numbered exhibit corresponds to a recorded segment featuring the zoo's keepers, veterinarian, education coordinator, and curator, describing that animal's diet, history, and reason for living at the zoo.

The barnyard area is the zoo's one clearly separate section, a hands-on space with domestic goats, Jacob sheep, doves, and pheasants where visitors can buy grain to feed the animals and pet the hoofed ones directly. The zoo's Interpretive Programs Center hosts its educational classes and events, from preschool nature programs to family art activities tied to the seasons.

Animal highlights

The zoo's collection centers on native Southwestern species: American black bear, bald eagle, barn owl, bobcat, coatimundi, coyote, great horned owl, mountain lion, mule deer, North American porcupine, red-tailed hawk, and turkey vulture. The zoo's own site also lists kit fox, ocelot, and beaver among the animals on exhibit. As noted above, most of these animals arrived through rescue rather than acquisition, and the zoo frames them as ambassadors representing the wild populations of their species in the surrounding region.

The barnyard section adds a different kind of animal encounter, with domestic goats, Jacob sheep, doves, and pheasants that visitors can feed grain purchased on-site and, for the hoofed animals, pet directly.

Planning your visit

Orange County Zoo is open 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., as listed on the zoo's website, though this should be confirmed before a visit since hours are point-in-time information. Admission to the zoo itself is $2 per person for ages 3 and up, with children 2 and under free, as listed on the zoo's website. Because the zoo sits inside Irvine Regional Park, there is also a separate park entry fee: $3 per vehicle on weekdays and $5 per vehicle on weekends, rising to $7–$10 on major holidays, as listed on the park's website.

Visitors can take a self-guided audio tour by dialing a phone number posted at the zoo and entering an exhibit's number, hearing information recorded by animal keepers, the veterinarian, the education coordinator, and the curator about individual animals, their diets, and how they came to live at the zoo. The zoo also runs a schedule of educational programs for different age groups, from preschool nature programs to family art activities.

Because both admission and park entry fees, along with hours, can change, visitors should check the official Orange County Zoo and Irvine Regional Park websites before their trip.