Ranger Kids opens at Werribee Open Range Zoo

The autumn school holidays saw the Werribee Open Range Zoo open an exciting new indoor play space called Ranger Kids.

Within the new space, children can become a wildlife ranger or a vet and explore life in an African village with a range of fun dress-ups and props to play with.

Werribee Open Range Zoo Director Sally Lewis said that the permanent new play space was designed to help nurture a love of nature and wildlife in young children, stating “from fuelling up the helicopter for a field survey to scrubbing up for surgery on a lion, Ranger Kids will not only give kids a hands-on experience of what’s it’s like to be a ranger or a vet, they’ll also have a huge amount of imaginative fun.”

Ranger Kids is divided into three themed areas – an African village, the savannah and the field hospital, with each revealing the close relationship and between people and wildlife.

Against the backdrop of an African sunset, kids will learn how children in the Melako village tend to their farm yards, plant crops and prepare food for the animals.

The savannah enables kids to go on wildlife patrol, counting herds and recording their observations. A custom-built wooden helicopter creates a birds-eye view so they look for injured animals. Plus they can load our plush giraffe, lions and zebra into the helicopter to transport them to the field hospital zone for treatment.

Ranger Kids also includes a shadow puppet theatre where kids can put on their own shows and it opens up into the Zoo’s Leopard Tortoise exhibit, providing the perfect spot to get up close to these amazing animals

Lewis added “Ranger Kids is incredibly interactive, which makes it a very powerful way for kids to connect with wildlife and to learn about the threats to these animals in the wild.”

Ranger Kids is open every day and is included in general admission to Werribee Open Range Zoo.

22nd October 2013 - WERRIBEE OPEN RANGE ZOO UNVEILS NEW ARRIVALS PRECINCT