All New Wildlife Explorers Basecamp at San Diego Zoo Now Open

Calling All Explorers! Wildlife Explorers Basecamp Brings Innovation and Immersive Nature Play for All Ages to the San Diego Zoo 

San Diego Zoo introduced their newest and most anticipated opening in the nonprofit conservation  organization’s history. Pass under a trellis covered by giant leafcutter ant sculptures and discover the wildness of Basecamp for the first time. This new world is divided into four innovative nature play areas, each designed around unique habitats.

Explorers on the Rope Bridge to the Tree of Dreams

Built on the site of the former Children’s Zoo, Wildlife Explorers Basecamp is a 3.2-acre state-of-the-art, multi-ecosystem experience designed to provide guests of all ages with an up-close look at nature and offer fresh, high-tech interactive opportunities that nurture empathy for wildlife and encourage future caretakers of the planet. Wildlife Explorers Basecamp encompasses eight buildings and habitats dispersed throughout four zones, featuring wildlife that live in these ecosystems: Rainforest, Wild Woods, Marsh Meadows and Desert Dunes. 

Inside Basecamp, Zoo guests will visit with a variety of fascinating species and engage on a deeper level by utilizing full sensory and multifaceted elements, including “parallel play” opportunities from climbing and crawling around a massive tree house, to exploring through amazing water play elements; experiencing interactive touch screen games, using microscopes to reveal natural wonders, and specialized animation that utilizes artificial-intelligence (AI), dynamic lighting and whole-room scented environments.  

Desert Dunes

Climb rocks, explore caves, and play in a desert wash. And discover the wildlife that use burrows to beat the heat, including the fennec fox, prairie dog, desert tortoise, and burrowing owl. Beat the heat, like their desert wildlife counterparts—including the fennec fox, prairie dog and burrowing owl.  

The Rainforest zone is centered around the 10,000-square-foot McKinney Family Spineless Marvels building, where guests will experience invertebrates—including crustaceans, arachnids and insects—such as leafcutter ants, spiders, scorpions, stick insects and more. Inside, there is a pollinator experience with giant beeswax-fragrant honeycombs and an observation pane that gives guests the chance to see the workings of a real-life beehive. The projected migration flyover encounter showcases various insects, including migrating monarch butterflies, grasshoppers and dragonflies as part of a large meadow scene that curves along walls and encompasses a domed ceiling.  

Explore a multilevel outdoor environment filled with caiman and tortoises. This mixed habitat is also home to our wildlife ambassadors, at Basecamp every day. Meet one up close!

Marsh Meadows: Trek into the marsh and watch the waterline rise as you head deeper down the shore. Bear witness as crocs and turtles take to the water. And as the marsh grows deeper, it teems with more wildlife. The central hub of Marsh Meadows is the Art and Danielle Engel-funded Jake’s Cool Critters building—a two-story herpetology andichthyology structure with more than 7,000 square feet of immersive environments, digital media, learning opportunities and educational classroom spaces, created to engage wildlife explorers of all ages The wildlife here includes snakes, amphibians, crocodilians, turtles and lizards, including endangered Fijian iguanas.  

The Wild Woods area offers guests the chance to visit with unusual wildlife species, such as coatis and squirrel monkeys, which are both native to Central and South America. The space features the striking Prebys Foundation Discovery Bridge and a 20-foot-tall Tree of Dreams—a tree house designed as an ancient oak. This dynamic and detailed nature-play tree provides multiple points of access for guests—from a suspension bridge and net tunnel to a spiral staircase—and a parallel play experience to the squirrel monkeys that live in the adjacent habitat. Water play is another focus of this woodland-themed zone, which includes a waterfall that flows into a gentle meandering stream, an exhilarating splash pad, unpredictable water jets, and a bluff area with a boulder scramble made to encourage exploration.  

At the nearby Rady Ambassadors Headquarters, guests will meet wildlife from all over the planet, including a two-toed sloth and a prehensile-tailed porcupine, and learn more about how everyone can help conserve them in their native habitats. 

 “Wildlife Explorers Basecamp speaks to the budding conservationist within us all and shows us the marvels of the natural world,” said Paul A. Baribault, president and chief executive officer of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. “Through these gates millions of world changers will begin their journey with nature, and demonstrate the power of empathy and compassion as they join us to become allies for wildlife”.  

For more information about Wildlife Explorers Basecamp, its many features, the wildlife that lives there and how you can help San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance conserve wildlife and build a world where all live thrives, visit the Wildlife Explorers Basecamp webpage. Wildlife Explorers Basecamp is included with admission to the San Diego Zoo.