the.com/petting zoo
a place where toddlers and goats agree the rules are merely suggestions.
means A small enclosure where visitors, usually children, can touch, feed, and walk among tame domestic animals like goats, sheep, and rabbits.
from A plain compound of "pet" and "zoo," both relatively young words. "Pet" began in Scots and northern English dialect for a tamed or indulged animal, and later for a coddled person; its deeper roots are uncertain. "Zoo" is a 19th-century clipping of "zoological garden." Stitching the two together gave us a 20th-century name for the hands-on, low-stakes corner of the menagerie — the part where the animals expect to be touched.
- hand wash
- E. coli outbreaks trace back to petting zoos regularly
- goat eyes
- horizontal pupils rotate to stay level while grazing
- sheep memory
- they recognize up to fifty individual faces for years
- pig smarts
- piglets outscore human toddlers on some cognition tests
- alpaca spit
- reserved mostly for rude alpacas, not nervous children
santa fe teaching zoo — nonprofit zoo in santa fe, new mexico focusing on animal interaction and education
roger williams park zoo — zoo in providence, rhode island with a dedicated petting area featuring goats and sheep
zoomie's petting zoo — traveling petting zoo across california featuring alpacas, llamas, and farm animals