Visit the Puerto Vallarta Zoo Where You Can Hand-Feed the Animals Sylvia McNamee - Visit Puerto Vallarta
go to original January 12, 2013

The Puerto Vallarta Zoo is perhaps one of the world's most interactive zoo for both humans and animals.

Located 35 minutes south of downtown Puerto Vallarta in beautiful Mismaloya, the zoo is built into the side of the Sierra Madre mountains, taking full advantage of the natural setting to create a lush, tropical experience for both zoo residents and visitors.

The zoo is home to more than 100 animals including mammals, reptiles and birds on the five hectare space.

Zoologico de Vallarta, run purely on admission fees and private donations, has a development plan that includes 59 more hectares, an aquarium, a cable car, an amusement park, rental cabins, paths for walking, cycling and extreme sports and a rappelling wall.

But what makes this zoo so unusual? It's the opportunity to hand-feed the animals. Not just scattering grain to ducks or feeding miniature ponies but hand-feeding camels, giraffes, hippos, bears, zebras, emus and many more large and exotic creatures.

The most often heard phrase at the Puerto Vallarta Zoo is "Wow, I can't believe they let you do this!" but yes, in fact, the zoo sells snack packs for the animals for a very nominal fee. The snack kit is very charming with logos telling you which animal likes which snack and contains bread, carrots, pellets, peanuts and corn.

And the animals? They are shiny-coated, clearly healthy and interested in interacting with visitors… The snacks obviously have helped along in this process.

Some of the cages are still being upgraded but Zoologico de Vallarta is dedicated to the preservation of animal species and providing animal education to the general public.

Make a donation to their Adopt-an-Animal program for a truly guilt-free experience.

  Learn about Zoologico de Vallarta (Vallarta Zoo)