The past is closer than you think…

Travel back in time on our Dinosaur Discovery Track to experience some of the awe-inspiring creatures that lived up to 250 million years ago, and learn about their connections with animals we care for here at the Zoo today, and are helping to conserve in the wild.

This immersive educational experience in the Zoo’s former elephant habitat features 25 large-scale animatronic dinosaurs made by world-leading dinosaur creators, The Dinosaur Company.

These spectacular replicas move and roar (some even spit water!) and represent the rich diversity of life from our planet’s intriguing Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods of the Mesozoic Era between 252 - 66 million years ago!

Among the 19 dinosaur species you’ll encounter are the fabulously feathered Utahraptor (with babies) water loving Baryonyx, Tyrannosaurus (T-Rex) and rhinoceros-like Pachyrhinosaurus.

Coming Soon - Dinosaur Pass Memberships

We have a special Dinosaur Pass Membership for those dinosaur lovers out there! Available for purchase from 1 April till 30 June 2025. This membership is valid for 6 months from the day of purchase.

A Dinosaur Pass membership gives you unlimited entry to the entire Zoo including the Dinosaur Discovery Track for six months from date of purchase. Be in quick, unlike the tuatara, this pass will go extinct soon!

Learn more about memberships

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Dinosaur keeper talks

There are free daily dinosaur keeper talks. Join us as we explore dinosaur evolution, extinction, and how the dinosaurs’ legacy lives on! 

Meet at the Iguanodon, daily at:

  • 10.30am
  • 12.30pm
  • 2.45pm 
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Quiet times

We will have quiet times on the Dinosaur Discovery Track on Tuesday mornings from 9:30am - 11am.

There will also be quiet hours on the first Sunday of every month, starting from the 4 May, at 9:30am - 11am.

Dinosaurs will be turned off during these times. No sound, no movements. We will still do the keeper talk but it will be without a microphone.

Interactive activities

As you explore the Track, you can try your hand as a palaeontologist and take part in fossil digs (this includes accessible height digs for wheelchair users) and via your phone, scan QR codes for dinosaur audio guides and augmented reality experiences.

There’ll also be Dinosaur Rangers roaming the Track to chat with, and free daily dinosaur keeper talks at 10.30am, 12.30pm and 2.45pm exploring dinosaur evolution, extinction, and how the dinosaurs’ legacy lives on!

“Although most dinosaurs went extinct the best part of 65 million years before the first humans evolved, they nevertheless have this incredible ability to intrigue and fascinate us about animals and epic wildlife. For many of us – including me – dinosaurs are a potent gateway drug that lead to a lifelong connection to nature and to conservation,” says Auckland Zoo director, Kevin Buley.

“Over the seven months that our Dinosaur Discovery Track is here, we hope that we inspire new audiences about not just extinct species, but to also get them excited and motivated about all those wildlife species that are still with us, and now desperately need all our help to stop them going the way of the dinosaurs and disappearing forever.” 

Dinosaurs you’ll find on the Track

Find out a bit more information on the dinosaurs that we have on the Dinosaur Discovery Track:

Carnivores have sharp teeth that aid in tearing meat off a bone. Carnivorous dinosaurs also usually had:

  • strong jaws – for crushing bones
  • sharp claws – for grabbing prey
  • fast legs – to chase prey
  • good eyesight – forward-facing eyes to spot prey
  • thick tails – to keep their balance

Learn more about the Carnivorous dinosaurs

Carnivorous dinosaurs

Tuatara – as old as the dinosaurs!

Tuatara are rare, medium sized-reptiles found only in New Zealand. They are the last survivors of the Rhynchocephalia, an order of reptiles that thrived even before the age of the dinosaurs. The oldest fossils of tuatara are found in rocks of Jurassic age – from 180 million years ago. Fossil evidence indicates that other members of Rhynchocephalia have been extinct for 60 million years.

Find out more about tuatara

Video

Dinosaurs are moving in at Auckland Zoo!

Five containers arrived carrying 25 dinosaurs of various shapes and sizes – some as large as a 12 metre long. Watch as Stephen from The Dinosaur Company explains the mahi preparing them for you to visit.

FAQs

No, this dinosaur experience will be included as part of your entry fee (or Auckland Zoo Membership) for any visit made during normal opening hours.

Dinosaurs share fascinating connections to many of the animals we care for at the Zoo, including one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most extraordinary taonga, the tuatara – a species that’s been around as long as the dinosaurs!

Their story helps us understand extinction and adaption, driving our work together to protect wildlife and our precious environment for future generations. This dinosaur experience will provide an opener to important conversations about extinction, and the ways we are working to fight extinction of modern wildlife species.

These dinosaurs are animatronic, and while most of them do make some intermittent noise (not continuous), their noise levels are able to be controlled and adjusted by Zoo staff. The Zoo is aware that visitors (both children and adults) will have different levels of sensitivity to noise, and therefore at regular times each week there will be a period when the dinosaurs are turned off. No sound, no movements.

The quiet times are:

  • Tuesday mornings from 9:30am - 11am
  • The first Sunday of every month from 9:30am - 11am. (Dates: 4 May, 8 June, 6 July, 3 August, 7 September, 5 October)

There will be 19 different species and a total of 25 individual dinosaurs. These dinosaurs are long-life, reusable creations that are made of galvanised steel (their frames) along with fibreglass and rubber materials.  Many of the dinosaurs featuring at the Zoo have already been used at other venues around the world and their creators say with good maintenance, they will last for many years to come.

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