We just got the Jurassic update.

Travel back in time on our Dinosaur Discovery Track to experience some of the awe-inspiring creatures that lived during the Cretaceous and Jurassic periods, 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 20 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 Jurassic and Cretaceous periods of the Mesozoic Era between 200 - 66 million years ago!

Among the 15 dinosaur species you’ll encounter are the fabulously feathered Utahraptor, long-necked sauropods like Brachiosaurus and Amargasaurus, Tyrannosaurus (with babies) and rhinoceros-like Pachyrhinosaurus.

Dinosaur Pass Memberships

We have a special Dinosaur Pass Membership for unlimited daytime visits over six months! Available for purchase until 30 August 2026. This membership is valid for 6 months from the day of purchase.

A Dinosaur Pass membership gives you unlimited daytime 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!

Get a Dinosaur Pass Membership

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Dinosaur keeper talks

There are free daily dinosaur keeper talks. Join us as we explore dinosaur babies, how dinosaurs became so large, and how the dinosaurs’ communicated! 

Meet near the DinoStore, daily at:

  • 10:15am
  • 1:45pm 
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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 5 July, 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).

There’ll also be Dinosaur Rangers roaming the Track to chat with, and free daily dinosaur keeper talks at 10:15am and 1:45pm exploring dinosaur babies, how dinosaurs became so large, and how the dinosaurs’ communicated! 

Also available

Korimako café

Right outside the Dinosaur Discovery Track, enjoy dino-themed kai, coffee, burgers and more.

Open 7 days 10am - 3pm (weather …

“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 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

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.

The Dinosaur Discovery Track is located in the same place as last year, the former elephant habitat on the Africa Safari Track.

It is open daily from 9:30am - 5pm (during Summer hours) and 4pm (during Winter 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: 5 July, 2 August, 6 September, 4 October, 1 November, 6 December, 3 January, 7 February)

There will be 15 different species and a total of 20 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.

This experience features many intriguing new/different species – from sauropods like the breathtakingly tall Brachiosaurus (7m in height!) to theropods and hadrosaurs from the Cretaceous and Jurassic periods and will explore a number of different themes. There will also be a few 2025 favourites – like the Tryannosaurus, though this time it has offspring.

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