Petting zoo

Most petting zoos are designed to provide only relatively placid, herbivorous domesticated animals, such as sheep, goats, rabbits, ponies and donkeys to feed and interact physically with safety.

A few provide wild species (such as pythons or big cat cubs) to interact with, but these are rare and usually found outside Western nations.

During the 1990s, Dutch cities began building petting zoos in many neighbourhoods, so that urban children could interact with animals.

They occasionally contain a few exotic animals such as kangaroos, wallabies, emus, deer, zebras, parrots, porcupines, camels, ostriches, bison, water buffaloes, rheas, peafowl, guineafowl, antelopes, capybaras, lemurs, tortoises and many others.

In order to ensure the animals' health, the food is supplied by the zoo, either from vending machines or a kiosk.