Red River Zoo

Would say it looks new and maybe that’s why there’s not a high ratio of animal to land. There were a few unique Asian animals but I would say I’d much prefer the Bismarck Zoo.

What a great little gem! Highly recommended.
Although it is small, there is a lot tucked into the premises and it’s all interesting and fun to visit. My two teens and I decided to check it out on a Sunday in late April and we all came away from our 2 hour visit both surprised and delighted.
Between the little baby twin Jacobs lambs and the red panda that was stomping around, we were almost in a Cuteness Coma.
Also on display was a very tame otter, slightly unnerving wolves, livestock, snakes, eagles, Sichuan Takin (they look like they came straight out of the original Star Wars movie), a bunch of camels and a lot more.

Fargo never had a zoo when I was there. Closest one was Chahinkapa in Wahpeton. Closest really good one was in Minneapolis. This one is perhaps somewhere in between. I’m more spoiled these days, having both an aquarium and a generally pretty solid zoo within easy reach and the bar has been raised.
What I like here is that this zoo tries really hard. The staff seems genuinely interested and caring in both the general happiness of their guests and their animal residents, not an easy balancing act and one that most zoos discard as unmanageable once they reach a certain size. Of course, this one is not to that size yet, so you can have a lot of animal-​gazing time and they do a lot of outreach interaction-​type stuff with the various creatures and the people wandering the zoo. All to the good, but it’s hard to say how long before access becomes a lot more limited.
On the grounds is a sort of café, which is nice for the drinks they sell in the entry building when you first walk in, including flavorless Propel, of all things. There are animals in that first building, too, that are pretty cool, so don’t sleep on them. Being a smaller zoo, it is also pretty manageable to walk around it and see most everything in a fairly minimum amount of time. They also have a respectable indoor carousel and that place also houses birthday parties, though it is in the wide-​open and entry there is not restricted to guests, so it can get a bit odd at times. Rates are very reasonable for that. You can also rent the trapper’s cabin, which is a very, very cool idea and spot, right next to the gray wolves. Gift shop is a bust and for some reason, they have gift stuff next to the carousel. No earthly idea why. It also has a reasonable play area, again, for reasons nearly unfathomable to me. Kids see that and are frequently done with the zoo, particularly if they’re younger ones.
As it stands, this is a work in progress, but they seem to have some good solid plans (including a children’s area) and adding more animals. Given the climate there, these are not particularly exotic animals, for the most part. They also seem to have some solid corporate patrons and support there, so I feel strongly that in 2 or 3 years, we should see something pretty good from them and all in all, they could have a pretty good zoo on their hands. They still have some road ahead, though, but I do commend them for making the effort in that largely godforsaken market.

This is a really nice, very small zoo. If you’re coming from a big city, don’t be taken aback by the fact that this zoo is next to the interstate and shares a parking lot with the neighboring hotel.
there aren’t a ton of animals, but we saw takins (not sure I had seen one, and there was a cute baby takin!) and red pandas. — very cool. The carousal was fun too.
I don’t know that I’d recommend this zoo in the winter. Not many indoor areas — the entry way/​gift shop is pretty tight, and the snack bar is a little hut outside. But on a nice summer day, it was fun to walk around. There’s a little playground too for the kiddos.

They have renovated a lot of the zoo recently and it looks really nice and more spacious. They have fewer animals than i remembered being there last time though and almost every exhibit is just 1 of each animal, which is kind of strange.

Fantastic and adorable little zoo tucked into a bustling Fargo!
Winter made it a little frigid to enjoy everything fully but we tried and still had a great time! The otters and wolves were by far the most entertaining and had us laughing and amazed for 30 mins each. Since it was/​is the dead of winter some animals were not out but hey, thats cool. I kinda felt bad for the ones that were since it was freezing but they didnt seem to notice all that much.
The wild rabbits running around were awesome to spot and petting the cool and drooly cows was also great. I vow to cut down on my meat consumption after this visit bc animals are my friends. Learned a few new things whilst walking about and saw some unique creatures I had never seen before!
I love zoos and anything animal related and if you didnt give this place four stars or above you are a righteous turd ferguson.

A very small zoo which you can walk around in less than 1 hour. It is nicely maintained with a friendly staff. They do not have a large number of animals. What they do have are in very modern enclosures and you can up and close with them. I was especially impressed with the wolf exhibit. This is a nice place to spend several free hours walking around.

I was staying at the Arbuckle Lodge and had a view of Red River Zoo from my room window. As such, decided to take a walk one morning and enjoy this very nice zoo and watching the various animals. The park foliage is also very pretty in early June when I visited.

I think that rating this site a 5 is perfect! The map is awesome and the datail is phenominal. I would have a picture available but have to upload one before i can actually show more. Locaation is no more than perfect as well in the fargo area. I would recomend traveling to come see the animals in the zoo!!! But be careful they are not all for petting or feeding.

For Fargo, ND, I give it 4 stars. My son enjoyed it. I guess I can’t completely compare it to zoos in big cities because of the location.
This place only has about 20 animals. One of which is a prairie dog! (we have these all over the sides of the road where I live)
For a cheap day out it wasn’t bad though. Had a carousel and playground at the end for the kiddos.

I met my friend here and her two children (5 and 1). I wasn’t expecting much. I must say though, that we all had a great time. It is an open air zoo, and luckily the weather was nice. We saw a house cat staring at the Russian Squirrel’s through the fence, which was quite hysterical. The kids petted horses, cows and goats, we saw deer, wolves and bald eagles. And there even was a volunteer walking around with a snake for kids to pet. It was fantastic.

When you think about zoo, you think about a lot of different sets of animal you are going to encounter. Scary tigers, lions, monkeys, elephants, seals. Well, dont!!! This red river zoo can only caters to so many animals in its small vicinity. I bet this place is beautiful in summer time but I visited in winter time. Guess what I ended up seeing? The red panda was there, thank god. There is a horse, a couple of camels, the wolves and some reptilians. Not too much to see, took us an hour to see everything and its quite a cute place to take your mind of ur busy hectic life. Just enough to clear your mind and take nice memorable picture with your honey. For $ 8 you get your money worth, at least I get the wolves running around the fence trying to catch me thinking that I am delicious. LOL. Anyway, stop by and have fun at your local zoo. Wahpeton zoo, you are next on my list. I wanna see orangutan!

We came across the Red River Zoo in a phamplet that was in our hotel. We kind of just up and left Grand Forks for the weekend, with a destination of Fargo ~ we didn’t have any plans.
We got to the zoo, and it was what we expected.
A small, family friendly zoo with great prices.
There was a room just for amphibians and reptiles ~ I tricked my bf into going in there… I told him it was a gift shop and he was not all about THAT! We got up to the doors, and the smile that came across his face was priceless.
There is also a little petting zoo here, with a beautiful horse… and it was honestly the first time I had ever touched a cow… and it was cooooool.
Our favorite was the Emperor Tamarin, they were hiding in a building that is being renovated at the moment. They were the cutest things ~ they loved my shiny purse! When we got shiny objects out of my purse for them to look at, the old timer came out of his hiding nest. :)
One thing that I loved hearing about this place was the fact that the bald eagle that was here, was there under a rescue mission. He had been electrocuted and ½ of his wing was fried, the zoo took him in to nurse him, and let him have a safe home. That warmed my heart.
It is not a big extravagant zoo, but I think that is what made the trip perfect for 2. That and the carousel that we got to ride on for $ 2!

I can’t tell if it was the time of day or the weather, but I was really disappointed with the number of exhibits that appeared to have no animals in them. Out of the 17 exhibits with aimals 4 were either under construction or the animals were MIA. It seems like a space with a lot of potential, but with my little yooper’s two year old attention span and fear of large animals, we were in and saw it all within less than an hour.

Took my bf here when he came to visit over the summer, wasn’t expecting much… it is very very small but the price is right and if you have a AAA card you get an additional discount. The grounds are well kept and maintained, we strolled and lingered and it took us under 2 hours to see everything.
The red panda was hiding up in a tree so I only got a good look at its behind. The meerkats were cute, they have a little bug and amphibian exhibit. There is also an open air bird exhibit, they also had a bald eagle and another type of eagle or falcon in a separate display. There was a small petting zoo and a few camels.
All in all it wasn’t a bad little zoo and more than I expected.

What the Red River Zoo lacks in size and variety, it more than makes up with quality exhibits. During my epic voyage (
) I found myself worried that my visit to Fargo would be underwhelming, but this place is a total gem!
This zoo is famous for its Chinese Red Panda exhibit, I had no idea what a red panda looked like, sadly the baby is not on exhibit yet. They have really cool meerkat and prairie dog exhibits, as well as an impressive area for wolves. My personal favorite, however, is the Russian Red Squirrel, it is ADORABLE! A must see for any squirrel aficionado, like myself.
At $ 7 admission, its totally worth it!

I have to admit that I was not expecting all that much from this zoo. i am used to Brookfield Zoo and Lincoln Park Zoo! I mean come on how is a little Fargo zoo going to compare with the two Chicago Zoos??? I was thinking that is wasn’t going to be close.
We went on a Monday so there was not much of a crowd. The staff was really friendly. The things that really impressed me was the well maintained grounds. I was really shocked at the the impeccable conditions of the grounds, buildings, and animal habitats. The zoo pretty much looked nearly brand new.
The zoo is a fraction of the size that I am used to but it is a very relaxing environment and i could have easily spent an entire day down here.