Orana Wildlife Park

Orana Wildlife Park New Zealand's only open range zoo and home to the country's only gorillas! We love our Facebook community! Thanks for your cooperation!
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Orana Wildlife Parks page community guidelines:

Our community guidelines aim to ensure that our page is inclusive and inviting for everyone. We want to encourage positive communication and sharing, if you have a great photo, video or question, please post it on our page. We do ask you to remember that this is a page for friends of the Park. We love engaging with our fellow animal lovers, and are open to everyone's comments and opinions. However, we ask you not to ruin the experience for our community by using inappropriate or offensive language, or by posting information that is factually incorrect or even violent in nature. If through your words or actions you demonstrate that you are clearly not a friend of Orana Wildlife Park and do not support our mission of education, conservation and recreation, and you deliberately create an environment which damages the community experience, then your comments will be deleted and you will be denied participation on this page. If you ever have any concerns that there are posts not in the keeping of this page, please send us a Facebook message or email us at [email protected] we will treat every contact with seriousness and confidentiality.

📷 Can you guess where in the Park this photo was taken?Taken around 1987, this image captures Stage Two of Orana's expan...
08/10/2026

📷 Can you guess where in the Park this photo was taken?
Taken around 1987, this image captures Stage Two of Orana's expansion. What was once a barren landscape was transformed into the thriving, tree-lined habitats you see today. Fed by artesian waterways, this area now provides a home for native wildlife living throughout the Park, alongside some of our iconic African species.

As part of our 50th birthday celebrations, we're sharing snapshots from Orana's past both online and across the Park. When you visit, be sure to explore our 50 Years of Orana photo exhibition, featuring 50 key moments from our history, 10 of our animal Legends of Orana, and a special Then & Now trail that lets you see just how much the Park has changed over the decades.

06/10/2026

Welcome to the world little one 🦓
On Wednesday 30 September, we welcomed a delightful male, zebra foal to mum Eve, and dad Malawi.

Eve has been a great mum and is nursing well, the foal has been quite active out in the main zebra habitat. His keepers have seen him bucking and zooming around in the mornings.

Maggie the four month old foal, has been very interested in the new addition and we are looking forward to seeing lots of zebra zoomies in the coming weeks!

If you're planning a visit to the Park to see the new addition, he may move back and forth between habitats to rest, so check back again throughout the day.

04/10/2026

If our animals could talk, we're pretty sure they'd have a few thank yous to share today.

For the breakfasts prepared early in the morning. For the enrichment hidden around habitats or creatively thought of. For advocating for them. For the training sessions that support health and wellbeing. For the care, patience, and dedication shown every single day.

This International Zookeeper Day, we're celebrating the people who work behind the scenes to help animals thrive.

And on World Animal Day, we're celebrating the animals that inspire us to protect wildlife and wild places.

Thank you to our incredible keeper team.

02/10/2026

Welcome to Orana Derek!
We are delighted to welcome Derek, the six-month-old miniature Highland calf to the Park. He is settling in well and is a super chill wee guy. Since arriving on Wednesday, he is already making friends with his new paddock mates.

A massive thank you to the team at Stony Croft who have been incredible in helping us find a friend for Barry. Cattle are very social animals, so it was important we got Barry a companion, as the long-term plan is for Barry and Derek to be Orana's resident mini moos. Eventually Heather and Bonnie will return to their herd.

Make sure you stop by and say 'hi' to Derek and his friends the next time you are at the Park.

Have you seen a shining cuckoo around the Park?Recent spottings: Near cheetah and the Zambesi picnic areaKnown aliases: ...
01/10/2026

Have you seen a shining cuckoo around the Park?

Recent spottings: Near cheetah and the Zambesi picnic area

Known aliases: Pīpīwharauroa

Identifying features: Metallic green plumage, distinctive call (a loud upwardly-slurred whistle repeated several times), expert nest infiltrator

These fascinating seasonal visitors are back at Orana and are on the hunt for grey warbler nests. Unlike most birds, shining cuckoos don't build their own nests. Instead, they lay their eggs in the nests of unsuspecting grey warblers, who then raise the chick as their own - quite clever really!

Nature can be harsh, fascinating, and ingenious all at once. Keep an eye out for these clever natives during your next visit.

30/09/2026

Introducing Senja!
The name chosen by our primate team for our baby siamang gibbon is Senja, which means twilight in Malay.

Now four months old, Senja is a confident and curious youngster. Fascinated by the keepers and is already very responsive to their voices.

Senja is quite adventurous for such a tiny dot, spending the days climbing, exploring, and trying to play with big sister, Berani.

Berani has taken her role as big sister seriously. She'll often whisk Senja away to give mum and dad a break, and the pair are forming a strong sibling bond that is beautiful to watch grow each day.

Despite her new responsibilities, Berani still enjoys plenty of attention from both Basuki and S**a. They each take turns playing with her, and she still snuggles up with S**a overnight.

Have you spotted Senja on a visit yet?
We'd love to see your photos in the comments 📷

Thank you to everyone who came out over the weekend to celebrate our 50th birthday. We'd love to see your photos 📷The fe...
28/09/2026

Thank you to everyone who came out over the weekend to celebrate our 50th birthday. We'd love to see your photos 📷

The festivities continue over the holidays, check out our website for the lineup of activities (link in comments).

25/09/2026

Today marks 50 years since Orana opened its gates. In 1970, a group of visionary Cantabrians formed the South Island Zoological Society (SIZS) and set out to realise a dream: the creation of a zoo in Christchurch. After six years of fundraising and back breaking work, their dream became a reality with the opening of the Park on 25 September 1976.

They believed that bringing people and wildlife together could inspire curiosity, foster understanding, reinforce our connection with the natural world and contribute to conservation. The fact we are celebrating our 50th anniversary is a testament to the strength of that vision and to the generations of people who have carried it forward.

We'd love for you to share your memories of Orana, whether it is driving through in your car, hand feeding our giraffe, attending our zoo school or perhaps now bringing your own children to Orana to experience their first visit.

Thank you for your support over the past 50 years, here's to 50 more!

24/09/2026

Celebrate 50 years of wildlife, conservation and memories these holidays. From Friday 25 September we'll be celebrating our 50th birthday, and we'd love for you to join us!

We have a range of FREE activities and activations (no additional cost to entry) happening on selected dates throughout the spring school holidays including animal presentations with birthday themed enrichment, face painting, giant bubbles and a bouncy castle!

📣Plus for the school holidays Annual Pass holders get exclusive early access to Orana from 9.30am each day (26th Sept to 11th October, inclusive).

Visit our website for the full schedule of events (link in comments).

23/09/2026

It has been a big couple of weeks for us here at Orana. We wanted to share an update on a big announcement from council today.

We’re incredibly grateful to the Christchurch City Council, our amazing community and everyone who has showed us some aroha over the past two weeks.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can support Orana please visit our website: https://www.oranawildlifepark.co.nz/support/donate/

Address

793 McLeans Island Road
Christchurch
8051

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 5pm
Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm
Sunday 10am - 5pm

Telephone

+6433597109

Website

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