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zoos & sanctuaries

WHERE THE CAPYBARAS ACTUALLY LIVE

Zoos, wildlife parks, farms and sanctuaries with resident capybaras – some you just watch, some you can hand-feed under supervision, one you can get in the water with, and one where you and the capybara are in separate hot springs. US and Canada first, then Britain, Japan and the rest.

23 places · updated September 2026

Region
Experience
Type
Sort
farm

Long Island Game Farm — Capybara Club

Access
viewing only
Where
Manorville, NY
Price
mid-range$$

The only capybara encounter programme on Long Island, run as a family membership rather than a ticketed session. Education first, photos second, and a diner gift card on the way out.

plan a visit
zoo

Cape May County Zoo Capybara Encounter

Access
hands-on
Where
Cape May Court House, NJ
Price
premium$$$
Rated
4.8 17,439

New Jersey's capybara encounter, priced as a group booking — $400 for four — at a zoo that is otherwise free to enter. Seasonal, roughly April to October, weather permitting.

plan a visit
petting zoo

Kangaroo Creek Farm

Access
hands-on
Where
Kelowna, BC
Price
budget$
Rated
4.7 6,543

The only place in Canada we can find where you walk into an enclosure with capybaras. Admission is all-inclusive, there are no add-on fees, and it closes at three.

plan a visit
sanctuary

Liberty Acres Animal Haven

Access
hands-on
Where
Liberty, NC
Price
mid-range$$
Rated
4.6 153

A sixty-acre North Carolina rescue where the capybara encounter happens at the pond, costs about $75 a head, and is emphatically not included in general admission.

plan a visit
petting zoo

Mitchell's Petting Zoo & Exotics

Access
hands-on
Where
Sweetwater, TN
Price
budget$
Rated
4.9 123

A family-run Tennessee petting zoo with two capybaras called Jelly Roll and Bunnie, a 25-minute private encounter, and $15 general admission. Open three days a week.

plan a visit
sanctuary

Nurtured by Nature — CAPYHOUR

Access
hands-on
Where
Valley Center, CA
Price
premium$$$
Rated
4.6 62

California's only hands-on capybara experience, and it costs $530. Three hours, eight people, ages thirteen up, and you end it floating in a lazy river with the capybaras.

plan a visit
zoo

Palm Beach Zoo Capybara Experience

Access
hands-on
Where
West Palm Beach, FL
Price
mid-range$$
Rated
4.5 7,879

A non-contact encounter inside the capybara and tapir habitat in West Palm Beach. You feed them leafy snacks, you do not touch them, and that is the whole design.

plan a visit
petting zoo

Busy B Ranch Wildlife Park

Access
hands-on
Where
Jefferson, TX
Price
budget$
Rated
4.8 251

A Texas wildlife park with a quick, cheap, hands-on capybara encounter. Fifteen minutes to feed, pet, and photograph a capybara, bolted onto general admission.

plan a visit
zoo

Wilderness Trails Zoo

Access
hands-on
Where
Birch Run, MI
Price
mid-range$$
Rated
4.5 2,435

A Michigan zoo with a straightforward, well-priced capybara encounter – feeding, photos, and the honest disclaimer that the capybaras get the final say on whether they show up.

plan a visit
zoo

Toronto Zoo Capybara Encounter

Access
hands-on
Where
Toronto, ON
Price
not listed
Rated
4.4 38,151

Canada's marquee capybara meet-up. An official, staff-guided Wild Encounter where you get up close and hand-feed capybaras produce – if you can grab a ticket in time.

plan a visit
zoo

Lake Tobias Wildlife Park

Access
viewing only
Where
Halifax, PA
Price
budget$
Rated
4.8 7,393

A 150-acre Pennsylvania wildlife park with capybaras that swim in their own lake. Viewing, not hand-feeding – but a genuinely nice place to watch them do nothing.

plan a visit
sanctuary

Sanctuary Hill

Access
viewing only
Where
Ethel, LA
Price
mid-range$$

The Louisiana park that was Barn Hill Preserve, then Magnolia Wilds, and is now being rebuilt by its own staff as a nonprofit sanctuary. The capybaras are still there. The hands-on encounter probably is not.

plan a visit
zoo

Hertfordshire Zoo Capybara Experience

Access
hands-on
Where
St Albans, United Kingdom
Price
mid-range$$

Thirty minutes feeding and scratching capybaras under supervision, half an hour north of London. The catch is that the day ticket is not in the price.

plan a visit
encounter

Izu Resort Villa

Access
hands-on
Where
Higashiizu, Japan
Price
premium$$$

Not a zoo and not a cafe — a hotel in Shizuoka where the villas look onto a capybara habitat and the morning routine includes feeding them.

plan a visit
petting zoo

Mother Farm

Access
hands-on
Where
Futtsu, Japan
Price
mid-range$$

A 250-hectare farm park in Chiba where you can pet the capybaras in summer and watch them bathe in winter. The easiest capybara day trip from Tokyo.

plan a visit
zoo

Nagasaki Bio Park

Access
hands-on
Where
Saikai, Japan
Price
budget$

Around twenty capybaras roaming loose on a Kyushu hillside, and in midwinter they get a hot spring. Closer to a walk-through than a zoo.

plan a visit
zoo

Nasu Animal Kingdom

Access
viewing only
Where
Nasu, Japan
Price
mid-range$$

A Tochigi park where you sit in a human hot spring and watch the capybaras sit in theirs. Genuinely the only venue in this directory where both species are bathing.

plan a visit
zoo

Shepreth Wildlife Park Capybara Experience

Access
hands-on
Where
Shepreth, United Kingdom
Price
mid-range$$

Half an hour meeting the capybaras in their own enclosure, between Cambridge and Royston, at a park that started life as a fish farm and became a rescue centre.

plan a visit
zoo

Twycross Zoo Capybara Experience

Access
hands-on
Where
Atherstone, United Kingdom
Price
mid-range$$

A big conservation zoo in Leicestershire that recently added capybaras and now lets you into the habitat to feed the herd.

plan a visit
zoo

Wild Discovery Capybara Encounter

Access
hands-on
Where
Preston, United Kingdom
Price
mid-range$$

The cheapest way to touch a capybara in Britain — £45 for ten to twenty minutes in Preston, ages eight and up, admission on top.

plan a visit
zoo

Wingham Wildlife Park Capybara Experience

Access
hands-on
Where
Wingham, United Kingdom
Price
premium$$$

Fifteen minutes inside the enclosure in Kent, two people maximum, £140 for the pair — and unusually for Europe, park entry is bundled in rather than sold separately.

plan a visit
zoo

Zoo Berlin Capybara Encounter

Access
hands-on
Where
Berlin, Germany
Price
mid-range$$

The only bookable capybara encounter we can find in continental Europe. Online booking only, at the oldest zoo in Germany.

plan a visit
zoo

Izu Shaboten Zoo

Access
viewing only
Where
Ito, Japan
Price
budget$

The zoo that invented the capybara hot spring. In winter you watch resident capybaras soak in an open-air onsen, steam rising, faces set to maximum indifference.

plan a visit

Quick answer: you can meet capybaras at zoos, farms and sanctuaries across the US and Canada. For hands-on feeding, the Toronto Zoo (ON), Wilderness Trails Zoo (MI), Busy B Ranch (TX), Liberty Acres (NC), Mitchell's Petting Zoo (TN) and Cape May County Zoo (NJ) run guided encounters. Kangaroo Creek Farm in Kelowna is the only walk-in capybara access we can find in Canada, and Nurtured by Nature in California is the one place you get in the water with them. In Britain – which has no capybara cafe at all – six parks sell encounters, and Wingham in Kent is the best value because park entry is included. For the famous winter hot-spring soak it's Izu Shaboten Zoo in Japan, and Nasu Animal Kingdom lets you watch it from a hot spring of your own.

More ways to meet one: capybara cafes & encounters · the capybara field guide.

faq

CAPYBARA ZOO QUESTIONS

Where can I see a capybara in the US or Canada?
At zoos, wildlife parks, and sanctuaries across both. Hands-on encounters run at the Toronto Zoo in Ontario, Wilderness Trails Zoo in Michigan, and Busy B Ranch in Texas; Lake Tobias Wildlife Park in Pennsylvania is a viewing exhibit.
Can you hand-feed capybaras at a zoo?
At some. Toronto Zoo, Wilderness Trails Zoo, and Busy B Ranch run guided hands-on encounters where you feed the capybaras under supervision; places like Lake Tobias are viewing-only. Check the hands-on vs viewing-only tag on each card.
Where is the capybara hot spring?
Izu Shaboten Zoo in Ito, Japan started the capybara onsen tradition. It is seasonal, running roughly November through April, so come in winter to catch the capybaras soaking in the open-air bath.
Do capybara encounters at zoos need booking?
The hands-on ones usually do, and the Toronto Zoo encounter sells out fast, with tickets released about two weeks ahead. Viewing exhibits just need general admission.
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