All of our experiences are generally available during the summer season. However, occasionally Mother Nature requires that we close them for safety.
Note: Availability is subject to weather. Please call (616)336-2017 for daily availability.
| Description | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Guest Services | Guest Services is your place for purchasing tickets and memberships, getting your questions answered, picking up Kulture City sensory bags, finding the items you've lost, and more! |
| KultureCity | KultureCity sensory bags are designed to help sensory needs in both adults and children. Filled with items that can help lessen sensory overload and also engage, the bag items are also easily cleaned and sterilized for multiple uses. |
| Lost & Found | If you've found that your missing an item and think you may have lost it at the zoo, please stop by the Guest Services building to report your missing item or pick your item up if it has been found. |
If you already have your tickets or are a John Ball Zoo member, head straight to the gate and enter the zoo.
| Description | Accessibility |
|---|---|
| Family Restroom | 2 Family Restrooms with Baby Changers in Each |
| Restroom | Men Restroom with Baby Changer |
| Restroom | Women Restroom with Baby Changer |
| Quiet Zone | 1 Quiet Zone with Baby Changer (quiet zone is on the left side of the Visitor Services Restroom next to the family restrooms.) |
Safari Supplies not only has any of the basic you may have forgotten for your trip to the zoo, but also extra items for rent to make your trip more accessible.
Wheelchairs and Electric Carts are only available on a first-come, first-served basis and cannot be reserved ahead of time. Deposit required at time of rental and will be returned upon return of equipment.
| Description | Price |
|---|---|
| Safari Strollers | $12 |
| Wagon with Canopy | $12 |
| Wheelchairs | Free |
| Amigo Mobility Carts | $30 |
Conveniently located near the front entrance, make this your first and last stop of the day! Mini Donuts and Cappuccino make great morning choices, while Dippin Dots, Pretzel Bites, and some fresh-made healthy choices are available any time!
*Open daily
John Ball Zoo’s covered event space provides guests with a private outdoor venue where guests can enjoy the zoo during the day or have an intimate nighttime experience.
Enjoy a ride through the trees and above the zoo as you head to the top of the Forest Realm. The Funicular is perfect for folks looking for a ride to the top and leisurely stroll back down through the zoo.
Perfect for guests with strollers! The Funicular is an accessibility train where wheelchairs, strollers, and walkers are all allowed.
| PRICES | PUBLIC | MEMBER |
|---|---|---|
| Per Ride | $4.00 | $3.20 |
Fish (rainbow trout, eel, and salmon) adult water birds and their eggs. In the winter they may hunt for squirrels, voles, or rats.
Temperate forests, mountains, lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, and estuaries.
Least Concern
No
Found throughout North America including Canada and Mexico.
Flight displays are part of the mating ritual. Including a dramatic dive while linked by their feet. They release before impact with the ground.
Males and females construct their nests together, about 1 to 3 months prior to egg laying.
Female
Female
As the main eatery in the heart of the zoo, we offer a large variety of lunch and snack items. From Hot Dogs and Fries to Chicken Tenders and Burgers, there is something here for everyone! This is also the place to get a Soft Serve Ice Cream Cone after a hot day at the zoo. Gluten-Free Buns are available for those with dietary restrictions.
Hippo Salad – a beautiful salad served in a carved out watermelon
*Open daily
The gift shop is open daily during normal Zoo hours. If you are a member, please have your membership card ready at all times. Show us your valid card to save 20% at any of our gift stands! Gift Cards are sold in the Gift Shop. Sold in any amount, they are good to use at any stand in the zoo. Call 616-336-4327 if you have any questions.
*Curbside Pickup available – Call to pay by phone and have your item(s) brought out to your car. (Select times and days)
We can ship anything! Call 616-336-4327 to have any of our unique Zoo themed gifts shipped anywhere in the USA. Just pay shipping charges.
John Ball was one of the founding fathers of Grand Rapids. His biography “Born to Wander” is a fascinating account of his life and travels which took him from his home in New Hampshire to Oregon, to Tahiti, to South America and eventually Grand Rapids.
John Ball was born in New Hampshire in 1794. He had several different professions growing up including teaching, being a justice of the peace, and even helping run a manufacturing company. He always loved to travel and when he turned 39 he decided to join the third expedition to Oregon. On horseback he made his way across the country and on to the Oregon Trail. The group ended up at Fort Vancouver. There he was the first non-native American farmer and the first non-native American schoolteacher. He is honored as an early pioneer of the West in a statue in Portland, Oregon.
He came to Grand Rapids in 1836 and began buying and selling land for friends in the East. He settled here, opening a law office, serving as one of the state’s legislators, serving on the first school board, assisting in establishing the public museum, and more. He married Mary Webster, a young school teacher, and they went on to have ten children. His last child was born when John was 77. The child was born in Europe where he had taken his entire family to live for a few years. He wanted his children to experience and appreciate other cultures and other lands.
He was a great observer of human nature, a supporter of education, a naturalist, and writer. His gift in 1884 of 40 acres of land certainly helped make John Ball Zoo possible.
The John Ball Statue was installed and dedicated in 1925.
The information wall at the entrance of the zoo is the perfect place to find upcoming events, zoo details, and a map to start your adventure.
Aquatic plants such as weeds, grasses, and algae
Wetlands (inland), Marine Coastal/Supratidal
Least Concern
No
Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Indonesia
Female
Male
Leaves, roots, ferns, and fruits near rivers and streams.
Low-lying, forested areas, near a source of water. Rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, swamps, and caves.
Endangered
No
Mainly Liberia, parts of West Africa, small numbers in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Ivory Coast.
Skin oozes brownish-pink fluid (called blood sweat) gives them a shiny, wet appearance. Helps protect skin from sunburn.
Spend about 6 hours a day feeding.
Male
Small birds, mammals (mice, voles), large insects (beetles, locusts), amphibians, fish, crustations, reptiles (izards, snakes), and eggs.
Dry, open areas such as agricultural fields or pastures and grasslands.
Least Concern
Yes
Europe, Northwest and sub-Saharan Africa, Southwest Asia.
Threatened by habitat loss (wetlands converted to fields for agriculture), sport hunting, ingestion of toxic pesticides/insecticides.
Communicates through bill clattering that can sound like distant machine gun fire.
Can regulate body temperature by defecating on legs and allowing evaporation to cool them.
Female
Male
Wild: Anchovies, Squid, Sprats, & Hagfish
Zoo: Trout, Smelt, Herring, & Capelin
Coastline, except during breeding season where they may be found nesting in grassland, amongst bushes, and in cliff faces.
Nearly Threatened
Yes
Temperate regions of South America. Found in Argentina, Brazil, Malvinas, Peru, and Uruguay. May venture to a tropical setting for breeding.
Unmated males have a distinct call similar to a donkey’s braying.
Thick heavy bones allowing them to dive more than 250 feet.
Torpedo shape allows for rapid swimming, reaching speeds up to 15.5 miles per hour.
Insect larvae, worms, crayfish, snails, and other small fishes.
Temperate waters. Found only in the Northern Hemisphere in North America.
Least Concern
NA
Freshwaters of North America from the Hudson Bay through the Mississippi River drainages to Alabama. It is found along the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence River drainage, and in large lakes in New York and Vermont, including Cayuga Lake and Lake Champlain.
Males can live up to 100 years, and females can live up to 150 years.
The females lay a vast number of eggs, anywhere from 2-3 million in one season, depending on their size and age.
Try to find them all!
Hard-shelled animals like crabs, sand dollars, clams, snails, and sea urchins.
Rock and stone crevices, dens, and caves in shallow water as deep as 740 feet.
Not Evaluated
No
Northern Baja California north to the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and east and south to the Seas of Okhotsk and Japan.
Length: 8.2 feet
Oviparous – Lays up to 10,000 eggs at a time, then coils around them and uses her body to shape the eggs into a neat sphere roughly the size of a grapefruit. When she's settled, the male coils around her as an added layer of protection. The female continues massaging the eggs periodically as they develop, helping to circulate water around the eggs to keep them supplied with oxygen.
Dead animals, algae, and various invertebrates such as urchin and mussel
Rocky reef habitats where they can den in crevices or seek cover in kelp or surf grass. Occasionally found in tide pools, but more often found in deeper waters up to 65 m.
Least Concern
No
Western coast of southern California and Mexico.
They have been known to be regulators of several key invertebrates, such as purple urchins.
Located in the Living Shores Aquarium next to the Octopus Habitat. The Tide Pool draws in water and releases back into the habitat, creating a tide. The cycle takes an average 2 minutes to complete.
A Tide Pool is an isolated pocket of seawater found in the ocean’s intertidal zone. They are home to a variety of life, such as snails, barnacles, mussels, anemones, urchins, sea stars, crustaceans, seaweed, and small fish that can sustain the drastic changes that occur
between low and high tides. During low tide there is increased sun exposure and lower levels of oxygen, and during high tide the crashing waves and foraging fish that comes at high tide.
Mainly fish, but also, leeches, earthworms, insects, crayfish, mussels, squid, amphibians, lizards, snakes, rodents, birds, eggs, carrion, and plant materials.
Terrestrial and Aquatic. Wetlands.
Least Concern
No
North America from Washington through Quebec, south through coastal Mexico, as well as locally in Central America and the Caribbean.
Some winter as far north as Oregon and the New England states.
Mollusks, echinoderms, sponges, arthropods, fish, worms, snakes, frogs, mammals, birds, and berries.
Beaches, estuaries, lakes, and rivers.
Least Concern
No
Widespread in the Southern Hemisphere.
Picks up shellfish and repeatedly flies them up several yards and drops them onto the rocks below in order to break them open.
Mainly fruit
Forests, rivers, shrubland, and grasslands
Least Concern
Yes
Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
Tend to form flocks. Flocks can include members of other bird species.
Herring, topsmelt, croakers, surfperches, fish eggs, mollusks, aquatic worms, and the young of other sharks.
The temperate shallow bays and estuaries of coastal California.
Least Concern
No
Near-coastal regions in the Pacific Ocean from Oregon down the California coast to Mazatlan, México.
Leopard sharks have rows of teeth, but the first row is the only row that stands upright.
Bony fishes, crustaceans, and mollusks.
Temperate, tropical, and saltwater.
Least Concern
No
Eastern Pacific Ocean, ranging from Central California, in the Monterey Bay, to southern Mexico and central Chile.
Can take in water and swell as it hides in rocky crevices. This jams the shark in place making predation difficult.
A marine sea snail found in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Adults reach up to about an inch in diameter and have a life expectancy of 7 to 30 years. They inhabit rocky intertidal zones between low and high tide lines. Their diet is composed of mainly algae.
A marine snail found in coastal regions from Alaska, to Baja California. Their strong foot allows them to thrive in some intertidal areas where turbulent wave action is prevalent. Oxygen rich water is drawn up under the shell, it then passes through the gills and is then expelled out of an opening on the top of their shell. They are most active during high tide.
Small crustaceans less than an inch in diameter.
Rocky areas near reefs.
No
Eastern Pacific and North Atlantic oceans in temperate waters.
Referred to as the carpet of the sea. Not a true sea anemone.
Mollusks and sea squirts.
Both rocky and soft shorelines.
No
The coastline from Alaska to California and Northern Japan.
Zooplankton, mollusks, fish eggs, and worms.
Bays and estuaries.
No
Alaska, to Baja California, Mexico.
Tube-feet line there arms and are used for both locomotion and to pry open clams and oysters.
Tropical habitats to the cold seafloor.
No
Can be found worldwide.
Tube-feet line there arms and are used for both locomotion and to pry open clams and oysters.
Tropical habitats to the cold seafloor.
No
Can be found worldwide.
