Birmingham Zoo's Dino Discovery returns in time for Spring Break

March 15, 2016

1:56 PM

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Frank Couch

Dino Discovery

Billy Ledbetter, Director of Maintenance at the Birmingham Zoo stares down a T-Rex after it is unloaded. The Dino Discovery at the Birmingham Zoo will open in time for spring break featuring 12 life sized animated dinosaurs. Crews were unloading the realistic exhibits from trucks Monday March 7, 2016 in Birmingham, Alabama. Photo by Frank Couch

2 of 12

Frank Couch

Dino Discovery

The Dino Discovery at the Birmingham Zoo will open in time for spring break featuring 12 life sized animated dinosaurs. Crews were unloading the realistic exhibits from trucks Monday March 7, 2016 in Birmingham, Alabama. Photo by Frank Couch

Crews unloaded the realistic dino exhibits from trucks Monday March 7, 2016 in Birmingham, Alabama. Photo by Frank Couch

They’re back! On March 7, The Birmingham Zoo brought some prehistoric giants back to life with the help of larger-than-life cranes and some animatronics. Since then, the zoo has been working to perfect its dinosaur exhibit ahead of its opening this week.

The Birmingham Zoo will reveal its exhibit, Dino Discovery—They’re Back! just in time for Spring Break at noon on Saturday, March 19.

The exhibit will be located in the Alabama Wilds area of the Junior League of Birmingham – Hugh Kaul Children’s Zoo. This exhibit will give guests the opportunity to hear dinosaurs roar, see them move and take in a prehistoric experience like none before.

A total of 12 life-sized, North American-native animatronic dinosaurs will tower above zoo guests at heights of nearly 20 feet. The creatures will weigh in at nearly 7 tons and measure 85 feet in length, taking guests on an expedition spanning back more than 160 million years ago. Guests can search for fossils in the Dino Dig, explore the exhibit with a dinosaur expert and get their picture with a giant Pachyrhinosaurus. The exhibit will provide various educational offerings for guests to learn more about these extinct species and how they relate to the zoo’s conservation efforts.

To help add more excitement to the experience, guests are encouraged to download the Dinosaur Co AR app for an interactive digital experience.

When warmer months roll around, the zoo’s Summer ZooFari Camps will include a specialty camp focused on dinosaurs. Campers will discover fossils, learn about dinosaurs and how they lived, what they ate and meet some of their modern-day relatives up close.

Dino Discovery – They’re Back! will be open to guests for a cost of $4 (plus tax) for zoo members and $6 (plus tax) for nonmembers in addition to regular zoo admission.

The dinosaurs will stick around until July 31 before they go extinct again.

For more information, visit birminghamzoo.com.