If we’re being honest with ourselves, this year might not be the year that we get to take our kids to all the fun activities they love to do. We might have to skip on that annual trip to Canada’s Wonderland, or press pause on heading to the cottage.
Thankfully, if going to the zoo is one of your favourite family activities, you can still do that from home—and you might get a better look at some of the animals than you would in person!
A lot of zoos, aquariums, and safari tours have taken to the internet and started to live stream different animal enclosures. So your little zoologists can still get up close and personal with penguins, gorillas, pandas, sharks, and so much more.
Read on to find out more about the best virtual zoo, safari tours, and live animal cameras currently available online.
Monterey Bay Aquarium
With penguins, jellyfish, otters, sharks, turtles, tunas, and more are all swimming past the webcams, there is so much to take in at Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Reef Cam
Head down under with Australia’s first-ever rocky-reef, live-feed, combined under and above water webcam. Bonus: if the cameras are down, you’ll still get to enjoy a curated highlight reel.
San Diego Zoo
There are 11 amazing animal enclosures using live streaming cameras right now at the San Diego Zoo. You can visit with the elephants and giraffes or check in and see what the koalas and penguins are up to.
Africam
Watch wild animals in the beautiful African bush LIVE and unscripted. Elephants, Lions, Leopards and many more make appearances every day in the remotest of Africa’s locations and you can see them all front the comfort of your own home.
Penguin Burrow Cam
What is more adorable than a penguin, you might ask? Well, a teeny tiny fairy penguin of course! These fairy penguins live on Phillip Island in Victoria, Australia and this camera is placed in one of their burrows! If you don’t see the penguins, they are probably off swimming in the ocean where they spend most of their days.
Georgia Aquarium
If you’re looking to take a trip into the deep blue sea, beluga whales, alligators, piranhas, and puffins are just a few of the animals you can see on the Georgia Aquarium webcams.
Bison Cameras
Roaming the Canadian prairies, bison can often be seen gathering near a watering hole in Grasslands National Park near the village of Val Marie, Sask. Because these are wild bison, you aren’t always guaranteed to see them, but when there are no animals to see the website posts a highlight reel for visitors to enjoy.
Houston Zoo
You can watch as rhinos roll in the mud, or brilliantly pink flamingos lounge near a waterfall. There are also live streams of giraffes, elephants, chimpanzees, and gorillas, as well. And if your child is a budding entomologist they can check in on the ant live cam!
Sea Lion Camera
Capturing the sea lions in their natural habitat—sleepily lounging together—this camera on Hanson Island, B.C is always live and gives you a good look at these cute, loud creatures.
The Calgary Zoo
There’s not much more to say than PandaCam. Check in on the pandas any time you’d like.
Taronga TV
One of Australia’s most prestigious zoos, Sydney’s Taronga Zoo has 7 different live streams where you can see everything from African elephants and tigers to meerkats and capybaras.
Beekman 1802 Baby Goat Cam
Body care company Beekman 1802’s goats are in kidding season, so they focused their goat cam on the nursery. Get ready for a cuteness overload! Because the farm is quite rural they do sometimes have interruptions to the feed—be patient they are also working to keep the cameras up and streaming.
Polar Bear Cams
If you want to see something amazing, check out the Polar Bear cameras filming polar bears in the natural habitats right here in Canada—in Wapusk National Park, MB to be exact. You can see east and west views of the polar bears.
Zoo Atlanta
If you haven’t gotten your PandaCam fill, Zoo Atlanta has you covered with their own panda coverage.
Bald Eagle Nest Cam
Check in on a family of bald eagles living in Decorah, Iowa—the baby eagles are surprisingly adorable!
Zoos Victoria
Discover something new about the animals at Melbourne Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary and Werribee Open Range Zoo by tuning into their live streams as well as their guest live streams. From snow leopards to zebras, a whole host of animals make an appearance!
Wild Earth
While the African savanna may be out of your reach, with safariLIVE from Wild Earth, you can participate in a live safari. Broadcast directly from the African wilderness into your home, safariLIVE is a completely unscripted look into life on the African plains. Check out their website for more information on times and what you can expect to see at each safari.
Denver Zoo
How could you possibly turn down watching an adorable baby rhino? Well, right now the Denver Zoo has a live cam in their rhino nursery where you can watch rhino calf, Joona, hang out with mom, Tensing.
Hedgehog Cam
While this camera can literally be found in the backyard of a person living in Recke, Germany, the regular hedgehog sightings make it worth a watch.
Badger Cam
Get an up-close and personal view of wild badgers live from the beautiful countryside in Cumbria, United Kingdom.
