Ultimate Guide to Tanganyika Wildlife Park
An All-Inclusive Wildlife Park is an amazing way to get your children to see and interact with animals that you normally have to fly to far-off regions. Here’s a guide on what you can do on a day pass and a guide to the Tanganyika Wildlife Park experiences. I visited this park, and it had been such a fun day, so I went back a second time!
Thanks to Visit Wichita and Tanganyika Wildlife Park for hosting me!
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Address: 1000 S Hawkins Ln, Goddard, KS 67052
Note that Tanganyika is located in a residential neighborhood, but there are some signs by the road that direct you to where the park is.
Hours: Seasonally from 9 am to 4 pm.
Note: The park closes during winter, starting November 16 or anytime it goes below 55°F. Members (annual pass holders) can go see the animals if it’s over 55°F and if the park has enough staff.
Cost can be a significant factor to consider when it comes to Tanganyika. However, if you plan carefully, you can get amazing value for your money while learning and exploring at the same time. Prices can change, but when I visited, it cost $100 for the entry-level day ticket at Tanganyika.
The Day Pass includes entry to the park, all food and drinks, and select wildlife experiences. If you get there early, at opening time (9 am, unless otherwise noted on their official website), you can grab breakfast items, as well as a drink. Unlimited fountain drinks, lemonade, and iced tea are all included with your entry fee; just grab a cup and fill it up from the machine. The park serves Coca-Cola products.
Food and drink are served buffet-style, where you can grab items from the counter, and you can eat as many items as you wish. Want to do breakfast, lunch, and a snack before you leave the park? It’s all included in your ticket!
The list changes, but as of October 2025, the experiences include giraffe feeding, lemur feeding, kangaroos, and walking about in the park and seeing the animals. Grab a map when you check in to see which animals are in the park, and if there are any meet and greets or ranger experiences on the day you visit. The park does not force the animals out for the meet & greets, so you may meet fewer (or more) animals during your meet & greet experience.
All ticket holders get a chance to meet the Lemurs in Lemur Island. No extra payment required. Just queue up on the bridge outside the gate to Lemur Island, and they’ll let you in after the previous group is done with their experience. This experience operates throughout the day.
Before the gates are open, you’ll be asked to leave your belongings outside. This is for the protection of the lemurs, since they are curious creatures, and the staff wouldn’t want them to rummage through a person’s bag.
Groups of people then enter the island, and you are asked to sit on a bench. You are then given fruit or vegetables for the lemurs to eat. It is a fun photo opportunity while the lemurs are eating. The staff takes great photos of your experience, so no need to worry about standing up and getting the perfect photo or fretting about getting a photo if you’re a solo traveler.
The lemurs can jump up on your lap or shoulder, but you’re not allowed to touch them. It’s a fun and quick experience overall. If there’s no line, it takes 5-10 minutes total from start to finish.
This is another fun animal experience that’s included with general admission. The kangaroo walkabout is a big enclosure where you can walk and touch kangaroos while they’re sleeping or lying down. If you’re lucky, you can see a baby hanging out in a mom’s pouch. The staff asks that you don’t touch any kangaroos that are standing up or jumping around, since their kick can hurt. You can take selfies with the kangaroos, and this is perhaps the only place I could get this close to kangaroos where I can touch them while in their enclosure.
Feeding the giraffes is fun, and you can feed the giraffes multiple times if there’s no line and if the giraffe still feels like it. The attendant hands you a piece of vegetable, and the giraffe then eats it from your hand. The attendant can also help take your photo if it’s not too busy and you’re traveling alone. There are other giraffe feeding experiences in other zoos, but it’s still a fun thing to do, especially to get up close with such a beautiful animal.
Mars, the baby pygmy hippo, is undoubtedly a social media star. When he was born, another pygmy hippo was all the rage, but she is based all the way in Thailand. With Mars, you can get your baby pygmy hippo fix without leaving the US!
In the morning, from 9 am to 11 am, Mars’ dad is out in the enclosure. To see Mars and his mom, head over to their enclosure from noon to 4 pm. On certain days (check the back of the park map for the exact times), you can attend a keeper talk.
You may get to meet Keeper Sierra as she talks more about Mars and provides food, branches, and other enrichment items to Mars and his mom during that hour. Try to get there early so you can be by the barricade unless you’re tall enough to see from the back.
Programming changes depending on when you visit. There are wildlife talks that happen throughout the day in various animal pens. There may also be some extra wildlife feedings happening at certain hours throughout the park on a first-come, first-served basis.
This will be depicted with signs when the experiences start, and some of them have queues, like the rhino feeding, which is another popular event.
There are three tiers of tickets available to Tanganyika. Aside from the day pass, which includes some free wildlife experiences, there are options for upgraded tickets, which have additional wildlife experiences included in the price of your ticket. You’ll get to choose these experiences yourself, unless otherwise noted that it’s an extra payment.
When arriving on a weekend, make sure to book your extra animal experiences in advance since these do sell out, especially during the peak summer months.
Here are some recommended wildlife experiences, which I had the opportunity to participate in during my visit to the park.
A few minutes before your experience starts, hang out by the capybara enclosure. A member of staff will let you into the enclosure, and depending on how big your group is, you’ll be asked to sit on a big rock one by one. The order changes, but you get a chance to feed the capybaras, have your photos taken, and touch their fur. The keeper tells you more about the capybaras, and it is a great chance to ask any questions you may have about them.
Depending on the day and the mood of the capybara, you can meet 1 or 2 of them. These capybaras are sisters. One sister has a leg deformity that affects her walking, which helps you to tell them apart from each other. Even if you don’t book the capybara meet and greet, you can see these capybaras in their enclosure in the morning.
Want to get up close to river otters? Book the otter meet and greet experience. It starts when you meet outside of a meeting room/event space. The keeper will let you into the room, and there are chairs and toys/animal activities on the floor. The keeper will then explain the rules to meet the otters, and they’ll let the otters out one at a time.
Part of the meet and greet includes a photo op, where the otter will pose in front of you as you’re sitting on a chair. You’ll also get a chance to hold one of the otter’s toys and see how they interact with it.
It’s a fun experience, and so nice to get up close to them, but you won’t get a chance to pet or touch the otter. You’ll get to hear how an otter communicates if you’re lucky. On our visit, one otter didn’t want to go back to its crate, and kept making cat-like noises since it still wants to play with us and hang out.
This is an affordable option where you can get a bucket of fish to feed the penguins! For a small fee per person, you’ll have to line up at the penguin enclosure’s bridge, show your confirmation for the penguin feed, and get a small bucket to feed the penguins swimming underneath you in the pool.
This is a popular activity that happens once daily. There are a lot of people who sign up for this extra activity, given its affordability, so buy your ticket early if you decide to do the experience, since it does sell out quickly.
The penguin meet happens in the penguin enclosure. There is a separate fenced area where you can sit, and they allow up to two penguins inside. The penguins are free to walk around and investigate the enclosure, and these penguins are curious! They discourage bringing bags inside the enclosure, since the penguins can root around inside and try to put items in their mouth. They do allow you to bring phones and cameras in, if you don’t mind them pecking at the cameras.
The trainer may then leave out paint and a canvas for the penguin to walk through, and depending on your package, you may get to keep the penguin painting as a keepsake.
If you ever wanted to swim with penguins, here’s your chance. The penguin swim is the most expensive animal experience you could book individually at Tanganyika. However, you can book a Penguin Lovers package to save a bit so you can meet a penguin and swim with them!
When booking the penguin swim, you’ll be asked to check into the VIP room during syour appointed time, where you’ll be provided a towel, water shoes, and a wetsuit. You will be asked to provide your wetsuit and shoe size information beforehand, and these items will be waiting for you upon check-in.
You get to keep the towel as a souvenir after your penguin swim. The rest of the items, like the wetsuit and the water shoes, need to be returned to the wildlife park. There are buckets in the locker rooms to return the items after you’re done with the penguin swim.
There are lockers available for storing your belongings, as well as showers and changing rooms in the area. However, shower rooms are limited, so if you’re in a big group and pressed for time, you can just quickly change back to regular clothes after.
You don’t have to bring a swimsuit, but bring an extra pair of underwear for the experience. Even if you’re wearing a wetsuit, you’re still in waist-deep water, so anything waist-down gets wet.
The penguins are free to swim around you, and some of them do nibble your leg or arm (which may hurt). You can touch the penguins on their back if you’re fast enough or if they happen to hang around you. The keepers then tell you more about the penguins, and you can ask your questions. They can’t guarantee how many penguins will interact with you since it’s up to the penguins if they’re in the mood or not.
Some keepers help take your photos and video during the penguin swim, or you can also bring a waterproof camera like an Insta360 or a GoPro during your penguin swim experience. If you do bring a camera inside the enclosure, the park is not liable for any damage that a penguin may incur to your camera. The penguins are curious and could peck at your camera – which makes for some cute videos/shots!
If you browse through the Tanganyika website, there are many more animal experiences that I didn’t get a chance to mention in this post. This is because they change their experiences every so often, and the above are just the experiences I’ve been lucky enough to be able to partake in. Hopefully, this post helped you plan your day and narrow down which experiences you may want to do during your Tanganyika trip.
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