San Francisco Zoo and Gardens held a preview Tuesday of their summer dinosaur exhibit — the biggest temporary exhibit the zoo has ever put on.
Beginning Wednesday, visitors who head from the zoo’s main entrance straight back past the Leaping Lemur Cafe will be faced with the life-size head of a Tyrannosaurus rex looming over a sign that says “Dinos Rule!”
The exhibit will run July 1 to Sept. 15, 2026. It features 21 life-size animatronic dinosaurs who move and roar like they are alive. The models are grouped by their era and geographic origin and some show off behaviors like nesting, hunting or scavenging.
The animatronics were built by Dino Don Inc., under the direct supervision of paleontologists. Dino Don Inc. was founded by Don Lessem, who was an advisor on the 1993 “Jurassic Park” film and even has a dinosaur, the Lessemsaurus, named after him.
Lessem said his favorite thing about the San Francisco Zoo’s exhibit was the setting.
“This kind of a jungle environment, it really makes it so much richer because you feel like you’re back in time,” Lessem said. “We have them in zoos everywhere in lots of places just kind of out in the open. But this is really atmospheric.”
The dinosaur guests are staying in the zoo’s prehistoric garden, among species of ferns, palms and other plants that have existed for hundreds of millions of years.
Jade Spadoni brought her kids, 6-year-old Benny and 3-year-old Nora, to the preview. They each carried Polaroid cameras around their necks.
“They both love dinosaurs so much, especially Benny,” Spadoni said. “He’s always able to tell me all of the dinosaur names. But this is an opportunity for him to see life-size, what they could have been if they were still around. It’s really cute to watch him get excited and take pictures.”
Paulo Vergara, the zoo’s marketing director, said even zoo employees were excited for the exhibit.
“It really is the opportunity to bring community together in a different way,” Vergara said. “For them to inspire learning in a completely new lens through dinosaur knowledge and how that links to birds and evolution and social behavior that goes back millions of years — that you can see now in the current animal residents that are here at the zoo.”
During the preview, employees wandered and admired the animatronics along with everyone else.
There are a few dinosaur descendants like Dollie, a southern cassowary bird, along the prehistoric walk. The animatronics were carefully arranged so they wouldn’t disturb the zoo’s living residents.
“We can also use dinosaurs to talk about extinction and the importance of the work that our teams are doing here today for species survival planning,” said zoo CEO Cassandra Costello.
San Francisco Zoo cares for several critically endangered species like the Bornean orangutan, black rhinoceros and western lowland gorilla.
The exhibit will cost zoo visitors an extra $9 fee. It includes photo ops and interactive activities like a fossil dig and a virtual reality experience.
