hemker park and zoo

I was not expecting an independent zoo in rural Minnesota to be excellent, but Hemker is. It's beautiful to walk around on a summer day, the animals are accessible, and the staff is helpful. When you pay, buy seed sticks ($1 each) so you don't have to come back when you're ready to go into the Budgie House. It was the best part of the zoo -- they literally land on your hand and stick and peck off the seeds. You can also touch a penguin ($17.95) which is a very unusual thing to get to do. We brought a picnic lunch, the kids played on the play structure, and we stayed for hours. The only downside: ports-potties. But it was worth it!

I took my toddler here for a day trip while in the Alexandria area vacationing. It is an unexpected gem! My toddler had a blast! There was a nice variety of animals to look at as well as to pet (turtle, baby deer, llama, sheep) and the zoo is set on large grounds, giving kids plenty of space to run around. There is also a playground area. The best attraction was the budgie cage (I think that's what they were) where there are many small birds that will sit on a "budgie stick" and peck the seeds off. This was great for child and parent both. There is also the option for an additional fee to hold a penguin and have a picture taken. For bathrooms, there is only port-a-potties on site. There are snacks available for sale, but no hot food items..

My family and I went to Hemker Park & Zoo and had a wonderful time. We enjoyed seeing the variety of animals that we would have not expected to see. The animals all look healthy and well cared for with plenty of space. The staff was very helpful and knowledgable. The entire zoo is very clean and just a great place to go with the family. We will be back.

We are sorry you did not have a good experience at Hemker Park & Zoo. Our main priority is the welfare of our animals. We strive to provide the best habitats for our animals here at the zoo. We do not have any exhibit with 5 monkeys in it. They range from 2-4 primates in an exhibit. We have to follow all regulations of USDA and are also accredited through the Zoological Association of America which has many regulations on size and style of exhibits that we must follow. We do meet all requirements for the Singing Dogs and Monkey exhibits. We would have been more than willing to address your concerns while you were here at the zoo. Again, we are sorry you did not have a positive experience at the zoo.

I actually visited back in May. I took my three younger siblings. We are a family of animal lovers and I work with wild animals, so I was interested in seein what Hemker's was all about. There is a variety of animals there. It is a farm so people shouldn't expect zoo enclosures. Animals are freely roaming in their own spaces and do not act or look stressed out in any way, unless provoked by idiotic human beings (there are some animals which you aren't allowed to touch for very good reasons). It is a petting zoo and some avid animal activists are against this; I am not, unless the zoo is mistreating animals. This place is definitely not. I went when the zoo just opened for the season so I didn't get to see all the animals and it an be quite muddy so wear proper shoes! The kids and I loved the experience. It's hard to find an experience like that here in Minnesota. Many animals present at this zoo aren't present at the MN Zoo, which makes it all the more interesting. We are going back this weekend.It is about 1.5 hours from the cities.Pricing to touch the snake and penguin are too expensive in my opinion. We did not even get to hold them by ourselves. There is an extra fee for a photo and the people from the zoo held the animal and stood in our picture with us so now we just have family photos with a random zoo person lol. I don't think it's worth the price. Budgies weren't out yet at that time ... But we have budgies at home so it wouldn't make a difference to us :)Other than that, wonderful.

Who knew this was even here? Such a wide variety of animals! The best part was buying the bird seed sticks for $1 and going into the small bird cage. The little birds would come up onto the kids sticks and eat the food. I would high recommend doing that! You will be shocked by the animals you will find in Freeport MN- worth the stop!They also provide a picnic area and wash stations so that you can wash your hands whenever you would like.

Very awesome zoo! They could do a better job of cleaning up animal feces in the exhibits, but it was still a great experience! My mom and I love visiting Hemker. The best is when you can buy a stick of bird feed on it, and all the birds they have will fly right up to you. It's amazing! Very inexpensive admission for such fun. I am very excited for them to get their giraffe! There are many different ways to interact with the animals, which makes this zoo one of my favorites. I LOVE feeding the monkeys!!!! I fed one of them, and oh they were so happy! The one monkey was legitimately smiling at me and my mom! So cute! Can't wait to go back for a third time.

This was the second time we visited the Hemker Zoo. There were a lot of upgrades and they added a new bird house where kids can feed seed sticks to budgies. The owners are very nice and work hard to keep the animals in good care. They also added a great playground and a few nice sitting areas. My kids had a blast running around checking out the animals and another bonus was that we did to have to fight any crowds!

Hemker Zoo is wonderful! I first visited the zoo in September 2013 with my mom, who was visiting from North Carolina and my son. We had an amazing time. It's small enough to get to see all of the animals and yet they have camels, zebras, penguins and even flamingos in Minnesota. We used to live in Florida and I have been to Sea World 12 times and this was honestly way more fun. We weren't overwhelmed, got to feed and interact with tons of animals, and fell in love with this place. I hosted my son's first birthday party here in October for 30 people and the owners did everything they could to make sure it was a perfect day. We had rain, cold, and wind but it was still a wonderful time and we will be getting season passes annually from here on. I can't imagine a better place to bring children and have an amazing time!

This zoo was so much fun to go to with my family lots of animals to see that you can't see at other zoos. Animals all looked happy and healthy and the grounds were very clean. We will be going back. The staff were very friendly and had lots of knowledge to share with my children. We are looking forward to going back.

This small zoo outside a little town of Freeport is a great place to bring the family for the day. The animals look in great health and seem very happy. I have two boys under the age of 8 and they both really enjoyed all the animals especially the budgie house and jumping pit to see if you can jump as far as a kangaroo. My boys always keep asking when we are going back. The staff were great! This is fun and we will be going back.

We have been to this zoo before and again we loved it just as much as before. The proprietors are very friendly and a smile goes along way. The kids especially loved the budgie house. You walk into a screened enclosure with tons of parakeets in it. You hold out a stick with bird seed on it and they fly right to you or on your hand-head-or anything else. All the animals are well cared for and most are friendly. HAVE YOU EVER HEARD THE SOUND A FLAMINGO MAKES? We brought a picnic lunch and the kids played on the very nice playground equipment. The monkeys had babies to feed also.--sweet.

There are a lot of interesting animals and it was very fun to be able to get up close to pet them. The feeders helped the animals want to come out. However, the pens for a few of the animals towards the entrance (monkeys and foxes) seemed too small. I do recommend to others.

I was looking for something fun to do but close to home. The kids liked the variety of animals, and I loved the convenience!

I went here a while ago, maybe a year or two, and they have such a great variety of animals! Kangaroos, reindeer, chinchillas, and a bird room! The bird room was awesome! You can buy these little popsicle sticks with bird seed all over them! You walk into this room with all of these birds and they just flock to you! They sit on your arms and they just eat the seed of the sticks! Very fun! There are soo many things to do there! I suggest going!