Tucked into Sevierville, Tennessee, Rainforest Adventures Discovery Zoo has quietly become one of the most hands-on wildlife attractions in the Smoky Mountains. Visitors do not just look at animals through glass here. They feed sloths sweet potato on a skewer, offer fish to otters through a specially designed barrier, hold a Burmese python, and watch guinea pigs pour out of a pile of hay at feeding time.

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For anyone building a Smoky Mountains itinerary that already includes Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, this indoor zoo is worth the detour.

Rainforest Adventures Discovery Zoo

• Location: Sevierville, Tennessee, on the corridor connecting Sevierville to Pigeon Forge
• Hours: Open daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• General admission: $21.99 for adults, $14.99 for children, valid all day
• Included with admission: zookeeper talks, feeding demonstrations, guinea pig encounter (10:30 a.m. daily), live animal shows (1 p.m. and 3 p.m.)
• Paid add-on encounters: sloth encounter, otter encounter, upcoming lemur encounter (priced separately, check the zoo’s website for current rates)
• Indoor space: about 15,000 square feet, plus outdoor exhibit areas
• Signature animals: sloths (Matteo and Opal), Asian small-clawed otters, a 34-member guinea pig colony, Burmese pythons, a red tegu, and a rotating reptile and amphibian collection

A quick history of the zoo

Rainforest Adventures Discovery Zoo is now in its 25th year of operation, though it looked very different when it first opened. According to staff on site, the attraction started out under a different name, focused almost entirely on snakes, before expanding into the diverse collection of animals it houses today. New ownership took over roughly two years ago, and that change has brought a wave of additions: dedicated sloth encounters, otter encounters, a soon-to-launch lemur encounter, an outdoor otter exhibit under construction, an expanding outdoor lemur area, and new concessions on site.

Location, hours, and ticket prices

The zoo sits along the corridor connecting Sevierville to Pigeon Forge, near the Sevier Air Indoor Trampoline and Ninja Warrior Park and not far from a local movie theater. It is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

General admission covers the entire day and functions as an all-day wristband, meaning guests can leave and come back without paying again. As of this visit, ticket prices were $21.99 for adults and $14.99 for children. That single wristband includes every standard program the zoo runs during the day, including:

• Zookeeper talks
• Feeding demonstrations
• The guinea pig encounter, held daily at 10:30 a.m.
• Live animal shows, held at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. during high season (Wednesday through Sunday) and every weekend during low season

The premium animal encounters, such as the sloth, otter, and upcoming lemur encounters, cost extra and are booked separately from general admission. Pricing for those varies, so checking the zoo’s website ahead of a visit is the most reliable way to confirm current rates.

Inside the building: 15,000 square feet of rainforest

The main facility covers about 15,000 square feet indoors, with additional outdoor space for guests to enjoy when the weather cooperates. Inside, the collection leans heavily into tropical and rainforest species: sloths, toucans, monkeys, a sizable reptile collection, frogs, and other amphibians. Staff describe it as having a little bit of everything for everyone, and the layout backs that up. Guests move through connected rooms and hallways lined with enclosures rather than following a single fixed path, so there is room to backtrack and revisit favorite animals throughout the day.

The sloth encounter

The sloth encounter at Rainforest Adventures Discovery Zoo lets guests feed and pet two resident sloths up close, an experience booked separately from general admission. Matteo, around four years old, and Opal, around two, are the current pair used for the encounter. Their personalities differ noticeably: Matteo tends to be more consistent about showing up for guests, while Opal is shyer and more selective. When Opal does come out first, Matteo reportedly gets a bit jealous and typically follows a few minutes later.

During the encounter, guests feed the sloths sweet potato using a skewer. The technique matters: press the skewer gently against their mouth rather than stabbing hard, and once they bite down, a small twist frees the piece from the skewer. While a sloth is eating, guests can pet its shoulders and back, but staff caution against touching the belly, head, or face, since sloths do not tolerate contact in those areas well.

Sweet potato is treated as a snack rather than a meal. Their regular diet is closer to a large bowl of mixed vegetables, including cucumber, zucchini, squash, eggplant, green beans, and occasional peppers, along with hanging skewers of greens like kale, romaine, and iceberg lettuce. Fruit is deliberately left out of their diet. Because a sloth’s metabolism runs so slowly, fruit ferments inside their digestive system, and the sugar content can leave them intoxicated for roughly two weeks at a time.

Sloths also spend the overwhelming majority of their time upside down, an estimated 95 percent, whether awake or asleep. They sleep about 20 hours a day, and outside of eating, most of their remaining activity is limited to using the bathroom. Despite their reputation for being slow, sloths can swim, floating on their bellies and moving faster in water than they do on land or in trees. On land, staff have noted that sloths can disappear from a room faster than expected if left unattended even briefly.

Digestion in sloths is unusually slow as well. Whatever a sloth eats on a given day stays in its digestive system for about 30 days before passing, and sloths typically use the bathroom only once a week, always by climbing down to the ground rather than doing so in the trees. Adult sloths at the zoo weigh somewhere around 16 to 18 pounds, lighter than many house cats.

Most of the sloths seen in zoos today, including wild-caught individuals still being imported, are part of a limited overall body of knowledge about the species in captivity. Both sloths involved in this particular encounter were captive-bred rather than wild-caught. On the subject of lifespan, the longest-lived captive-born sloth on record reportedly lived to around 49 years old, while sloths in the wild are believed to typically live into their 30s.

Feeding time tends to be the most active period of a sloth’s day by far, since eating and using the bathroom are essentially the only activities that reliably get them moving. Guests who have watched sloths at other facilities sometimes remark on how much livelier Matteo and Opal seem during their encounter windows compared to the sleepy, slow-motion image most people associate with the species. That contrast is part of what makes the encounter memorable: it is one of the few times a sloth is genuinely engaged and reaching toward a guest rather than curled up asleep on a branch.

Their sharp teeth are another detail staff point out during the encounter. A sloth’s teeth never stop growing, which keeps them naturally sharpened throughout its life without the need for any outside intervention. Combined with their surprisingly tough claws, it is part of why staff are careful to guide guests through the correct feeding technique rather than letting anyone approach freely.

The otter encounter

The otter encounter at Rainforest Adventures Discovery Zoo is a paid, hands-on session where guests hand feed Asian small-clawed otters through a specially built barrier. Guests reach through small openings to feed the otters directly, an experience staff and repeat visitors alike describe as one of the most memorable parts of the zoo. Unlike most aquarium otter exhibits, where visitors only watch through glass, this setup allows for direct hand feeding.

Even outside of the paid encounter, general admission guests can still observe the otters swimming and interacting from the public side of their enclosure. At quieter moments, the otters can often be found napping, sometimes bundled up in a blanket inside their space.

The guinea pig circle

The guinea pig encounter is free with general admission and runs daily at 10:30 a.m., centered on a colony of 34 female guinea pigs kept in an area nicknamed “Barbie Land.” Guests can feed them banana leaves and other greens, and watching the guinea pigs emerge from the hay one by one is part of the appeal. Loud noises, including sounds made by nearby lemurs, can send the group scattering to hide, but they typically re-emerge once things quiet down.

Llama feeding and other petting moments

Alongside the sloth, otter, and guinea pig experiences, the zoo also offers the chance to feed a baby llama, an experience one visiting family described as a genuine bucket list moment. The technique is similar to other hands-on feeding stops at the zoo: keep your hand flat rather than cupped, since the llama will try to grab and pull food through, and the animal’s fur turns out to be noticeably softer than most guests expect going in. For younger kids especially, this kind of low-barrier animal contact tends to be an easy favorite alongside the guinea pig circle.

Food prep area and zoo amenities

Partway through the building, guests pass a viewing window into the food prep area, where staff prepare meals for the sloths, otters, and other animals throughout the day. Nearby, additional reptile enclosures line the hallway, along with a few turtle shells on display. This stretch of the building also includes restrooms and a seating area with water available, useful for families spacing out a longer visit.

Elsewhere in the reptile and small mammal displays, guests can spot degus, small rodents that resemble chinchillas, along with additional lizards tucked into the surrounding enclosures.

Reptile encounters and the zoo’s snake team

Rainforest Adventures Discovery Zoo maintains a notable reptile collection, and part of that includes staff members who specialize in handling and educating guests about snakes. One keeper described building a working relationship with five or six snakes at the facility that are comfortable being brought out for guests to see, touch, or hold.

Luna, a young Burmese python who joined the zoo roughly a year and a half before this visit, is one of the snakes regularly used for guest interaction. Staff describe her as extremely social and comfortable being handled, provided guests avoid touching the top of her head. During a hands-on moment, a keeper can drape part of Luna around a guest’s shoulders for a photo or let a more confident guest hold her fully, always keeping her movement supported rather than restricted.

The rest of the exhibits

Beyond the marquee encounters, the zoo’s exhibit halls hold a wide range of animals worth slowing down for:

Marmosets, small monkeys native to Brazil, draw attention for their expressive faces and active behavior. Nearby, a rotating cast of reptiles includes a crocodile monitor, additional monitor lizards, scorpions, and a Cuban knight anole.

The poison dart frog area features several species, including a blue poison dart frog, along with informational displays covering their historical use in the Amazon and some fossil specimens on display in the same area. A separate, climate-controlled enclosure kept intentionally misty houses a pair of Amazon emerald tree boas coiled in the branches.

Near the reptile section, a vending machine dispenses venomous and nonvenomous snake sheds as a novelty souvenir, something not commonly seen at other zoos and popular with kids interested in learning more about snakes.

Axolotls and porcupines are positioned near the exit, with the porcupines frequently found napping during the day.

One of the more unusual residents is a red tegu, a large lizard native to Central and South America that has also become established outside its native range in states like Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina due to introduction into the wild. Because of that spread, several of those states have made it illegal to keep tegus as pets, though Tennessee currently still allows it. Tegus are omnivores, eating both plant material and meat, and males can be identified from a distance by their noticeably larger jaws compared to females. The tegu used during hands-on moments at the zoo is also gentle enough for guests to pet, and staff have pointed out that the animal can pick up scent particles through its tongue in much the same way a snake does.

A tarantula featured during the live show is described as calm enough to handle safely, though staff note that not all tarantula species tolerate handling the same way, and more aggressive species would not be treated the same way. The tarantula is mildly venomous and capable of biting, though bites are rare, and if agitated, the tarantula’s more common defense is flicking irritating hairs from its abdomen rather than biting.

Guests can also learn about the black-footed ferret, a species once thought extinct until a chance discovery in 1981, when a dog brought its owners a strange animal that turned out to be a surviving black-footed ferret. A wildlife survey that followed the discovery located roughly 130 more individuals. Historically, black-footed ferrets were also used by rabbit hunters, who released them down burrows to chase rabbits out into the open.

The live animal show

Held at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., the live show is hosted by a zookeeper who goes by “Jungle Jim,” a former Knoxville Zoo employee who has also worked at the Kentucky Reptile Zoo in Slade, Kentucky, and previously owned a pet shop. The show blends animal education with audience participation, particularly for guests seated in the first few rows, and mixes in some of the host’s personal interests, including a segment on recycling statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Animals featured during the show have included Rooney, a Hahn’s macaw, recognized as the smallest macaw species, known for mimicking sounds like a cough and a scooter’s backup beeping. The show also touches on the history of the passenger pigeon, a species that once numbered in the billions across North America with flocks reported to stretch up to 300 miles long, and uses that history to talk more broadly about extinction and ecological cycles. Sunny, an albino Burmese python, typically closes out the show, giving guests in attendance a chance to touch and hold a large snake under staff supervision.

Shopping and other extras

Near the exit, the gift shop carries a broad selection of Smoky Mountains and Sevierville-branded merchandise, including t-shirts, hats, and sweatshirts, along with stuffed animals ranging from small keepsakes to large plush versions of animals like tigers. Otter-themed keyrings are among the smaller souvenir options popular with kids leaving the zoo.

A classic penny press machine is also on site, offering a choice of Rainforest Adventures-themed designs, including options styled after a bird and a lemur, as a low-cost souvenir, a novelty that has become less common as pennies see less everyday use.

What families tend to remember most

Visitors who spend a full day at Rainforest Adventures Discovery Zoo tend to leave with a mix of favorites rather than one standout moment. The otter encounter is frequently named a top pick, especially by kids, thanks to the novelty of hand feeding an animal that most people only ever see through aquarium glass. At the same time, the sloth encounter draws its own loyal following for the slower, closer interaction it allows, and the llama and guinea pig feedings tend to be the easiest entry points for younger children or first-time visitors who want a low-key animal interaction before trying anything more involved.

For guests who have driven past the building for years without stopping in, the most common reaction after finally visiting is surprise at how much larger and more varied the collection is than it appears from the outside. Between the indoor exhibit halls and the animals still being added outside, repeat visits tend to reveal something new each time, particularly as the zoo continues expanding its otter and lemur areas.

Is Rainforest Adventures Discovery Zoo worth visiting?

Rainforest Adventures Discovery Zoo is worth visiting for travelers in the Smokies who want hands-on animal encounters, an indoor rainy-day option, and a full day of included programming for a single admission price. For travelers already spending time in Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, or Gatlinburg, it offers a different kind of stop compared to the area’s larger theme parks and outdoor attractions. The combination of an all-day wristband, included programming like the guinea pig encounter and daily animal shows, and paid add-on experiences with sloths and otters gives visitors flexibility to build a visit around their budget and interests. Because most of the facility is indoors and climate-controlled, it also works well as a rainy-day option or a break from summer heat, with the option to step outside when the weather is pleasant.

Between the animal variety, the accessible encounter format, and the daily programming included in general admission, it holds up as a worthwhile addition to a Smoky Mountains trip, particularly for families with kids or anyone with a specific interest in sloths, otters, or reptiles.

Frequently asked questions

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