MONCTON, N.B. -- Close to 400 animals call Moncton’s Magnetic Hill Zoo home and, for the first time in 13 weeks, they had visitors on Tuesday.

Some people drove hours to attend the zoo’s reopening, including the Cziffra family, who made the roughly two-hour trip from Fredericton.

“We were so excited that we could finally bring the kids somewhere,” said Sara Cziffra.

“With the restrictions, we can’t take the kids to a playground or anything like that, so we’ve been making the most of outdoor time, but finally being able to come spend a nice day at the park like this, at the zoo, we’re really excited.”

Dexter Hodge and his family thought a day at the zoo was the perfect way to safely celebrate his daughter’s upcoming birthday.

“It’s open, you’re not confined so much like you are in a store,” noted Hodge.

There are new measures related to COVID-19 in place at the zoo. Physical distancing rules still apply and visitors are being encouraged to purchase their tickets online. Most paths have been reduced to one way to allow visitors to distance themselves from one another.

“The signs, everything was well-labelled, the lines on the ground were easy to follow,” said Hodge.

Employees are also expected to follow strict safety guidelines. Zoo keepers are considered an essential service and keeping them COVID-free has been a priority.

“Our priority was to maintain the same standards of care and well-being for our animals throughout COVID, throughout lockdowns, so we had strict rules with our staff for sanitation, to wearing masks, to not showing up for work without pre-screening,” explained Jill Marvin, the director of the Magnetic Hill Zoo.

The zoo is offering a limited number of tickets during two sessions each day and is not accepting cash at this time.

All outdoor areas of the zoo are open, but buildings with high-touch displays, and where physical distancing is not possible, are closed. This includes the gift store, Imaginarium, Ecodome and insect house. All play structures and food services are also closed.

The Magnetic Hill Zoo's full reopening plan can be found online.