The Children's Zoo is set off from the rest of the Zoo as an area where children can come into close contact with animals, generally those that are either young or domesticated. In its early years most of the site remained open. Scattered across the Children's Zoo is a miscellany of small buildings dating from the period 1959 to 1975, when the Zoo as a whole was undergoing redevelopment. The curved paddock railings are reused public barriers from around one of the outdoor cages of the 1875-77 Lion House. Founded in 1938, incorporating deer shed of about 1920. Western stables, 1959; Nocturnal House, 1963; Milking Parlour, 1963 as Chimp Den, converted 1973-75, with addition of stable sheds and enclosing walls; Animal Handling Building 1967; eastern farm pens, about 1938, rebuilt 1967, paddock layout altered 1977, dens inserted 1983. All by Zoological Society of London architects.
An area aimed primarily at children and housing domesticated livestock such as turkeys, llamas, alpacas, cows, silkie chickens, horses, donkeys and goats, most of which are free-roaming. The Children's Farm is also home to a female Bennett's wallaby named Pip.
Opened in 2008, this exhibit is home to a group of cheetahs, and features displays that inform visitors about ZSL's cheetah conservation project in Tanzania. Despite ZSL's conservation project being focused on East African, the Cheetahs at Whipsnade are in fact Sudan cheetahs from Northeast Africa.
The Charles Clore Pavilion for Mammals arose from the Zoo's 1958 redevelopment scheme. It provided one building for small mammals that had previously been housed in three places. Planning and research began in 1961, but building work had to await completion of the Elephant and Rhinoceros House and its intended successor, the basement of which had been built to Tecton's designs in 1939. It was built 1965-67 following a £200,000 benefaction from Sir Charles Clore; brief by Desmond Morris, Curator of Mammals; Black, Bayes and Gibson (Kenneth Bayes and Maurice Green), architects; G E Wallis and Sons Limited, building contractors. Entrance porch replaced and basement fibreglass trees inserted 1990-91, J S Bonnington and Partners, architects.
Outside enclosures were added in 2003. It was altered and opened as the Clore Rainforest Lookout in 2007.
