Ehime: High School Develops Petting Zoo to Attract More Students

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:06 JST, February 14, 2026

SEIYO, Ehime — A petting zoo is being developed at a prefectural high school in Seiyo, Ehime Prefecture, with its opening planned for April or later.

At Nomura High School, which has a livestock breeding department, students and teachers have been working on this project in an effort to attract more students to the school by allowing them to interact with animals, amid declining student numbers.

As part of the education it offers about animals, the high school has cows and chickens but also rabbits, ponies, goats and turtles and has run mobile zoos in various locations in the prefecture for more than 30 years. In fiscal 2024, an “animal friendship club” was created at the school to deepen interaction with local communities through events and other activities.

On Jan. 14, the school built the foundation for a rabbit hutch with the advice and cooperation of students from the mechanical and civil engineering department at Yawatahama Technical High School in the neighboring city of Yawatahama. The students poured concrete into the foundation so that the rabbits cannot escape by digging under the hutch, and built a fence to enclose it using bamboo cut from abandoned bamboo forests.

For the envisaged zoo, the rabbit hutch and stables for ponies and goats will be built on sites that were previously a teachers’ parking lot and a tennis court. Some areas in the school building will also be used for indoor exhibits. After its opening, the zoo will be open to the public once a month and have petting sessions with small animals and performances by ponies. The school is also considering introducing new animals such as hedgehogs and reptiles.