When Matt Damon's character climbs over the tree, the real Benjamin Mee, Milo Mee (Dylan in the movie), and Ella Mee (Rosie in the movie) can be seen as the first family in line. In the scene, Benjamin Mee is wearing what appears to be a Dartmoor Zoological Park cap, the actual zoo in England on which the movie is based.
Cameron Crowe felt very guilty about having then-7-year-old Maggie Elizabeth Jones use the word "dick" and was considering changing the line. Jones's mother told Crowe that Maggie had an uncle named Dick, so she just thought she was calling someone her uncle, and the line stayed.
When Benjamin first meets the staff, Kelly mentions that there is a weak enclosure between the jaguar and the tigers. In the actual Dartmoor Zoo, the jaguar escaped into the tiger enclosure.
In the movie, Rosie refers to her dad, Benjamin Mee, as "more handsome" than the other dads because most of them don't have hair. The real Benjamin Mee is completely bald.
To avoid earning a PG-13 rating, most of the language and sexual content had to be removed to make it more appealing to family audiences.