diff --git a/acme/wrappers/concatenate_observations.py b/acme/wrappers/concatenate_observations.py
index 949b4cf49f..15d5dafd22 100644
--- a/acme/wrappers/concatenate_observations.py
+++ b/acme/wrappers/concatenate_observations.py
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@
 from typing import Sequence, Optional
 
 from acme import types
-from acme.jax import utils
 from acme.wrappers import base
 import dm_env
 import numpy as np
@@ -40,6 +39,11 @@ def _concat(values: types.NestedArray) -> np.ndarray:
   return np.concatenate(leaves)
 
 
+def _zeros_like(nest, dtype=None):
+  """Generate a nested NumPy array according to spec."""
+  return tree.map_structure(lambda x: np.zeros(x.shape, dtype or x.dtype), nest)
+
+
 class ConcatObservationWrapper(base.EnvironmentWrapper):
   """Wrapper that concatenates observation fields.
 
@@ -62,7 +66,7 @@ def __init__(self, environment: dm_env.Environment,
       name_filter = list(observation_spec.keys())
     self._obs_names = [x for x in name_filter if x in observation_spec.keys()]
 
-    dummy_obs = utils.zeros_like(observation_spec)
+    dummy_obs = _zeros_like(observation_spec)
     dummy_obs = self._convert_observation(dummy_obs)
     self._observation_spec = dm_env.specs.BoundedArray(
         shape=dummy_obs.shape,