This is a small family-oriented zoo in the middle of nowhere. It sits on 8 acres of a city park. Most exhibits are of the old prison cell type. That being said, it is absolutely the cleanest zoo I have ever set foot in. The landscaping is beautiful, rivaling that of many formal gardens I've seen. The animals appear to be in extremely good humor with the notable exception of their lone Sumatran Tiger. The outdoor portion of his exhibit, which is approximately 10 times the size of the indoor portion, was closed for a complete redesign. This left the poor cat pacing back and forth in a tiny cell, obviously agitated. One feature of this zoo that I've rarely seen elsewhere was a hose shooting a light mist into nearly every enclosure. I suspect that the cooling caused by this is what made the animals so active during my visit. This zoo very much subscribes to the Noah's Ark method of zookeeping. There are two specimens of nearly every animal on display, with few exceptions. Most of these are not breeding pairs. The rarest animal I've ever seen is here: a lone Amur Leopard. It's estimated that only 25 to 40 of them are left in the wild. How this back-country zoo got one is beyond my understanding. Alas, the lonely fellow hid in a far away dark corner of his exhibit. All photo attempts resulted in pitch black. The best exhibits in the zoo are the "Wallaroo Walkabout" and the Bald Eagles. In the large Wallaroo exhibit, the only thing separating visitors from a large family of Wallaroos is a knee-high rope. The Bald Eagles are both rescued from Alaska, where they sustained wing injuries rendering them unable to fly. Due to this, there is only a three-foot fence keeping them in place. It's the best view I've ever had of these birds. All in all, this is a small zoo, but very surprising. I did not suspect it would house some of the animals it did. It also has your typical children's learning center with the cuter animals, such as meerkats, and a petting zoo, but those didn't draw our attention. It has a walkthrough rainforest building that would be world-class if it had more animals. It's mostly tropical birds and very few primates, but it's all natural mud and trees. If I lived nearby, I would buy a membership too the zoo in a heartbeat. Some of the more interesting animals here are: -a pair of extremely vocal New Guinea Singing Dogs (very rare) -a pair of Bald Eagles under open sky -a small red wolf pack in a natural woodland area -one critically endangered Amur Leopard -one Sumatran Tiger -a pair of Sun Bears (one adult, one juvenile) -a pair of VERY loud Black and White Ruffed Lemurs -the Wallaroo family -a pair of Reindeer that stretch their heads over the fence to be touched -a pair of very active Sea Lions -a pair of Red Pandas -two separate families of Cottentop Tamarins (including one tiny baby) -one overenergetic River Otter whose mate died of cancer not long ago -several Galapagos Tortoise Here's the photo album: monomach/Miller Park Zoo - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Great review! I had heard about that zoo before, but I never knew if it was any good. Nice seeing that they have some interesting animals. It would be nice if you would post some of your photos in the gallery.
