Date of Visit: April 26 2024 Species not seen in italics Entrance 1. Domestic Mallard, Domestic Muscovy Duck, Domestic Graylag Goose, Domestic Swan Goose, Domestic Graylag x Swan Goose Small Mammals 1. Ring-tailed Lemur 2. Binturong 3. unidentified owl monkey (signed as A. trivirgatus) 4. South American Coati 5. Tammar Wallaby 6. Patagonian Cavy Aviary 1. Bald Eagle 2. Pied Crow 3. Red-tailed Hawk Petting Zoo (temporarily closed, unable to provide a list) Carnivores 1. Spotted Hyena 2. Generic Tiger 3. American Black Bear Ungulates 1. American Bison 2. Domestic Yak 3. unidentified zebra (prob. Plains) 4. Bighorn Sheep 5. American Elk Free-roaming: Domestic Guineafowl Irvine Park Zoo is a small, non-AZA, municipally-owned zoo in Chippewa Falls, WI. The layout is highly confusing and to be honest I'm not 100% sure I saw it all, the map shows several exhibits that I could not for the life of me find. This is a perfectly average zoo that I honestly don't have much more to say about. The small mammals unfortunately have it tough here, in tiny concrete and bars cages, but all of the other animals are fairly well off. The carnivores are in concrete grottos but they're pretty large, with places to hide, climbing structures, and other stuff that makes them far better off than their conspecifics at other zoos in the state. The ungulates (and domestic waterfowl ) all have massive yards with rolling grassy fields, some woods, and large natural ponds. The Bighorn Sheep have an entire large wooded gorge all to themselves that replicates the environments of the Rocky Mountains about as well as a zoo in the Midwest can do. One problem that seems to plague this zoo is that the animals are very difficult to locate. I don't know, maybe it was the day I visited, but the ungulates were all hiding in their spacious enclosures (understandable, they have so much room to roam), but the small mammals were almost all out of view. I know they were on-exhibit because there was food and water in all of the enclosures and the area reeked of Binturong. They must have all been huddled up in their hides or something.
Thanks for the review. With less than 20 species, this zoo isn't much, but it's kind of amazing that they have Spotted Hyenas, American Black Bears and Tigers. In 2002, the Park Board gave the zoo an ultimatum to build some new exhibits or close permanently, so the three species I named all had enclosures built for them that were completed by 2010. Those exhibits are borderline terrible, but they are fairly new! Here are 4 of my photos from 2014: American Black Bear exhibit: Tiger exhibit: Spotted Hyena exhibit: Typical small mammal cage (Coati in this example):
Oh interesting, while the others are the same, the coati cage I saw looked very different. It was just a concrete box with one wall of chain link and some climbing frames. All of the other small mammal exhibits were similar. Probably a downgrade tbh. I don't necessarily disagree, but I'm so used to crappy enclosures that these feel nice to me. I'm sure you of all people would understand to some degree!
Its disappointing that they couldn't even include natural substrate when they built those grottos. I don't know what was there before the grottos were built, but keeping a grass/dirt floor would have probably been cheaper than concrete, and obviously much better for the animals.
