American Mink exhibit

This cage had an opossum in it when I visited the zoo in 2018, but keeping anything in this enclosure is cruel.

This is the type of cages they keep poultry during showcasing at county fairs here in Iowa. Definitely not meant as a permanent living space for a creature like this!

What purpose do the owners think they are serving? Based on the few photos I have seen posted today, this place needs to be shut down!

@Arizona Docent I actually like the place (see my mini-review from a few years ago Shalom Wildlife Zoo Full Species List and Mini-Review [Shalom Wildlife Zoo]). Most of the enclosures here are multi-acre yards that are so big it just isn't possible to photograph them (hence why I have no photos). A few of the smaller species get terrible enclosures, but overall the majority of the enclosures here are very nice, quite worth the visit I think. You might be interested to know that it includes one of the best Tiger exhibit I've ever seen and the best Cougar exhibit I've ever seen.

Interesting take - I will try to read your review when I get a chance. It would be hard for me to be impressed by a cougar exhibit because I live less than half an hour away from the world's best:


puma exhibit - ZooChat


puma exhibit - ZooChat


puma exhibit - ZooChat

@Arizona Docent ASDM’s is great from a visitor and naturalistic point of view but it’s a bit on the small side (I have seen it in person). It’s certainly among the best but I do like Shalom’s more. Much larger, with a nice pool and lots of hiding places, yet with a cat that stays visible. So I would say ASDM’s is probably the best from a visitor’s point of view but Shalom’s is better for the cat.

Of course, DeYoung had what was indisputably the world’s best Cougar exhibit a few years ago before it was given over to Domestic Turkeys.

Shalom did indeed have a nice cougar exhibit (built in 2017):



But the zoo also had this for Arctic foxes in 2018:



Best cougar exhibit I've ever seen is probably White Oak. There is one cougar (technically a Florida panther) in each of these photos: