On my Mexican trip ( end 2013 - beginning 2014 ) I was able to visit the Crococun Zoo, which is between Playa del Carmen and Cancun. Because we ( my wife and I ) were in a kind of hurry ( our rental car had to be brought back to the rental firm ) we only had about 1 hour time to visit the place. After paying the entrance fee ( quite expensive at somewhere around $ 20 ! ) I wanted to see the zoo but was not allowed because only guided tours are given which duration is....about 1 hour ! Together with a young German couple we got an english speaking guide and started with the Parrots. These are housed terrible ( see pictures in the Crococun Zoo Gallery ) and several tame ones could be petted and taken on the arm.Parrots kept here were several Amazone-species, Military macaws and African Greys. After the Parrots we walked to the first of many crocodile enclosures with which this zoo started and from which it has its name. The largest number kept - and bred as the guide told us - are the Moreleti's crocodiles and the several sizes - very young, young, semi-adult and adult - are all kept in quite deccent enclosures. By the young ones the guide picked one out of the enclosure and gave us the possibility to pet it and also to hold it after he put a little rope around the beak of the poor animal so it could not bite.... Between the crocodile enclosures several smaller and larger tanks with snakes ( mostly natives but also some pythons ( royal and tiger ( among them a very large albino one ) are kept here. For the several turtles kept ( soft-shell - also an albino - and sliders ) larger enclosures are avaible. Also a beautifull Green iguana and a Red teju had enclosures which were quite nice but the Red teju had also to be taken out of it's cage to get an "educational" talk about. In this first part of the zoo also 3 female Mexican Naked dogs are kept in a large pit. Then we went through the famous Crocodile walk-through exibit which is quite large but also quite overcrowded and here again some of the larger crocodiles had to be disturbed to show us how these animals react on disturbion . After leaving this Walk through enclosure we came along the feeding place for a family of wild Yucatan spider monkeys. They live already a long time on the zoo-grounds and produce regulary young. During my visit the female again was carrying a young. Along a row of breeding-pens for crocodiles - here also mostly Moreleti's but also one pen with American crocodiles - we came by the deer-enclosure in which a large group of Yucatan white-tailed deers are kept, I guess about 15 animals. One of them - called very originaly 'Rudolph' - was a very tame male and with some greens we were able to feed them. In the last part of the zoo we saw also a small enclosure with a small family-group of Yucatan white-nosed coatis and then we had seen the whole zoo. Altogether not that bad but firstly quite small, secondly to expensive and thirdly not all animals were handled the way it should be ( Parrots and some of the reptiles which were taken out of their enclosures ).
I visited this place yesterday and, though not much has changed since vogelcommando's visit, have a few updates: The military macaw in the parrot shack was replaced with blue-and-gold macaw (and the shack still had one African gray parrot and five amazons of 3 different species) I did not see any softshell turtles, but one snapping turtle was sharing an enclosure with green iguanas They no longer had a red tegu (at least on exhibit) but had a monitor lizard, which the guide did not handle. They also had a beaded lizard in one of their snake cases. Also, they no longer disturb their larger crocodiles (or at least our guide did not) Other than that, vogelcommando's great and detailed review from 2014 is completely up to date.
I visited this zoo in June but I wasn't very active on this site at the time so I never mentioned it or uploaded photos. When I visited in June, there was a new pair of ocelot enclosures, with one cat in each. They were quite small for the cats inside, but the cats themselves looked quite healthy and they were not pacing too badly or showing any neurotic behavior. The enclosures are all glass, with rocks for the ocelot to stand on and lots of water for them to bathe or dip their paws in. I have uploaded pictures of the enclosures and additional photos of the zoo.
I believe yellow-headed, white-fronted, and red-lored. I posted the picture of each in the Crococun gallery back in March
