DAY 8: Thursday, July 19th
After the very long day of Detroit Zoo, Belle Isle Nature Center and Toledo Zoo, I began a day of 4 smaller zoos that many zoo enthusiasts have probably never even heard of! They were all fairly tiny and in a couple of cases smaller than anticipated and so I managed to squeak a full visit to John Ball Zoo to make it a 5-zoo day. Phew!
Zoo #20:
Only about 30 minutes from Toledo, Ohio, and in southern Michigan, is a fairly new zoo that just opened in 2014. The Indian Creek Zoo (Lambertville, MI) is a home-made, hodgepodge of exhibits and even though almost everything is practically brand-new, the whole place is a shambles and there are some disgraceful enclosures. Naturally, being a non-accredited facility there were some rarities showcased and in the space of a few minutes I saw a Pig-tailed Macaque, a Rhesus Macaque, a couple of Mona Monkeys, an Olive Baboon and a Tayra. All 5 of those taxa are rare and only the Pig-tailed Macaque had a decent exhibit as the other enclosures were all piss-poor. The Rhesus Macaque was in a cement bunker with no logs, branches, or damn near anything except a cement floor and iron bars. It is frustrating to see a brand-new zoo build such a monstrosity and I asked two different keepers (neither of whom knew what a Mona Monkey was even though they were feeding it food!) and apparently at least a couple of the monkeys are ex-circus animals. Still, if you don't even know what species you have in your collection and you put it in a bare cage then I just have to shake my head and leave.
The rest of the zoo resembles a construction site, with a new 'Tropical House' being built, a 'Sloth House' almost finished (which admittedly does look pretty cool), a single Reticulated Giraffe together with an Alpaca in a decently-sized paddock, and the usual mixture that I see every day. Grey Wolves, a Bobcat, domestic goats, Bald Eagles, Barred Owls, loads of Emus, Red Kangaroos, Bennett's Wallabies, Red-tailed Hawks, etc. A couple of Plains Bison shared an enclosure with a domestic cow and there are few barriers (other than yellow police tape!) to stop someone petting the animals. The whole place can be seen in an hour and it really is a shambles. There are wires sticking out of cages and it appears that in the past 4 years the owners have assembled a zoological establishment out of duct tape and baling wire. A big disappointment as I met a woman and her kids while I was at McDonald's that morning (ya gotta love the free Wi-Fi there) and she was raving about the zoo. Non-zoo nerds have no clue what they are talking about, right? It was interesting to hear her say that her family has a membership to Toledo Zoo and they visit Detroit Zoo all the time as well. She mentioned that she liked how Indian Creek Zoo had a giraffe, which her local Toledo Zoo lacks, and she appreciated being able to feed the animals and see monkeys that they never normally see. There was no mention of primate exhibits that I wouldn't hesitate to call diabolical. Enlightening or alarming?
Zoo #21:
After an hour at my first zoo, I drove about 45 minutes north to the Creature Conservancy Wildlife Park (Ann Arbor, MI) which was a lot smaller than I imagined it to be and it is an hour east of Detroit. There is a large, shed-like building that hosts many smaller animals and then a short outdoor loop with a huge Emu/Black Swan exhibit, a large aviary with Black Vultures and Wild Turkeys, and then smaller enclosures for Reeves' Muntjac (which I was allowed to pet), Arctic Fox, Wild Turkey and Ravens. I saw everything outside but I was not allowed to see all of the animals indoors as there was a summer camp in progress and technically all drop-in visitors are restricted to weekends. A very fast, 30-minute visit, to a 'zoo' that is more of an educational center.
Zoo #22:
In southern Michigan there are quite a number of small zoos very close to each other and about 40 minutes later I ended up at Howell Nature Center: Wild Wonders Wildlife Park (Howell, MI), also an hour from Detroit. It's amazing that I even find these places as thank goodness that I have a great GPS as in the morning the Indian Creek Zoo had zero signage anywhere until I was literally on top of the place and now Wild Wonders Wildlife Park was equally bizarrely located. I drove way out into the boonies (the middle of freaking nowhere) and then entered a wealthy residential area with many impressive-looking houses. I was sure that for once my GPS had made a mistake but sure enough after leaving the paved neighbourhood I ended up on a short dirt road and at my latest zoo.
There is a Conference Center attached to the attraction, an amazingly detailed tree statue that is like something from Disney, and then a woodland trail that contains a multitude of animals native to Michigan. Every single animal is a rescue and each exhibit has a sign giving short details about the reason why a specific creature was at the center. I generally find those little stories interesting and I read quite a few of them along the route. Every enclosure is constructed out of wood and wire but very few are too small and most are what I would deem 'adequate'. There are many raptors in the shaded exhibits and then also in another, separate area that is a Raptor Center.
Mammal Species List (13 species): White-tailed Deer, Coyote, Bobcat, Red Fox, Grey Fox, Beaver, Porcupine, Woodchuck, Virginia Opossum, Mink, Northern Flying Squirrel, Domestic Ferret and Domestic Rabbit.
Bird Species List (18 species): Sandhill Crane, Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, Harlan's Hawk (a colour morph of a Red-tailed Hawk), Broad-winged Hawk, American Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon, Barn Owl, Barred Owl, Great Horned Owl, Snowy Owl, Eastern Screech Owl, Long-eared Owl, Short-eared Owl, Turkey Vulture, Wild Turkey, Black-crowned Night Heron, Wood Duck and American Crow.
Zoo #23:
Another new zoo today! The Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Park (Alto, MI) opened briefly in 2011 and then for a full year in 2012 and so everything is new and shiny and their website even claims that they have 1,500 animals of 180 species. It is interesting that in the last few years the state of Michigan has seen Indian Creek Zoo, Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Park and Sea Life Michigan all open and Detroit Zoo is tentatively planning to open and operate a million-gallon major aquarium in the next few years. With Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Park, the facility gets a 9 out of 10 in terms of having top-notch, sparkling clean washrooms (no stinky port-a-potties here!), paved walkways, immaculate plantings and sturdy, well-built enclosures. Everything is crammed into a few acres as there are exhibits every few steps and even a bird show, giraffe feeding and a very small train ride. It is all professionally done and a million times better than Indian Creek Zoo's shambolic setup.
However, there is not a single really good exhibit. The best of all is perhaps the Reticulated Giraffe paddock and I even saw an 11-day old baby giraffe which was a major highlight for all the visitors. There is an American Alligator pool with apparently 48 gators as many are juveniles; it will be intriguing to find out what the zoo does with those animals when they get larger. There are at least 6 primate exhibits, a large mob of Red Kangaroos, many small aviaries, a Reptile House that is fairly junky, and a real community aspect to the visitors. Almost everyone was Caucasian and the animal park is located far from the highway and off in the land of farmers and agriculturalists. Many of the staff members were pale-skinned with blue eyes and looking around it seemed to me that the diversity that I saw in Detroit was absent here and that's a bit disappointing. Then again, maybe it was just my impression, but the place was packed. The zoo is still growing and at the moment it would be difficult to spend much more than an hour and a half there at the most.
It is a bit worrying to see the small sizes of many of the exhibits and there are those on ZooChat who never visit these kind of privately-owned zoos and they would be genuinely shocked. Rarities at this zoo include Spotted Genet, Mandrill (a huge male), Nilgai, Coendou, Blue Wildbeest, Black-backed Jackal, Morelet's Crocodile and Gargoyle Gecko.
Zoo #24:
For my 5th zoo of the day I visited John Ball Zoo (Grand Rapids, MI) and I'd already been in 2012 and therefore it was nice to return to a mid-sized zoo that I knew very well. The city of Grand Rapids has this zoo, and then a nature center and a butterfly house and I would tour both of those the following morning. I arrived late (4:30 p.m.) and the zoo closed at 6:00 but visitors aren't forced out until close to 6:30 and so the two hours that I had were more than I needed. The first impression of this zoo is a poor one as once inside there is a steep incline up a pair of smelly and outdated waterfowl pools before passing a decent Bald Eagle aviary and reaching flat ground. There have been tentative plans for years now to build an American Black Bear exhibit right at the entrance in order to wow visitors when they first arrive. I'm not going to type up a long review but the main changes in the 6 years since my initial visit are a gift shop (it's great!), a revamped Grizzly Bear exhibit and a pair of Amur Tiger habitats connected via a long metal walkway (set on the ground) that runs through the forest. The Grizzly Bear enclosure is as awful as ever as the refurbishment of the early 1980s exhibit succeeded in adding perhaps 25% of natural substrate to the 75% steep mock-rock that dominates. Both bears were badly pacing for a long time and the enclosure is substandard for such large mammals. The Amur Tiger development has resulted in one fairly small exhibit, the connecting metal tunnel, and then a much better habitat that nevertheless has all of the trees hotwired. I saw two active tigers and the sense of being in a dense forest is realized, but there are many bigger and better tiger exhibits out there. The new additions to John Ball Zoo are positive but nothing earth-shattering to make the zoo rise in my estimation.
Elsewhere, the Chimpanzee, African Lion and Bongo exhibits are still all very good although a bit smaller than I remembered them to be. The chimp house is very dark and gloomy with loads of climbing opportunities but a cement floor and it appears a bit dull. The zoo's North American loop was built in 1982 and doesn't hold up well, the South American loop has some bizarre mock-rock settings, and the Tropics House (with exactly 32 exhibits) has seen better days. I like the spider monkey outdoor exhibit, seeing a Black-footed Cat was cool, but the Tropics House really should remove all of the small primates and refurbish some of the reptile terrariums and make the building into a proper Reptile House. John Ball Zoo's pathways are very steep in places and there are some neat kid elements (especially on the upper walk near the Amur Tigers and Red Pandas) and it is a commendable zoo that is doing the best that it can with its budget.
