I unexpectedly had to take a business trip to Gulf Shores this week, it gave me an opportunity to stop at this zoo that I did not think I would ever get to. Unfortunately I was facing an 8 hour drive afterwards, so I only had about 40 minutes to devote. This was enough time to breeze through the zoo, but more time to linger would be nice, a normal visitor would devote probably between 1-2 hours here. They had two nice playgrounds, so if you have a younger kid then you could easily spend another hour. The only rides were a carousel and a "safari" car ride that rode on a track around the camels.
This is a small zoo, but rather famous due to the TV show "The Little Zoo that Could", which I have not seen.
Broadly the exhibits and buildings are all really quite nice - a big step up from normal non-AZA zoos, I could see them moving up at some point if they want to.
Adult tickets are $22.95, kids are $14.95 and Seniors/Military are $19.95. No AZA or ZAA Discounts.
Entrance:
You first enter through a fairly impressive entry gate area into a free parking lot that fronts the main building which consists of the ticket windows, gift shop, admin offices, and a restaurant. I arrived about 9:45, so I did not eat there. The ticket windows were not open, but had a sign saying to come inside to pay for entry, which I did.
After entry you face the lemur island and have a choice of starting your circle to the left or right, I chose the right side which takes you towards the African animals first.
Following the boardwalk from the lemur island is a nice size yard for "Reticulated" giraffe and ostrich, there is also a feeding deck, but it was not open when I was there. I counted two giraffe and three ostrich.
Right after that one happens upon a plaza with a nice building, which was not open when I was there, but it looks nice and faces the lemur island and a side exhibit used for lemur encounters...but I did not see any lemurs in there.
Leaving this plaza you are hit with a number of enclosures right after one another, all fairly decent aside from a strangely low African grey parrot cage. Other animals here are lions, serval, Eurasian lynx, red river hogs, New Guinea singing dogs, hamadryas baboons, and African pied crows. Most of these exhibits are decent, typical wood and wire but landscaped rather well with plenty of shade and plants.
African Grey parrot:
Red River hogs:
New Guinea Singing Dogs:
Rounding the corner from the dogs takes you to a Safari Ride, which is are small cars on a track for kids to drive around the camel yard. Across from the camel yard is another view of the lions and the cheetah. I gather that the cheetah exhibit was previously tigers. It was about 1/2 the size of the lion enclosure, which had fences enabling it to be divided into three sections (it was split between two when I was there).
Cheetah:
Backtracking from the Cheetah takes you by a side yard for Reeve's muntjac and towards the Reptile House. Honestly, this was a pretty impressive building for a small zoo. Not so much the species list, but the design. The house was fronted by a pond for American Alligator, a small enclosure for a tortoise or turtle that was un-signed and I did not see (but there was a food tray), and then the rest of the outside was surrounded by habitats for titi monkeys and other small primates. Inside the house is roughly divided between arid enclosures and more tropical ones with an assortment of snakes and lizards.
American alligator:
Across from the main Reptile House was a very large yard for Sulcata tortoises:
Beside the tortoises was another pond for American alligators that had a small stage and seating area for a show of some sort:
Now on the back side of the loop I came upon wood and wire enclosures for white faced capuchin (at least three enclosures), squirrel monkey, mountain coati, and brown lemurs:
Brown lemur
Mountain Coati:
Following the boardwalk past the lemur takes one to the Timber wolf and American Black bear, both in decent sized yards with lots of plants:
The last area I saw was the walk-through aviary, which honestly was really well done. It is built out of fencing and poles rather than wire netting which gave it a robust look. One side is lined with smaller cages for macaw (red, green winged, blue and gold, and maybe military). These side cages were not great, they would do better without them. The design is a simple straight walk through with double doors on either end and a small loop in the middle. Whoever designed this aviary did a really good job, both from a construction standpoint as well as from landscaping.
The aviary species list was alright, although I did not see any of them other than the kookaburra. But I did not have time to stay and look around, rather sadly.
That was it for me, there was also a decent size petting zoo and sloths, but I was out of time and had to get on the road to drive back to Tampa.
Overall this zoo is really nice for the size and shows that a small private zoo can be done really well. I am not sure that it is worth going out of your way to get to, but if you find yourself in Gulf Shores or the Pensacola area it is worth checking out.
This is a small zoo, but rather famous due to the TV show "The Little Zoo that Could", which I have not seen.
Broadly the exhibits and buildings are all really quite nice - a big step up from normal non-AZA zoos, I could see them moving up at some point if they want to.
Adult tickets are $22.95, kids are $14.95 and Seniors/Military are $19.95. No AZA or ZAA Discounts.
Entrance:
You first enter through a fairly impressive entry gate area into a free parking lot that fronts the main building which consists of the ticket windows, gift shop, admin offices, and a restaurant. I arrived about 9:45, so I did not eat there. The ticket windows were not open, but had a sign saying to come inside to pay for entry, which I did.
After entry you face the lemur island and have a choice of starting your circle to the left or right, I chose the right side which takes you towards the African animals first.
Following the boardwalk from the lemur island is a nice size yard for "Reticulated" giraffe and ostrich, there is also a feeding deck, but it was not open when I was there. I counted two giraffe and three ostrich.
Right after that one happens upon a plaza with a nice building, which was not open when I was there, but it looks nice and faces the lemur island and a side exhibit used for lemur encounters...but I did not see any lemurs in there.
Leaving this plaza you are hit with a number of enclosures right after one another, all fairly decent aside from a strangely low African grey parrot cage. Other animals here are lions, serval, Eurasian lynx, red river hogs, New Guinea singing dogs, hamadryas baboons, and African pied crows. Most of these exhibits are decent, typical wood and wire but landscaped rather well with plenty of shade and plants.
African Grey parrot:
Red River hogs:
New Guinea Singing Dogs:
Rounding the corner from the dogs takes you to a Safari Ride, which is are small cars on a track for kids to drive around the camel yard. Across from the camel yard is another view of the lions and the cheetah. I gather that the cheetah exhibit was previously tigers. It was about 1/2 the size of the lion enclosure, which had fences enabling it to be divided into three sections (it was split between two when I was there).
Cheetah:
Backtracking from the Cheetah takes you by a side yard for Reeve's muntjac and towards the Reptile House. Honestly, this was a pretty impressive building for a small zoo. Not so much the species list, but the design. The house was fronted by a pond for American Alligator, a small enclosure for a tortoise or turtle that was un-signed and I did not see (but there was a food tray), and then the rest of the outside was surrounded by habitats for titi monkeys and other small primates. Inside the house is roughly divided between arid enclosures and more tropical ones with an assortment of snakes and lizards.
American alligator:
Across from the main Reptile House was a very large yard for Sulcata tortoises:
Beside the tortoises was another pond for American alligators that had a small stage and seating area for a show of some sort:
Now on the back side of the loop I came upon wood and wire enclosures for white faced capuchin (at least three enclosures), squirrel monkey, mountain coati, and brown lemurs:
Brown lemur
Mountain Coati:
Following the boardwalk past the lemur takes one to the Timber wolf and American Black bear, both in decent sized yards with lots of plants:
The last area I saw was the walk-through aviary, which honestly was really well done. It is built out of fencing and poles rather than wire netting which gave it a robust look. One side is lined with smaller cages for macaw (red, green winged, blue and gold, and maybe military). These side cages were not great, they would do better without them. The design is a simple straight walk through with double doors on either end and a small loop in the middle. Whoever designed this aviary did a really good job, both from a construction standpoint as well as from landscaping.
The aviary species list was alright, although I did not see any of them other than the kookaburra. But I did not have time to stay and look around, rather sadly.
That was it for me, there was also a decent size petting zoo and sloths, but I was out of time and had to get on the road to drive back to Tampa.
Overall this zoo is really nice for the size and shows that a small private zoo can be done really well. I am not sure that it is worth going out of your way to get to, but if you find yourself in Gulf Shores or the Pensacola area it is worth checking out.
