Black gnu, Connochaetes gnou. Blackbuck in background. Combined exhibit contains Black Gnu, Emu, Greater Rhea, and Blackbuck, not to mention hundreds of Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs.
Black gnu, Connochaetes gnou. Blackbuck in background. Combined exhibit contains Black Gnu, Emu, Greater Rhea, and Blackbuck, not to mention hundreds of Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs.
Well... the drive through part was nice, very scenic. If you can overlook animals from various continents being housed together, it's enjoyable. Very diverse hoofstock collection with many rarities, got to see Black Gnu and Himalayan Tahr for the first time. Several other rare (in captivity anyways) species. One of the drive-through paddocks was shut down with a sign explaining it was closed due to a conflict with the local utility company, but the signs indicating species in this paddock showed it contained Onager, which I would have liked to have seen and would have been another first. Several chainlink cages are along the route that contain lions, tigers, American black bears, wolves, Bearded pigs, unidentified baboons, cougars, etc. Those are pretty bad. Larger yards contain White Rhinos and Hippopotamus. Small, fenced yards near the front contain muntjac, wallabies, warthogs, capybaras, and various birds. There is a small barn on premises that is pretty horrible, has several pet store reptiles: boa constrictors, slider turtles, etc., displayed in standard aquariums, a few parrot cages, and a couple of monkey and lemur species and one Lar Gibbon in large, relatively bare, concrete floor cages. Another barn with plywood walls has wooden doors with screen windows where you can look in and see lemurs and newborn hoofstock in almost empty rooms.
Overall, very decent collection for a backwoods, drive-through zoo. The drive through part is ok, but the front barn areas are the epitome of the kind of thing that make people want to shut zoos down: nothing but small and empty metal and concrete cages.
