A brief review of 6 facilities across Alabama and western Georgia

biggest_dreamer

biggest_dreamer

Well-Known Member
I don't have a catchy title for this thread - this was hardly a full-on road trip, but regardless this past weekend allowed me to visit 6 facilities for the (for all intents and purposes) first time.

The main impetus for this trip was finding out a while back (thanks to @SusScrofa) that African civets were kept by a less-than-stellar place in Alabama called Tigers for Tomorrow. African civets are an absolute favorite species of mine, one that I assumed I'd never have a good opportunity to see, so I worked out a full itinerary of places to bundle with it to make the 5.5 hour drive a bit more worthwhile. Ultimately I would wind up visiting Tigers for Tomorrow and Birmingham Zoo on May 2nd, Alabama Safari Park and Montgomery Zoo on the 3rd, and finally Wild Animal Safari and Georgia Untamed Zoo on the 4th. None of these (with the relative exception of Birmingham) are very well-discussed on this site, so I figured I'd go through them and offer up a bit of commentary.

I took partial species lists at each facility for my own purposes - only tetrapods (excluding snakes), going in with the intention of only recording what I saw as opposed to signed/unseen. Once I was at some of these facilities, however, I did start recording signed/unseen species specifically because I thought the site might benefit from those more complete lists. I'll try and be explicit in terms of what each list actually covers as I post them.

Tigers for Tomorrow (Attalla, Alabama - 5/2/25)

Part of what took me so long to schedule this trip was the constant promise of bad weather just about every time I thought I'd get a free weekend. I finally committed to this past weekend after lucking into getting Friday off and the weather looked to be nice and clear... only for a massive storm to start showing up on the radar after I'd already booked some non-refundable hotel rooms. For this reason, I doubled down on Tigers for Tomorrow and their civets being my top priority, and made an effort to get here as soon as the gates opened. If the whole rest of the trip got rained out, I at least wanted to see some civets (or civet, as it turned out - their other one was permanently off display).

This facility is rough, there's no mincing words. Muddy, small kennels everywhere, some concrete-floored (my heart breaks again every time I recall the grizzly). Many felt overcrowded - why did one pair of servals get a relatively large and open enclosure, but just around the corner at least four were crammed into one less than half the size? Some of the lion and tiger enclosures, and I believe the black bear enclosure, seemed relatively okay for species of their sizes, but any potential goodwill that could have been derived from those enclosures was just immediately canceled out by the undersized leopard, jaguar, cougar, and cheetah enclosures right next door.

Honestly, there's not much I could say about this place that wasn't already covered by SusScrofa in his own thread following a recent visit. I already commented in there with my own observations matched against his species list. I will note that I chatted to varying lengths with two keepers (or perhaps one keeper and an owner/manager?), and they seemed like genuinely nice, passionate people... which in a way makes it more difficult to reconcile the horrid conditions I witnessed these large carnivores in.

Really, there is absolutely 0 reason for anyone who cares enough to be reading this to visit such a place... aside from the civet. And clearly I'm in no real position to judge here, because the civet was enough to draw me in, even knowing how shoddy the place is! And I do relish the entire 30 minutes or so I stood, marveling at the creature. It's sort of funny that SusScrofa commented on it being larger than expected, because for me it was the opposite - despite knowing that binturongs are the largest viverrid species, I still went in expecting the civet to be a bit larger than it was. It's a truly beautiful animal, combining so many traits that generally draw me to a species. I'm thankful I got to see it, regardless of the circumstances.

Aside from the civet, I also greatly appreciated getting to briefly see one of their common genets. Not a new species for me, but still an incredibly exciting one to unexpectedly come across. Aside from those two, however, everything was more or less standard fare from a species standpoint.

Birmingham Zoo (Birmingham, Alabama - 5/2/25)

I knew that I was going to want a palate cleanser, and thankfully Alabama's only AZA zoo was just about an hour up the road, leaving me plenty of time to work my way through.

By and large, the zoo was fairly nice, more or less what you'd expect from a standard AZA facility. All of the exhibits seemed suitably sized and furnished for their inhabitants while also being attractive from a guest perspective... with the notable exception of the zebra and ostrich enclosures, and a solid chunk of the giraffe enclosure, being paved over with asphalt. What? This felt so out of place in a mostly otherwise solid facility. A bit of post-visit research suggests that this whole Africa complex only opened in 2012 or so, and was designed with the intention of rotating various species in and out of the massive elephant exhibit throughout the day. That makes sense, but I wound up walking past the elephant exhibit at least half a dozen times over the course of the day and never saw anything in it beyond the elephants themselves. And even if it's rotational, why are these species stuck in asphalt yards for the rest of the day? Would love if anyone could provide some insight here, because again: this was a rare head-scratcher in an otherwise mostly strong zoo.

I want to say that it's hard to hone in on a favorite part of this zoo, because every area really did have something going for it, but that would be a lie: the Predator House was far and away my favorite area. Tough perhaps not the most modern in design or presentation, I'm an absolute sucker for small carnivorans above all else, and this house seemed designed to let them thrive. Between the exceptionally active Pallas's cats and red pandas, the adorably snoozing fennec fox, sand cat, and black-footed cats, and the coyotes ducking into their shaded rocky area between bouts out in the sun, this house stole my heart enough to walk through it three times over. It's a shame that the somewhat out of place Prevost's squirrel was off exhibit on that day, because that's another species I could watch for hours.

Another particular highlight was the bird section. I was expecting a small handful of aviaries, but what I walked into felt like dozens of them, showcasing both smaller birds as well as several larger open enclosures for cranes and ground hornbills. My only complaint here was that the signage seemed less up-to-date than anywhere else in the zoo - I had to ID several species myself, which I'm not always the most confident with when it comes to birds, but I think I managed well enough.

The Alabama Wilds was a very nice, aesthetically pleasing, much newer-feeling complex showing more or less what you'd expect from that sort of thing (golden eagle, sandhill crane, wild turkey, river otter, gopher tortoise). A pair of nice-looking enclosures for bobcat and cougar were disappointingly empty, but I was fortunate enough to witness a black bear climb down from a tree, then later climb back up it. Oklahoma City Zoo still easily takes the cake for best native exhibit complex that I've seen, but Birmingham sure gives it a fair shake.

Oh, I guess since I did hone in on the asphalt in the Africa exhibits, I should also mention that the orangutans in the somewhat confusingly themed South America/primates house also seemed to have a very poor exhibit. As far as I could tell, they were housed entirely indoors on a dirty mock-rock slope. The rest of the house encompassed much nicer exhibits for species such as giant anteater, jaguar, giant otter, black howler, Geoffroy's spider monkey, lar gibbon, cotton top tamarin, squirrel monkey, ring-tailed and crowned lemurs, Taveta golden weaver, and a De Brazza's monkey/cape porcupine mix, so I'm really hoping something good can come these apes' way much sooner than later. Seems like a new exhibit has been in the planning phase for a while, at least - let's see if it actually comes to fruition. And also, for better or worse, this does seem to be an older enclosure than the African exhibits, which makes its condition a bit more understandable (if not excusable).

This wasn't exactly a zoo for rarities, but it is notable for being a rare southern zoo that houses Pallas's cats. Most notable personal life list addition was Ross's turaco.

Anyway, all that to say, I really enjoyed Birmingham Zoo. It's not going to be topping any overall personal lists, but the vast majority of it was very well put together and I think it's probably the best one I visited overall this weekend. ...Maybe.

More to come tomorrow, probably.
 
biggest_dreamer said:
That makes sense, but I wound up walking past the elephant exhibit at least half a dozen times over the course of the day and never saw anything in it beyond the elephants themselves. And even if it's rotational, why are these species stuck in asphalt yards for the rest of the day? Would love if anyone could provide some insight here, because again: this was a rare head-scratcher in an otherwise mostly strong zoo.
Click to expand...
The rotational element of the exhibit never did include giraffes or other hoofstock. Instead, the zoo aimed for a way more extreme concept by mixing elephants with rhinos and hippos, at least this was the goal anyway. They were able to pull it off a few times after the exhibit opened, but the idea was never sustainable long term and hasn't been attempted again in well over a decade.
 
pachyderm pro said:
The rotational element of the exhibit never did include giraffes or other hoofstock. Instead, the zoo aimed for a way more extreme concept by mixing elephants with rhinos and hippos, at least this was the goal anyway. They were able to pull it off a few times after the exhibit opened, but the idea was never sustainable long term and hasn't been attempted again in well over a decade.
Click to expand...

Rhinos and hippos? Heck of a lofty plan, but I'd have sure loved to see it in practice. Makes sense that it wasn't sustainable. This just makes the asphalt enclosures all the more puzzling, however. Like, when I first noticed the ostrich I thought it had stumbled onto a service road.
 
Moving along. I mentioned early on that the impending weather looked like it was going to be a major factor in this trip, but didn't bring it up after that - I suffered nary a stray raindrop on day 1. But as I sat in my hotel that night, it looked like the bottom was due to fall out and never let up during day 2, so I halfway resigned to that being the end of my trip as initially planned. Fortunately, by some stroke of luck, despite the constant severe weather thunderstorm warnings, this still never manifested as anything more than some light sprinkles in the early morning. If anything, this was actually a blessing, because it ensured that my next destination would be both low-traffic and containing a nice, cool atmosphere.

Alabama Safari Park (Hope Hull, Alabama - 5/3/25)

Historically, I didn't really visit too many safari parks. Around a year ago, though, I started making more of an effort to check out various ones across South Carolina and the nearby parts of Georgia. Most of them aren't bad, but at least with the nearby ones, even the okay ones are mostly very "seen one, seen 'em all", a sentiment that certainly wouldn't extend to similar traditional zoos, for example.

Thankfully, this one made a very strong case for itself. What initially set my sights upon it was the presence of black wildebeest - a species very rare in the US, and one that very often shows up as a false positive in USDA reports. I wouldn't blame someone for not knowing that this species exists, and thinking that the sort-of-black and much more common blue wildebeest must be what that name refers to. It's just always necessitated a bit of double checking to see which species they really mean, and shockingly, there really is a herd of genuine black wildebeest here. They're so much more impressive in real life than I ever would've expected. I was able to effortlessly see at least a dozen individuals grazing and even running in the mist. It was a really peaceful experience.

Wildebeest aside, this was still an impressive facility. They had various other relative rarities that I certainly wouldn't find in many similar places closer to home - both Nile and red lechwe, Grevy's zebras in addition to plains, and banteng all stand out. Additionally, a small herd of Arabian oryx is signed and visible in an enclosure you pass before even driving through the ticket gate. I suppose if one were in the area and really wanted to see those oryx and nothing else, you could probably sneak that one as a freebie.

I've mostly spoken about the animals so far, but as for the park itself? Immaculate. Wide, well-maintained, mostly flat roads allowed myself and the two other vehicles in my proximity to effortlessly leapfrog past each other a couple times as they stopped to feed animals or I stopped to whip out my binoculars. The animals were well behaved, and there was an appreciable number of them who just wanted to do their own natural thing in the (vast) distance as opposed to swarm your vehicle for snacks. There was an appreciable lack of domestic/filler species. No goats or donkeys, minimal fallow deer, no domestic bovids aside from a small handful of Ankole and water buffalo who preferred to keep their distance. The one exception here was a notable amount of llamas, but even then I think the average visitor wouldn't even think of them as being a domestic species in the same way they would a goat or cattle. The roster was rounded out by bison, blackbuck, nilgai, waterbuck, blue wildebeest, greater kudu and common eland, as well as the three usual suspect ratites.

I want there to be no uncertainty: this would be the best safari park I've visited, with a huge gulf between it and every single other one, if not for having been to Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch outside of San Antonio last year. As it stands, this is a very close second followed by some very distant third. This felt more like a relaxing, immersive safari experience than just about anything else I've been to, and I can't recommend it enough.

I very nearly skipped the obligate walkthrough area, hoping to reach my next destination before the weather finally decided to actually do anything, but I figured why not, I'm here and surely it'll take no more than 15 minutes. The walkthrough was pretty standard affair, if I gave you ten guesses as to what I encountered here you'd probably get the majority of them right. Various domestics, free-roaming peafowl, a two-toed sloth, budgie walkthrough, one of the larger macaw-on-a-stick setups I've seen (the macaws themselves were off exhibit), a giraffe feeding deck, kangaroo walkabout, a handful of cages for ring-tailed lemur and tufted capuchin, a surprisingly large and well-furnished island for black-and-white ruffed lemurs. None of the exhibits felt remotely inadequate, nothing about this section felt like an afterthought as safari park walkthroughs often seem to. Aside from the more standard inclusions, this area also housed Aldabra tortoises, sitatunga, and a no-show giant anteater. A nice little area for what it was, and I'm glad I stopped by.

Overall, I wasn't expecting much going in here, and had my expectations blown out of the water. I've actually started flip-flopping between whether I preferred it or Birmingham Zoo. Bottom line, though, is that I can easily recommend this place with no caveats... aside, perhaps, from the $26 adult admission that could easily compound if you aren't flying solo, but tbh that isn't outside of the ordinary for safari parks or anything. I'd say you can visit this place with confidence, and can expect to leave satisfied.

Next up I'll be visiting Montgomery Zoo just up the road. I had initially planned on doubling all of these up, but I'm going to go ahead and throw this one out there so I'm not sitting on an unfinished post all day until I can write up the rest.
 
Thanks for typing up these reviews and I'm enjoying reading your thoughts on a series of zoos that don't get mentioned much on this site.
 
Montgomery Zoo (Montgomery, Alabama - 5/3/25)

So back in my first post I indicated that these were "for all intents and purposes" first time visits. The reason for this caveat is that I had visited this zoo before, give or take right under thirty years ago... I estimate that I must have been 5 or 6 years old. Naturally I retain no specific memories beyond the fact that I definitely did visit this zoo. I was hoping to unlock some latent memories as I had a few years prior when visiting Jacksonville Zoo for the first time in decades. Alas, no such memories surfaced, and this may as well have been a first time visit. Oh well, that's fine too.

Montgomery Zoo was a formerly AZA accredited facility that lost their accreditation about a decade ago. It seems like they've been working towards re-accreditation to various (thus far unsuccessful) degrees. I know that I had previously seen them listed on the AZA's "Pathway Toward Membership Program" list, but it seems they're no longer a part of that program, perhaps after a failed accreditation attempt in 2021.

Upon entering, I headed right towards the truly scattershot assortment of animals located in the lower right quadrant of the zoo. This initial part of the zoo doesn't leave a strong impression - I could immediately tell that a lot of the exhibitry had surely once been attractive, but a lot of it was showing its age. This section felt like it was supposed to be broadly South American themed (evidenced by capybaras/southern screamers, two-toed sloth, common marmoset, rhinoceros iguana, great curassow, jaguar, maned wolf and a no-show giant anteater roommate), but it was balanced by just as many decidedly non-South American species (ring-tailed lemur, pygmy hippo, no-show clouded leopard, kori bustard, Komodo dragon, and most inexplicably snow leopard). I think if given the choice, I probably have an arguably outdated preference in wanting to see species grouped taxonomically over biogeographically, but I think anyone would gladly take either of those over this hodgepodge. The exhibits here were generally fine, but not memorable in any way, aside from the obviously newer snow leopard enclosure. Alabama Safari Park easily boasted the better lemur island, at least.

The maned wolves were my target species for this visit. They aren't terribly uncommon in captivity, but they're just one of those species who had specifically eluded me until now. They were easy enough to see passed out in a shelter, but that would've been a pretty underwhelming way to leave my first time seeing them, so I wound up circling back past their exhibit five times over the course of the day until I finally saw one out taking a stroll. I was able to enjoy it for a few minutes before it settled back down to lay in the sun. So far, I've had unexpectedly fantastic luck in spotting my priority species.

The nearby reptile house was easily the most run-down part of the zoo. They seem to be actively working towards constructing a new one, which is great! But until that's done, yikes, this one's kind of rancid. It's a smallish circular building, thankfully signed well enough for me to view most of the species while avoiding the snakes, but it's very dimly lit, and the carpet was foul. Imagine cheap movie theater carpet that hasn't been changed since the 90s, with just as many stains and just as much trash stuck to it. That new building cannot possibly come soon enough.

I quickly made my way through the fine but overall non-notable North American section (particular shoutout to mixing the bison with trumpeter geese, however - I really liked that one). A small aviary is awkwardly situated in a larger plaza containing a handful of neat old world birds and notably a blue duiker! It passed through here twice since it was sleeping the first time, and the second time I was treated to the most active duiker I've ever seen. Only active duiker I've ever seen, now that I think about it. Adorable creature.

On my way back after doubling back to the maned wolves for my (still unsuccessful) fourth time, I noticed some keeper walking what appeared to be a dog out of a building. It took me just a second to realize it was actually a dingo, something I wasn't aware that the zoo had. The keepers must have noticed me stopped and smiling, so they let the dingo ("Anala") walk up to me, and told me to hold out my hand to see if she'd sniff it. She cut straight past the sniffing and immediately went in for some pets, which I happily indulged. She also really enjoyed just standing up against me, putting her entire weight against my leg as I continued to scratch her head. The keepers called her their "unofficial therapy dingo", and offered to take a picture of me petting her so that I could send my wife. Behaviorally, you never would've thought she wasn't just a garden variety dog. This encounter left me on cloud nine, something I never could've predicted that added an unforgettable touch to the whole trip.

From there, I did the African half of the zoo (featuring tigers and siamangs, but still more focused than the first bit), and it was honestly pretty solid. There's a very strong savannah exhibit consisting of three large enclosures: elephants and giraffes on either side, then in the middle a sprawling exhibit containing plains zebra, greater kudu, marabou, ostrich, and allegedly a no-show pygmy hippo. These are all separated by minimal barriers, effectively selling the illusion of this being one continuous savannah. Nearby, you can also enjoy the more uncommon mixture of bongo and Nile lechwe as well as grey-crowned cranes.

The part of the zoo that surprised me the most, however, even more so than my chance dingo encounter, was the Mann Wildlife and Learning Museum, an American species taxidermy-heavy museum included with your admission to the zoo. I had considered skipping it, assuming it would be nothing more than your typical low-quality small town taxidermy showcase, but these were immaculately presented. The collection just kept going, and at times offered comprehensive collections of all of North America's wildlife - all the deer, all the bears, most of the canids (excepting a few foxes I believe), most of the other small mammals, an assortment of fish, birds, and snakes. I'll upload a handful of pics from here to the gallery in a bit, because they really would not have felt out of place in the Field Museum or Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

So that pretty much wraps up Montgomery Zoo. It was a mixed bag for sure, but I think it hit higher highs (African savannah, the museum) than it did lows (if we ignore the horrendous reptile house). Between it and Birmingham, Birmingham is the clear overall winner, but I'm glad I was able to revisit Montgomery after so many years. I definitely won't be forgetting it this time.
 
Thanks for the reviews @biggest_dreamer!

Glad you got to see the civets at TfT. The addition of genets must be very recent, an interesting species for sure though its too bad it winds up at a place like this.

I'm probably in the minority but I preferred Montgomery over Birmingham. This was due mainly to a combination of the great savanna area at Montgomery combined with all the lowlights at Birmingham (Orangutan, Lion, Giraffe and rhino yards, small predator house etc). The Mann Museum was also a really impressive addition as well.

When I saw Georgia Untamed I thought it was a new zoo but it seems its just the new name of Iron P Homestead Zoo. I visited that facility a bit over a year ago and it was certainly an... interesting.. experience.
 
Interesting. Despite living next door in Georgia, I've basically never been to Alabama, only briefly passing through twice. I didn't realize they even had any major zoos, to be honest with you. Montgomery and Birmingham are both officially on my radar now, and I'll have to try and give both a visit sometime. I haven't seen several of the species you mentioned, and anyway, y'know, it's not like I need an excuse to visit a new zoo.

Glad you enjoyed your visits and had good luck with the priority species!
 
Sunday takes me into Georgia for my final two stops. My initial plan had been to visit Chehaw Park Zoo for my second stop, but after a bit of consideration I decided that going 3 hours out of the way just wasn't going to be worth it for what they seem to offer. Instead, I tacked on Georgia Untamed Zoo, previously known as Iron P Homestead Zoo as mentioned, because it was right in my path.

Wild Animal Safari (Pine Mountain, GA - 5/4/25)
I was very apprehensive about this place going in - between a scathing review by @SusScrofa and @AndyJ08 referring to it as the worst zoo they'd ever visited by far, I was ready to steel my nerves and wade through some real filth in the hopes of seeing another rarity: the greater grison.

The facility is split into a drive-through safari area, and a confusingly located walkthrough. As with SusScrofa's visit, neither of the attendants bothered to check for a receipt as I entered either portion. As I began looking around the walkthrough area, though, I was a bit confused. I didn't see the "rusted and grimy" cages SusScrofa had described seeing merely two years prior, at least not at first. A few smaller species were still relegated to corn crib cages (the grison, coati, spider monkeys, and the macaque duo shared a larger one), but beyond that? These were some of the nicest looking exhibits I've seen at a non-AZA facility. Everything looked very new, more or less adequately spacious, and very aesthetically pleasing. I had to do a double take to make sure I was even looking at reviews of the right place.

The New Guinea singing dogs who very deservedly earned a callout for this absolute dump they were stuck in two years ago now had a grassy yard several times larger than that picture, which was also connected to a shaded indoor area. The only two enclosures that felt like they still had older barriers were the goat and miniature zebu yard, and the American alligator yard. Everything else (again, holding an exception for the corn cribs) felt like it was pretty much as good as you could possibly hope for from this sort of place. It seems that a major storm rolled through at some point in 2023 which caused a lot of damage, and my assumption is that they used this a genuine wake up call when the owners could have so easily doubled down on prior practices or thrown in the towel outright.

I was fortunate enough to get to see the grison for perhaps two minutes total before it retired inside a log. Much like the African civet (in fact, even more so), this thing was so much smaller than I expected. I imagine it was a combination of its name including "greater" and the fact that it has the coloration of a honey badger, but I was expecting a creature more or less the same size as a honey badger. No, this thing has the shape and size of a domestic ferret! Adorable. I'm obsessed now. I'm super thankful I got this brief encounter with such a great little species.

The walkthrough also boasted a pair of striped hyenas, which really took me by surprise. I hadn't noticed them mentioned on any USDA reports, so perhaps they're especially new? The other most notable species were the cohabitating crab-eating and pig-tailed macaques. Even though they share an elongated corn crib, it at least offered them the bare minimum of natural substrate, ample climbing and enrichment options, and a connected building to duck into. Could very easily be better, but I imagine we've all seen or at least heard of a lot worse. Aside from all of these, it was more or less standard non-AZA fare here. Capybaras, ring-tailed lemurs, lions, tigers, an "arctic" wolf, a two-toed sloth, budgies.

I left the walkthrough in a genuinely good mood, such a stark contrast to the heartache I was expecting to have to tiptoe around. I'd go back here in a heartbeat if I were in the area, if not for the $30 price tag. Then again, $30 for two minutes of grison in front of my eyes is far from the worst thing I've spent $30 on.

And then I went to the drive-through and realized, oh, this place actually really sucks after all! (or at least half-sucks)

The drive-through was bad. I hated the drive-through. I think I literally had a nightmare about this drive-through the other night. It's the worst safari drive-through I've ever been through. The roads were miserable, they were poorly paved and at times too steep and missing chunks, the animals were as aggressive as the species roster was boring, and you could tell that about a third of the park was still covered by trees felled during that big storm. Whereas Alabama offered countless opportunities to watch less common ungulates engaging in natural behaviors from afar, Wild Animal Safari routinely forced me to try and thread through mobs of deer and elands that refused to believe I didn't have food for them. The fact that so much of the land was covered with dead trees probably forced all of the animals towards the roads even more so than they might have been just a few years ago. It was also exceptionally easy to get stuck behind one of their safari buses - no room on the road for the respectful leapfrogging I engaged in at Alabama.

The absolute worst part was this particular emu who decided it had a bone to pick with me. I was stopped behind a bus, and it came up and began pecking at my tire. I revved my engine a bit to try and ward it off, and then it began kicking at my tire. I found an opportunity between kicks to drive slightly forward, which prompted the emu to full on football tackle my car. It didn't accomplish anything, but I was starting to actually get a bit worried and was thankfully able to drive off while it was recoiling.

I wanted this experience to be over almost immediately after it began. The only things of note were the beautiful axis deer, a regional rarity, and the maybe-gaur that I only saw one of. And honestly those weren't worth everything else about this drive-through.

So in short, if I had left after the walkthrough, I would've had no real complaints aside from the price. After doing the whole experience, there are absolutely no circumstances under which I can recommend the drive-through. It was that bad. Want a nice safari drive with more attractive species? Make the journey to Hope Hull instead, it's not even two hours away and a whole world of difference.

I considered doing another quick loop of the walkthrough afterwards but I figured I'd already gotten everything I could out of it and kind of just wanted to put this place behind me. One more stop to go.
 
And finally,

Georgia Untamed Zoo (Hogansville, GA - 5/4/25)

So this was just a straight up back yard zoo. The enclosures are probably slightly (slightly) nicer and certainly newer than you imagine upon reading that, but there's just no way around that description. The zoo was, until very recently, known as Iron P Homestead Zoo. No idea what prompted the name change, especially since as far as I can tell the entire place is a post-COVID thing. Somehow I had it in my head that this place was a bit more of a known quantity - was it because I knew they have a sloth bear? Was it because "Iron P Homestead Zoo" is a strong-sounding name that sticks with you? I have no idea, but regardless, I was expecting something besides this.

As for what this was, well, it wasn't much of anything, honestly. I'll give you a few freebie species: sloth bear, jaguar, arctic fox, southern cassowary, black-throated magpie-jay, red-legged sereima, cape barren goose. Now go ahead and guess at the two dozen or so other species they have. Yeah, you probably more or less got them all. It's that sort of place. They even have those mass-produced signs that we're probably all too familiar with. Where there are signs, at least. You know the ones, there was a thread about them on here a while back.

A few of the animals had adequate space - dromedaries, warthogs, red river hogs, rheas, cassowaries, and wallabies/cape barren geese certainly had it the best off. Everything else was in a too-small wood-and-wire setup. Elands and at least one aoudad, as well as potentially some signed/unseen blue wildebeest shared a very, very narrow pasture right beside the dromedary's actually sizeable one. I don't really blame the sloth bear for not wanting to show its face, considering how sterile its pen was. I don't even necessarily think it was the worst in terms of undersizing, but would it kill them to give the bear some vegetation? By far the worst, though, were the small-clawed otters. I didn't see them, but they were in a particularly cramped enclosure without natural substrate (a recurring thing here, unfortunately), where their only swimmable water was in the form of a large plastic storage bin sitting on the ground. Oh no.

Not much else to say about this one, unfortunately. It wasn't great, and I'd be a lot more upset if I had gone any amount of time out of my way to visit. Oh, I should also mention that there was a bunch of "live, laugh, love" type quotes and Bible verses painted here and there around the property. Eugh.

I mean, good for the owners for presumably achieving their dream of opening a zoo. At least that's what I assume the story is here. I just don't understand how you can clearly be passionate about animals to some degree and then want them to live like this. The dissonance never stops being disappointing to see. How does a sloth bear even end up in a place like this? The bottom line, though, is that there was really nothing gained from this stop. No rarities, no appreciable exhibitry, nothing. Just a very hollow opportunity to put a few more animals in front of my eyeballs before the trip ended. Whatever, I guess. Don't go here.

Conclusion

All in all, I'm very glad I was able to do this trip. Three and a half of the facilities were very enjoyable by just about every metric, and one of the ones that fell (very) short at least let me see African civets, so that's something, at least. I don't expect to be back in Alabama anytime for the foreseeable future, so I'm happy I was able to knock all of these out in one fell swoop.

It's sort of hard to try and rank the six facilities I visited for various reasons, but honestly I'm thinking Alabama Safari Park just might come out on top. Birmingham and Montgomery were both very solid facilities overall too, and I think I could recommend any of the three to anyone passing through without caveat.

I guess I still have these species lists I can post whenever I get around to it, if anyone would like to see them.
 
Interesting that sloth bears are popping up in the private sector. A colleague told me they were imports from S.O.S but I don't have a solid answer on that.

P.S. love Montgomery Zoo, has seen better times but still one of my favorites. The pygmy in the savannah is tough to see sometimes but he's in there.
 
Do you have any photos from your visits you would be able to post? Particularly for Pine Mountain and Iron P Homestead/Georgia Untamed. I'm curious to see how those places looked during your visit compared to mine, especially since you mentioned Pine Mountain being improved.

Pine Mountain like you said did get hit by a major tornado a few months after my visit, so if there is any positive out of the devastation its hopefully newer and improved enclosures for some of their animals and a more updated look to the park in general. It honestly didn't seem like the place renovated anything between the time they opened in the 90s until the time of my visit in 2023. And the shameful safari drive-thru kind of supports that theory. Funny you mention the dead trees, since that was exactly all I saw my visit but since I went in the winter I assumed it was just from the season and not a full-time issue. I'm also jealous you saw the grison, you've had good luck with small carnivores :).

I'm in agreement with the name change from Iron P Homestead to Georgia Untamed was a pretty lame one. The former at least sounded unique, the latter is such a generic name. "Backyard Zoo" is exactly what this place is, it feels like the pet project of a wealthy owner. When I visited I was the only one there and it felt like I was invited to a friends house to see his private collection. Owner and staff were really nice and all and there were definitely some interesting species like the Sloth Bear and cassowary you mentioned, plus Tayra (or 'Tyra' as they called them lol), seriema etc. Jaguar is a new species, the only big cat they had when I was there was a Cougar. The zoo was not good but I've seen worse and honestly since it was so new I was hopeful they could work out some of the rough spots with time but from your review it looks like its not the case. Were there other visitors when you went? I can't imagine the zoo getting much traffic with where its located and I have a hard time seeing it sustainable if they actually need to rely on admission sales.
 
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