Not worth seeing except for seeing the giant eland. Last time I was there they did have 3 cape buffalo bulls but they sold them since then.
Thanks for the response!
I decided to visit the park since it was (relatively) close to where I was in Detroit. The park is divided into two parts, the drive-through and a 'village' area.
As you enter the park, you get a little booklet of rules (how to feed, what to do if ...). At the entry to the drive through, there is a booth selling large cups of herbivore pellets (the small variety!), and in the middle of the drive through there is another booth where carrots are available for purchase. Although the drive through is divided into several paddock areas, all of the gates were open during my visit, so that everything was everywhere. The main species held (by number) are fallow deer (1,000+??? Several hundred, at least) and American elk (75ish). Also present in the drive through area are llamas/guanacos and alpacas, sika deer, a highland bull, as well as a herd of bison and a small group of Ankole cattle. None of the animals are especially shy, and the elk are downright bold. I arrived early, so the animals were all hungry, and as soon as I opened the window a female elk had her head INSIDE the car rummaging for the cup of pellets. Not very good manners, if I may say so myself. Although the "welcoming crowd" were very persistent, crowding around the vehicles, those later in the park were much mellower and would approach the cars only if the cups were shaken. (They were all very quick to pick up on a lack of pellets in a car, even with all of the windows open). The bison were a bit pushy at times (not such a good thing), and one Ankole steer kept approaching vehicles (I don't think anyone fed him ... who would want those horns near their car???)
The paddocks were rather plain, and smaller than most of the other drive-throughs I have been to. Each had a pond area for the animals to keep cool in, as well as some shade structures and large shipping containers (like are used for transporting goods by train) were also available for the animals to take shelter in. There was some grass cover, but a lot of bare dirt due to the large number of animals. Minimal topographic interest and watchman's fence barriers made the facility itself rather displeasing to look at, no matter the angle.
A lemur island in a pond in the second large paddock held a group of ring-tailed lemurs with a painted house and rather lacklustre climbing structure.
At the end of the drive through are several enclosures at the side of the road separated by fences; feeding is possible in some (the first two described below) if you drive right up to the fence. The first separate enclosure held a single male giant eland; the paddock was a very nice size for him, although like the rest of the park there was minimal variety in terms of landscape. The second held giraffes and zebras together, including a leucistic (white) zebra that was either cool or freakish, depending on your viewpoint. The giraffes were popular to feed, and at one point there was a line up of cars waiting to get close to them. On the other side of the road were medium sized paddocks with: mouflon and a few markhor; an attractive herd of sable antelope; a mixed group of female common eland and waterbuck. The sable enclosure was the best in the drive through, with solid fencing (thankfully!) and tall grass. The exit is through a set of automatic gates; two yards attached to the barns held a single young giraffe and a zebra. Dromedaries had a paddock on the other side of the road.
In total, if you did not stop to feed the animals, you could drive at a slow pace through the entire drive through in 5-10 minutes. It was a bit of a disappointment, especially since there were few standout animals.
The village area was typical of a small zoo ... horrid primate cages and decent hoofstock areas. The layout was very poorly done - entering from the parking lot, the village is set up as a "T" with an arm going either direction; you have to go to the end and backtrack in both cases, entering and exiting through the gift shop (of course). The village was more typical of a roadside zoo; I was surprised, since the facility is AZA accredited.
The primate cages were of the round corn crib variety; a circle of mesh on a concrete pad, with a steel roof and a small holding cage ("hut?") at the back. Primates included colobus monkeys, white-handed gibbons, and spider monkeys. Other species in identical enclosures included two-toed sloths, ocelots, North American river otters, and Military macaws. A pair of gibbons was exhibited on a pathetic island next to the restaurant ... on it was a small house and a climbing structure which offered minimal opportunities for brachiation. Poor guys, although at least they had natural substrate.
Warthogs and a yellow-backed duiker were held in a pair of rectangular mesh exhibits which were small and boring (especially for the pigs, as they had nothing but limestone screening substrate and a large tube). Alpacas were held in a bare yard nearby. The best exhibits, in my opinion, were a reasonably sized, partly treed, grassy exhibit housing a greater kudu, nyala, and bongo (all young males), and a (dorcas?) gazelle, and two decent sized, very grassy enclosures for dik-dik (Kirk's and Guenther's).
I was surprised to see that pony and camel rides were free with admission, and there was a small stage area with picnic table seating for the four-times daily show (the show was nothing special - handlers holding animals ... chinchilla, pig, python, hedgehog ... while someone talked about them). There are also pig races four times daily.
There were no graphics or information for the drive through section, although most exhibits in the village area had small educational plaques with a brief description. (Unfortunately, several of these were incorrect in the species exhibited).
If you are driving through Port Clinton, OH, stop in for an hour or two. If not, don't go out of your way to see this park.
