Shamba Safari Birdsandbats' Shamba Safari Review + A Concerning Discovery

I have also heard burrows from animals like meerkats could seriously injure a Rhino badly. Anyways while looking for more photos from this place I stumbled across this https://www.roadsidezoonews.org/post/animals-injured-some-killed-by-cars-at-shamba-safari
I don't know if the injuries are normal but the dead animals in the road 100% have to be a health code violation. At the bottom, there is also a USDA animal welfare complaint form if you saw any major problems USDA would need to know about animal care wise.
 
I have also heard burrows from animals like meerkats could seriously injure a Rhino badly. Anyways while looking for more photos from this place I stumbled across this https://www.roadsidezoonews.org/post/animals-injured-some-killed-by-cars-at-shamba-safari
I don't know if the injuries are normal but the dead animals in the road 100% have to be a health code violation. At the bottom, there is also a USDA animal welfare complaint form if you saw any major problems USDA would need to know about animal care wise.
Yes, I saw that. Honestly I think it looks a bit ridiculous. Yes, the prairie dogs are a huge problem in multiple ways, but a lot of the other complaints seem kind of silly in my eyes. The dead bird and ground squirrel seem inevitable at this type of facility, as are large numbers of flies. Without any known cause of the rhino and giraffe injuries, I think it's hard to make a legitimate complaint. If they think the lion and tiger exhibits here are bad they should take a visit to any other zoo in Wisconsin.

The prairie dog thing isn't covered under the animal welfare act and I didn't observe anything else bad, so I have no right to complain on that form. None of the "problems" listed on that page seem to be huge problems, at least without a bit more context that we don't have.
 
There's prairie dogs everywhere. Throughout the safari I saw hundreds of burrow entrances and perhaps two dozen Black-tailed Prairie Dogs. I first saw them in exhibit 6 and assumed they had a way of keeping them in, but then I started to notice them in the other paddocks and even adjacent farm fields. Uh oh. Prairie dogs are not native to Wisconsin, and they are banned from being imported into the state on the grounds of being a potential invasive species. I asked a keeper about it, he told be that several years ago a few prairie dogs escaped, and they had been unable to capture then despite their best efforts, and now they live wild here. It appears I am the first to document to this introduced population, which is strange because the nearby farmers are clearly having trouble with them.

So, overall, the facility minus the whole prairie dog thing Shamba Safari is fine. For introducing a possible invasive species, not a fan. But I did get so see a wild prairie dog for the first time, so that's cool I guess.

Well, this answered my question from when I visited. I too was concerned about the apparently free-ranging prairie dogs. The fact that the park essentially doesn't care is very worrisome. Hopefully someone does something about it.

I can confirm that the camels definitely spit in the cars. My car ended up with some crusted on the inside of the doors. Could've been worse. In terms of biting, the animal we ran into an issue with was one of the juvenile zebras. One bit my gfs arm multiple times when she was feeding the other zebra. I'm guessing that is why the adults were fenced off from the cars.

The flies were horrendous, but very confused why someone would file a complaint over that. Not much the park can do about them.
 
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