biggest_dreamer
Well-Known Member
There's little talk on this forum about what I found to be an overall surprisingly solid non-AZA zoo with quite a few rarities, so I figured I'd share a bit from my experience a few weeks ago. Unfortunately this species list is going off of memory, but a. the map the zoo keeps on their website is highly accurate, and b. most of the species are very distinct and the signage was usually also very clear and accurate. I’ll also be doing a review of sorts as I go, so I’ll be sure to note any places where I’m not 100% certain.
I'll admit that the only reason I even seriously considered visiting Brights was because I wanted to see a jackal. I’ve been burned by non-AZA enough in the past to be incredibly skeptical and avoidant of them on the whole, and I went in with very low expectations. With a handful of notable exceptions, though, I found the exhibitry to range from on par with low-end AZA facilities to outright impressive. It’s obvious that the place doesn’t have the same level of funds that municipally-backed zoos might, but that just made everything they’ve accomplished all the more impressive.
Two last things of note before I start: The zoo has little sense of cohesion, so all of these exhibit groups are purely based on my own perception of how to break things down. And lastly, there were a lot of domestic and native waterfowl and chickens wandering around. I’m not going to attempt to document them or (for the waterfowl) guess whether they were wild or maintained species outside of the instances where they were explicitly signed. Italics, of course, means signed but unseen.
Bird Cages
Immediately to the right, you’ll find a selection of birds. Some seem to have passable enclosures, while others are confined to too-small cages as a trio of macaws share a “bird on a stick” setup. To be fair, it’s not the worst bird on a stick I’ve seen. To be more fair, it’s still a bird on a stick.The budgie exhibit, which contained dozens if not hundreds of birds, far too many for its size, was supposed to be a walk-in enclosure but signage indicated that they weren’t doing that right now.
Lots of wood and wire, but this was honestly where I first felt a glimmer of hope for this zoo. I was terrified of the thought of monkeys in corn cribs with concrete flooring as some pictures had suggested, but these little fellas genuinely seem to have a better setup than multiple AZA facilities I’ve seen, or at least a comparable one. Ample climbing and enrichment, natural-ish substrate (as best as I could tell, a mix of garden soil and wood chips, the zoo’s “standard” mix). Whatever it was seemed to work well enough, as I witnessed several species exhibiting foraging behaviors. Also, even though the weather was nice and reasonably warm, none of the tortoises seemed to be outside.
Not terribly much to say here, just a collection of average yards and the start of the crowned crane dominance over the rest of the zoo. The RRHs had two hoglets still exhibiting their watermelon pattern, aww.
This is what I mean by lack of cohesion. This area is mostly a small world tour of birds, but bookended by two African mammals. The bird exhibits here had a surprising degree of verticality for this type of zoo, the porcupine exhibit took advantage of being naturally shaded to encourage activity, and the jackals had full access to a dark indoor area. No complaints here.
More of the same okay wood-and-wire enclosures on the front, smaller unsigned cages on the back. The only notable difference between the first primate row was the sheer number of squirrel monkeys here. There may have been 6 or so in the first enclosure; here there were 20- if not 30-something of them. There were a few instances where I felt the zoo was cramming way more individuals than was reasonable into a space and this was a perfect example.
The large hoofstock yards are where this zoo truly shines. It has ample space to give to many of these species, so it absolutely does. The addax at the end were plainly visible, but unsigned, and there was no obvious viewing location or path leading near them. I know the owner supposedly keeps herds of several species off exhibit, but it was surprising seeing one like this that was so near yet so far.
Long stretches of hoofstock on both sides as you walk down the middle. Each setup had an impressive amount of space. The kangaroos in particular yielded a mixed response: they had a very spacious, shaded area and I witnessed more individuals bouncing than I ever have before. But they also seemed to fall victim to the overcrowding I’d previously noticed with the squirrel monkeys, probably holding twice as many kangaroos as I would be comfortable with, if not more. I’m talking 20, 30 kangaroos. This isn’t a particularly informed take, so I may be completely wrong on how well-adapted kangaroos are to bumping elbows with each other (and again, it was still a spacious enclosure), but if nothing else this setup gave me pause.
As an amusing aside, the zoo on their website proudly states that they house “critically endangered” Bactrian camels. I think they might want to fact check that just a bit and realize that they definitely do not keep the wild species (it later goes on to sneakily imply that they keep “pandas” too).
Aside from the jackal, this was the part I was most excited for. I’m a sucker for small “critter” type animals, and this house, built in 2018, promised more than a few I’d never seen before - and amazingly, I had a 100% sighting rate. The exhibits here were mostly very small, but for better or worse so were the inhabitants. Some got the luxury of the wood chip/soil mix, while others were left to faux rock it out. It’s hard to be too critical, though, given the budget this is all being done off of. I’d place this area roughly on par with Riverbanks’s Conservation Outpost, and that’s one of the most consistently visited zoos in the country. Basically what I’m saying is, they could both stand do be doing better here, but one of these zoos actually has the resources to do so.
The fish tanks were an odd inclusion here. I just glanced over them so I don’t know what was included besides a seahorse that I spotted, and I later heard a child suggest that there was a “Dory” in there, but who knows how reliable of a narrator they were. I assume they were all garden variety pet store saltwater fish, but if anyone actually has any idea please let me know.
The grey-winged trumpeter were actually signed as being off exhibit - no idea if this is permanent or not.
The Bad Part
We’ve already had a bit of a mixed bag but, in my opinion, things have been overall quite positive up until now. Now it’s time for those generally good feelings to nosedive. First up are the giraffes, which you can quickly tell from all of the zoos marketing and all of the “giraffes this way!” signs placed around the facility, are their crown jewel. The lot they’re contained in is small, they didn’t even seem to have access to half of it, there were maybe as many as 10 giraffes crowded in this little area, and the whole thing was covered in gravel with no natural vegetation peeking through. Going from the nice, spacious fields enjoyed by the smaller ungulates and the passable rigs the primates got, seeing this felt like a punch in the gut. I’d seen a picture in this site’s gallery of the gravel lot before going and thought to myself, surely it can’t be that bad. It was. We hurried past the giraffes.
It wasn’t just the giraffes though, because their primate neighbors across the row were all confined to the dreaded concrete-bottomed corn crib cages. It was distressing to see gibbons in particular in such awful enclosures. I know that the zoo is actively growing and working on newer habitats for its less fortunate species, so I hope against all hope that the giraffes and these primates are its next target. As it stands, these enclosures are unacceptable.
Hooftsock Row #2
Smooth sailing from here on out, thankfully! We’re back to spacious ungulate fields, where this zoo truly excels.
We’ve got some repeats coming up, but I think that’s somewhat a testament to the zoo’s willingness to split up a species when they wind up with too many for a single enclosure. Of course, this does nothing to address the clear underlying issue of ending up with too many of a species in the first place. Still, these exhibits were all wood-and-wire and felt fairly comfortable for their inhabitants. I’m not trying to push some AZA vs. non-AZA narrative or anything, but there were quite a few exhibits along this route that you wouldn’t bat an eye at if you saw them in an AZA zoo.
Penguin Cove
This is the zoo’s newest area, and clearly what it considers to be its second biggest draw besides its giraffes. Mercifully, the animals here fare infinitely better than the giraffes do. This is an indoor building which is frankly almost comical in its total lack of any cohesive theming. It adds to the charm, really. The enclosures within are mostly lower budget takes on what you’d find in any decent zoo, and honestly, it works.
Penguin Cove Corollary
These last few outdoor exhibits were I believe even newer than the Penguin Cove building, and I assume intended to go along with it.
Gift shop
We hurried through the gift shop on the way out, but I understand there should be two species within:
If anyone has any questions or feedback, by all means let me have it. I didn’t go in intending to make a species list, but after realizing I still retained the majority of it a week and a half later and reminding myself just how scarce discussion of this facility was here, I figured why not go for it.
I'll admit that the only reason I even seriously considered visiting Brights was because I wanted to see a jackal. I’ve been burned by non-AZA enough in the past to be incredibly skeptical and avoidant of them on the whole, and I went in with very low expectations. With a handful of notable exceptions, though, I found the exhibitry to range from on par with low-end AZA facilities to outright impressive. It’s obvious that the place doesn’t have the same level of funds that municipally-backed zoos might, but that just made everything they’ve accomplished all the more impressive.
Two last things of note before I start: The zoo has little sense of cohesion, so all of these exhibit groups are purely based on my own perception of how to break things down. And lastly, there were a lot of domestic and native waterfowl and chickens wandering around. I’m not going to attempt to document them or (for the waterfowl) guess whether they were wild or maintained species outside of the instances where they were explicitly signed. Italics, of course, means signed but unseen.
Bird Cages
Immediately to the right, you’ll find a selection of birds. Some seem to have passable enclosures, while others are confined to too-small cages as a trio of macaws share a “bird on a stick” setup. To be fair, it’s not the worst bird on a stick I’ve seen. To be more fair, it’s still a bird on a stick.The budgie exhibit, which contained dozens if not hundreds of birds, far too many for its size, was supposed to be a walk-in enclosure but signage indicated that they weren’t doing that right now.
- Scarlet macaw, hyacinth macaw, blue and gold macaw
- Harlequin macaw
- Green-winged macaw
- Budgerigar, cockatoo sp., rainbow lorikeet
- Sacred ibis, yellow-billed stork
- Scarlet ibis, mute swan
Lots of wood and wire, but this was honestly where I first felt a glimmer of hope for this zoo. I was terrified of the thought of monkeys in corn cribs with concrete flooring as some pictures had suggested, but these little fellas genuinely seem to have a better setup than multiple AZA facilities I’ve seen, or at least a comparable one. Ample climbing and enrichment, natural-ish substrate (as best as I could tell, a mix of garden soil and wood chips, the zoo’s “standard” mix). Whatever it was seemed to work well enough, as I witnessed several species exhibiting foraging behaviors. Also, even though the weather was nice and reasonably warm, none of the tortoises seemed to be outside.
- African grey parrot
- Common squirrel monkey
- Ring-tailed lemur
- Red-ruffed lemur
- Mantled guereza
- Aldabra giant tortoise, African spurred tortoise
Not terribly much to say here, just a collection of average yards and the start of the crowned crane dominance over the rest of the zoo. The RRHs had two hoglets still exhibiting their watermelon pattern, aww.
- Red river hog
- Common warthog
- Grey-crowned crane
This is what I mean by lack of cohesion. This area is mostly a small world tour of birds, but bookended by two African mammals. The bird exhibits here had a surprising degree of verticality for this type of zoo, the porcupine exhibit took advantage of being naturally shaded to encourage activity, and the jackals had full access to a dark indoor area. No complaints here.
- Black-backed jackal
- Silvery-cheeked hornbill
- King vulture
- Laughing kookaburra
- Laughing kookaburra
- Cape vulture, vulturine guineafowl
- African crested porcupine
More of the same okay wood-and-wire enclosures on the front, smaller unsigned cages on the back. The only notable difference between the first primate row was the sheer number of squirrel monkeys here. There may have been 6 or so in the first enclosure; here there were 20- if not 30-something of them. There were a few instances where I felt the zoo was cramming way more individuals than was reasonable into a space and this was a perfect example.
- Common squirrel monkey
- Channel-billed toucan
- Black-necked aracari
- Toco toucan
- Tufted capuchin
- White-fronted capuchin
- Black-handed spider monkey
- Prehensile-tailed porcupine
- Crested guineafowl
- Crested guineafowl
The large hoofstock yards are where this zoo truly shines. It has ample space to give to many of these species, so it absolutely does. The addax at the end were plainly visible, but unsigned, and there was no obvious viewing location or path leading near them. I know the owner supposedly keeps herds of several species off exhibit, but it was surprising seeing one like this that was so near yet so far.
- Capybara, sarus crane
- Nubian(?) goat
- Llama, alpaca
- Addax
Long stretches of hoofstock on both sides as you walk down the middle. Each setup had an impressive amount of space. The kangaroos in particular yielded a mixed response: they had a very spacious, shaded area and I witnessed more individuals bouncing than I ever have before. But they also seemed to fall victim to the overcrowding I’d previously noticed with the squirrel monkeys, probably holding twice as many kangaroos as I would be comfortable with, if not more. I’m talking 20, 30 kangaroos. This isn’t a particularly informed take, so I may be completely wrong on how well-adapted kangaroos are to bumping elbows with each other (and again, it was still a spacious enclosure), but if nothing else this setup gave me pause.
As an amusing aside, the zoo on their website proudly states that they house “critically endangered” Bactrian camels. I think they might want to fact check that just a bit and realize that they definitely do not keep the wild species (it later goes on to sneakily imply that they keep “pandas” too).
- Gemsbok, waterbuck, common ostrich
- Eurasian eagle owl
- Red kangaroo
- Dama gazelle, grey-crowned crane
- Bactrian camel
- Bactrian camel, grey-crowned crane
- Grey-crowned crane
Aside from the jackal, this was the part I was most excited for. I’m a sucker for small “critter” type animals, and this house, built in 2018, promised more than a few I’d never seen before - and amazingly, I had a 100% sighting rate. The exhibits here were mostly very small, but for better or worse so were the inhabitants. Some got the luxury of the wood chip/soil mix, while others were left to faux rock it out. It’s hard to be too critical, though, given the budget this is all being done off of. I’d place this area roughly on par with Riverbanks’s Conservation Outpost, and that’s one of the most consistently visited zoos in the country. Basically what I’m saying is, they could both stand do be doing better here, but one of these zoos actually has the resources to do so.
The fish tanks were an odd inclusion here. I just glanced over them so I don’t know what was included besides a seahorse that I spotted, and I later heard a child suggest that there was a “Dory” in there, but who knows how reliable of a narrator they were. I assume they were all garden variety pet store saltwater fish, but if anyone actually has any idea please let me know.
The grey-winged trumpeter were actually signed as being off exhibit - no idea if this is permanent or not.
- Southern tamandua
- Grey-winged trumpeter
- South American coati
- Lowland paca
- Patagonian mara
- Six-banded armadillo
- Kinkajou
- Red-footed tortoise
- Prehensile-tailed porcupine
- Cuvier’s dwarf caiman
- Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth
- Golden-handed tamarin
- Common squirrel monkey
- Owl monkey, golden-headed lion tamarin
- Fish tank
- Cotton-top tamarin
- Fish tank, fish tank
- Tayra
- Binturong
The Bad Part
We’ve already had a bit of a mixed bag but, in my opinion, things have been overall quite positive up until now. Now it’s time for those generally good feelings to nosedive. First up are the giraffes, which you can quickly tell from all of the zoos marketing and all of the “giraffes this way!” signs placed around the facility, are their crown jewel. The lot they’re contained in is small, they didn’t even seem to have access to half of it, there were maybe as many as 10 giraffes crowded in this little area, and the whole thing was covered in gravel with no natural vegetation peeking through. Going from the nice, spacious fields enjoyed by the smaller ungulates and the passable rigs the primates got, seeing this felt like a punch in the gut. I’d seen a picture in this site’s gallery of the gravel lot before going and thought to myself, surely it can’t be that bad. It was. We hurried past the giraffes.
It wasn’t just the giraffes though, because their primate neighbors across the row were all confined to the dreaded concrete-bottomed corn crib cages. It was distressing to see gibbons in particular in such awful enclosures. I know that the zoo is actively growing and working on newer habitats for its less fortunate species, so I hope against all hope that the giraffes and these primates are its next target. As it stands, these enclosures are unacceptable.
- Giraffe
- De Brazza's monkey
- Black-and-white ruffed lemur
- Lar gibbon
- Anatolian shepherd dog
Hooftsock Row #2
Smooth sailing from here on out, thankfully! We’re back to spacious ungulate fields, where this zoo truly excels.
- Scimitar-horned oryx, common ostrich, toulouse goose, fallow deer
- Nigerian dwarf goat
- Sitatunga, capybara, ruddy shelduck, mute swan
- Grant’s zebra, donkey
- Baird’s tapir, capybara
We’ve got some repeats coming up, but I think that’s somewhat a testament to the zoo’s willingness to split up a species when they wind up with too many for a single enclosure. Of course, this does nothing to address the clear underlying issue of ending up with too many of a species in the first place. Still, these exhibits were all wood-and-wire and felt fairly comfortable for their inhabitants. I’m not trying to push some AZA vs. non-AZA narrative or anything, but there were quite a few exhibits along this route that you wouldn’t bat an eye at if you saw them in an AZA zoo.
- Giant anteater
- Serval
- Binturong
- Tayra
- Caracal
- Eurasian lynx
- Southern ground hornbill
- Marabou
- White-faced saki (unsigned)
- Coatimundi
- Red panda
- Southern ground hornbill
- Marabou
- Red-faced spider monkey
- Black-handed spider monkey
Penguin Cove
This is the zoo’s newest area, and clearly what it considers to be its second biggest draw besides its giraffes. Mercifully, the animals here fare infinitely better than the giraffes do. This is an indoor building which is frankly almost comical in its total lack of any cohesive theming. It adds to the charm, really. The enclosures within are mostly lower budget takes on what you’d find in any decent zoo, and honestly, it works.
- Asian small-clawed otter
- snake 1
- snake 2
- Fennec fox
- African penguin
- Rhinoceros iguana
- Common degu
Penguin Cove Corollary
These last few outdoor exhibits were I believe even newer than the Penguin Cove building, and I assume intended to go along with it.
- Chilean flamingo
- Giant anteater
- Aldabra giant tortoise
- Marabou
Gift shop
We hurried through the gift shop on the way out, but I understand there should be two species within:
- Axolotl
- Bearded dragon
If anyone has any questions or feedback, by all means let me have it. I didn’t go in intending to make a species list, but after realizing I still retained the majority of it a week and a half later and reminding myself just how scarce discussion of this facility was here, I figured why not go for it.
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