SusScrofa
Well-Known Member
I stopped at the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve & Zoo (or just Chestatee Zoo) when I was visiting the charming little town of Dahlonega, GA with my wife a few months ago. This is a small facility that bills itself as a rescue of sorts, something I am always skeptical of as usual.
On the positive side, the large mammal enclosures are better than what I’ve seen at most other similar roadsides. The only big cat here is a single Tiger who has a moderately-sized exhibit with trees and bushes that offer shade and privacy. One of the bear exhibits (containing an American Black and Grizzly Bear) has decent space but is too flat and open in my opinion and would benefit from some more vegetation and enrichment structures like rocks.
Unfortunately, the smaller animals have it worse. There are a number of pretty appalling enclosures randomly peppered throughout the grounds. Some of these cages were so messy and ramshackle that I thought they were abandoned until I saw a small mammal curled up among the debris that was laying in the exhibit. Truly abandoned cages are definitely still present around the grounds and it leads to a confusing and messy trek around the zoo, trying to find if there are actually animals in the exhibit being viewed. There was an indoor building that contained terrariums with reptiles and tiny holding cages for various small mammals and birds all of which could be viewed from a glass window, however I could not enter this building and could just barely make out some of the animals inside. The squirrel monkey and prairie dogs that normally have poor exhibits outdoors were kept inside in their little holding cages during my visit. There is a primate area that is home to a Bonnet Macaque, a species that’s very rare in the US. The enclosures aren’t good here, but at a minimum they do have substrate and toys for the monkeys to play with.
Admission was pretty expensive for what was offered (I believe $15 a person) and you can also purchase some feed for the hoofstock for a few more dollars, which I declined. Having now visited, the only conceivable reason I could give for a zoo nerd coming here is if they live close to the area and want to see an old Bonnet Macaque. The price, rundown grounds, ugly presentation and many mediocre to poor enclosures are more than enough reasons to avoid visiting. We killed about an hour here before heading inside the town.
Here is the species list. Signage was poor and I'm sure there were more reptiles in the indoor area that I couldn't make out, but this is all that I could ID. I'll just be listing species by taxonomic grouping instead of exhibit order since this place has a pretty confusing and random layout. I have also uploaded a handful of photos in the "United States - Other" gallery if you want to get an idea of the exhibits.
MAMMALS
BIRDS
HERPS
On the positive side, the large mammal enclosures are better than what I’ve seen at most other similar roadsides. The only big cat here is a single Tiger who has a moderately-sized exhibit with trees and bushes that offer shade and privacy. One of the bear exhibits (containing an American Black and Grizzly Bear) has decent space but is too flat and open in my opinion and would benefit from some more vegetation and enrichment structures like rocks.
Unfortunately, the smaller animals have it worse. There are a number of pretty appalling enclosures randomly peppered throughout the grounds. Some of these cages were so messy and ramshackle that I thought they were abandoned until I saw a small mammal curled up among the debris that was laying in the exhibit. Truly abandoned cages are definitely still present around the grounds and it leads to a confusing and messy trek around the zoo, trying to find if there are actually animals in the exhibit being viewed. There was an indoor building that contained terrariums with reptiles and tiny holding cages for various small mammals and birds all of which could be viewed from a glass window, however I could not enter this building and could just barely make out some of the animals inside. The squirrel monkey and prairie dogs that normally have poor exhibits outdoors were kept inside in their little holding cages during my visit. There is a primate area that is home to a Bonnet Macaque, a species that’s very rare in the US. The enclosures aren’t good here, but at a minimum they do have substrate and toys for the monkeys to play with.
Admission was pretty expensive for what was offered (I believe $15 a person) and you can also purchase some feed for the hoofstock for a few more dollars, which I declined. Having now visited, the only conceivable reason I could give for a zoo nerd coming here is if they live close to the area and want to see an old Bonnet Macaque. The price, rundown grounds, ugly presentation and many mediocre to poor enclosures are more than enough reasons to avoid visiting. We killed about an hour here before heading inside the town.
Here is the species list. Signage was poor and I'm sure there were more reptiles in the indoor area that I couldn't make out, but this is all that I could ID. I'll just be listing species by taxonomic grouping instead of exhibit order since this place has a pretty confusing and random layout. I have also uploaded a handful of photos in the "United States - Other" gallery if you want to get an idea of the exhibits.
MAMMALS
- Rhesus Macaque
- Bonnet Macaque
- Common Squirrel Monkey
- Ringtail Lemur
- Black-tailed Prairie Dog
- Patagonian Mara
- Gray Wolf
- Kinkajou
- American Black Bear
- Grizzly Bear
- Tiger
- Plains Zebra
- Zebra-Donkey hybrid
- Domestic horses
- American Bison
- Domestic goats
- Mouflon
- Dromedary
- Southern Two-toed Sloth
- Red Kangaroo
BIRDS
- Yellow-headed Amazon
- Blue-yellow Macaw
- Red-green Macaw
- Scarlet Macaw
- Gray Parrot
- White Cockatoo
- Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
- Salmon-crested Cockatoo
- Emu
HERPS
- Sulcata Tortoise (Centrochelys sulcata)
- Rhinoceros Iguana (Cyclura cornuta)
- Central Bearded Dragon (Pogona vitticeps)
- Boa Constrictor (Boa constrictor)
