Well, yesterday I found myself at the Elmvale Jungle zoo. I went ahead and tried to take photos of every habitat and animal, as well as create a species list (seeing as their website is very lacking).
For a Wednesday at noon, it was packed. The parking lot was full, and had a local food truck vendor serving patrons in the lot. Admission was in this small white building, which also served as the gift shop. Admission was 24.95 per adult.
The first thing you see is a green reptile house with a Burmese python in an underwhelming enclosure. Beside that is a table selling an animal feed buckets for 10$. We got to keep the bucket, and if we wanted a refill that would of been 7$. In the bucket was a full banana, an empty ice cream cone, some lettuce leaves, chopped carrots, and some sort of biscuit. Also in this area was a Bare Eyed Cockatoo exhibit, and a African Spurred Tortoise exhibit.
Following the path to the right are animals galore. First is the ring tailed lemur cage with several animals including a juvenile romping about. Beside them is a large family of Lar gibbons. Then Caribbean Flamingos, Collared peccaries, a washroom, and a peculiar cockatiel exhibit. I say peculiar as the only listed species is the cockatiel, while also hosting an eclectus parrot and a parrot I can’t identify. Then… white tigers. Two were sharing the exhibit together. I will reserve judgment since I don't know where they came from, but it made me uneasy seeing their enclosure with no top. Just a very tall fence, and seemingly no wire on the top. I could see a very motivated tiger being able to climb. I could also see a very unwise human climb the fence too, as they have had break-ins which made national news. Also note below the signage. This type of signage is consistent through the zoo.
Next is sicilian donkeys. They were housed in a small pasture. Then another large ring tail lemur enclosure. Now you may be thinking, is there any sense to how these animals are placed? Not particularly. After the lemurs and donkeys come the Common Eland. A herd of four or five, with one bull in with the cows. Through their fence you can see the parking lot behind them to one side, and what I assume are the facilities winter barns. Nilgai, Giraffe, macaws, yellow napped amazons, and euarian lynx are on the next section of the path. The nilgai cows were begging at the fence for treats, and many people were vying for the giraffe’s attention to feed them.
There is a path that branches left or right. The right path is a dead end that brings you past the wildebeest, zebra, scimitar oryx, red kangaroos, lions, and tigers. Behind the wildebeest, oryx, and tigers, you can see a paddock with what looked like bison. Not sure if they are on the property but I would have loved to see them closer.
Doubling back to the left path brings you through a short forest path with no animals. You then arrive at an uninteresting enclosure for a grey crowned crane. Across from them is a pair of sarus cranes. Their exhibit was small and had no privacy, and you could see the goats behind them. The goat enclosure had a pellet dispenser machine. For a loonie, you could get a handful of food. Now way back when I first visited this zoo in 2018 or 2019, you were able to go in with the goats. You couldn’t this time, which means you couldn’t really get a good look into the enclosure within the goat enclosure. That enclosure was filled with peacocks and guinea fowl.
Across from the goats was Lion-tailed macaque. At the time, the owner Sam Persi, was using a grabber to pick up food the public missed getting into the enclosure to try and trade for a bucket handle the macaque had acquired. We carried on past the Alpacas, and then on to what I think is one of the worst parts of the zoo.
The Japanese macaques. Two individuals shared a fairly small enclosure with a small climbing structure and no enrichment. Even a child beside me was complaining to his mother they don’t have a “jacuzzi”. There was nothing for them to do outside of eating the snacks the guests managed to get through the fencing.
Next was the Guianan brown capuchins. They had a bigger enclosure than the Japanese Macaques! There was also signage explaining one was older and one was much younger, so they had different energy levels. Thought I took a picture of it, but apparently I did not. Whoops. Continuing on we pass a pair of harris hawks. Next to them is a pair of cape porcupines in an enclosure that seemed small with once again, no enrichment.
This brings us to a little plaza with some picnic tables. The first exhibit here is a small big cat enclosure (fully enclosed) with two cougars. I was disappointed with this enclosure. It was small for one cat, let alone two. Both at the time were pacing and panting, and didn’t have a spot to get away from the crowd. Beside them was their pair of white lions, and then jaguars. They have both a regular jaguar and a black jaguar. I thought the jaguar enclosure was pretty good, with the exception of the common theme of little to no enrichment.
Then my favourite exhibit, the bald eagle. There was lots of space for the one individual to fly and hide, and it just fit in so well with the surrounding brush. I wish they had more Canadian native species. Moving down the path was a serval with an amazing amount of climbing room. After that was… a Mandril and olive baboon shared exhibit. I’m not too knowledgeable about primate cohabitation, but there was a male of each species sharing a space. That seemed odd to me, and I suppose that is better than being isolated.
I’m going to speed through the rest because this is getting long and I still need to give a few thoughts. The last chunk of the zoo in order had pigs, a coatimundi, african spotted eagle owls, ostriches, chinese geese, mute swans, golden pheasants, two black and white ruffed lemurs, ring neck dove, mandarin ducks, and koi.
I don’t think this is a bad zoo, but I don’t think it's a good one either. I think the price is good for the amount of species you see, but there are no food facilities on site and only one bathroom. They have some very cool species, especially if you are a bovid fan as I am.
At a glance, the animals seem to be in good physical condition. I did notice some scarring on the flanks of the eland which I assume is from sparring. Hoofstock seemed to be covered in an excessive amount of flies. Many animals sit at the fence begging for food, and I question how they are able to keep track of diet. I also question cleanliness from the thrown food that missed exhibits. Seagulls sat waiting in several hoof stock exhibits stealing food, and I can imagine rodents love to have a go at the scraps both in and out of cages - we even saw a rat in the capuchin’s exhibit eating some biscuits.
Exhibit wise, a lot of improvements could be made. Some animals had enough space, while others were in exhibits that seemed cramped. Every single exhibit needed enrichment. The primates had one or two children’s toys per exhibit (think the box ones with the beads on wires on the top), and some of the cats had tires hanging from chains, but I saw zero food enrichment. Many exhibits didn’t have much in the way of privacy, from both the public and neighboring exhibits.
There seemed to be many keepers, but most I saw were busy keeping an eye on guests and making sure no one was petting the animals they were being encouraged to feed. I wasn’t able to talk to anyone.
I’m curious about their winter holdings. They had some barns in the back, but I cannot imagine most of these animals being able to stay in these exhibits without seriously winterizing. Going off their website and social media, I also question bio security. There are images of a keeper in enclosures with gibbons with no PPE, and another picture of a keeper holding a lion cub. One last note is the educational aspect. The zoo has signage for pretty much every animal with your basic information, but there is nothing beyond that.
I could see this zoo becoming much better if there was less focus on the amount of animals and species and more focus on individual welfare. I understand there are drawbacks to that, notably disappointed guests and lower numbers.
If anyone has any questions, let me know! This is my first real zoo review so I am sure I missed some stuff. I will be uploading many images in the coming days.
