I had known about this place for several years, but only visited for the first time this past Friday (8/15). The ever-so specifically named Wild Animal Sanctuary is a facility dedicated to caring for animals rescued from abusive circumstances (roadside zoos, bile farms, circuses, owned as exotic pets, etc). While they have a few ungulates and ratites, the majority of their animals are mammals of the order Carnivora, with a particular emphasis on bears and big cats. Although undoubtedly this facility does a lot of noble work, they also have some… interesting stances on animal captivity. A few paragraphs quoted from the "Visit the Sanctuary” page on their website read:
“However, the Sanctuary is not a Zoo and offers a completely different experience than what most people are used to. Our rescued animals live in large acreage open habitats and are never forced to remain front-and-center just so people can see them easier.
Yet, our elevated walkway (which is more than 1.5 miles long) spans across numerous habitats and provides plenty of opportunities for our guests to see many of the rescued animals closer.
It is very important for people to come to the Sanctuary for the right reasons, and not just for entertainment. With more than 170,000 people visiting yearly, it's obvious the Sanctuary is an amazing place to visit and learn - yet, we purposely do not strive to attract the 1.5 million visitors that would normally go to the Denver Zoo.”
Above, they give the implication that all zoos force all their animals to be on public view at all times, which is obviously not accurate when talking about modern, accredited facilities (like Denver Zoo). So clearly, they don’t have the most positive nor charitable opinion when it comes to zoos. They also put a lot of emphasis on their animals finally getting to experience “freedom”, even though obviously even a multi-acre enclosure is still an enclosure. Their positions on animal captivity also lead to some rather unorthodox practices at the sanctuary. For example, they don’t believe in training animals for medical procedures, and as such will resort to such unusual methods as giving a camel a Mountain Dew to get him to stay still for a check-up, as shown in this blog post (which also shows a black bear of theirs being fed an assortment of human food for a meal, among them Twizzlers).
Despite them having some major philosophical disagreements with me (and the types of zoological facilities I usually visit), and a few questionable ethics, I still decided to pay the $50 admission fee and visit the sanctuary during my trip to the Denver area over the weekend. Mainly this was motivated by wanting to see some subspecies and species of animals I had rarely if ever seen in the flesh, such as Syrian brown bear, “generic” tiger (including several white tigers), “generic” leopard, and Eurasian lynx. (Is that a “right” reason for me to visit, according to the sanctuary? Probably not, though they don’t have to know that.) However, the holy grail for me was their Asiatic black bears. The single biggest motivator for my visit was to finally see that eighth bear species in real life.
Only the night before did it occur to me that I didn’t necessarily have a great chance of seeing that species, as it was going to be a very hot day (almost 100 Fahrenheit), which is not exactly weather that prompts bears to make themselves apparent. In addition, a look at their map on their website revealed that the public boardwalk did not get close to the majority of the animal enclosures, potentially further endangering my chances of glimpsing Ursus thibetanus.
Spoiler alert: even after visiting, I still have yet to see an Asiatic black bear in real life. But, even with that disappointment, was it still worth visiting The Wild Animal Sanctuary? Let’s get into my visit.
After me and my friend got through admission, we climbed the stairs out of the entrance building (which also contained a restaurant, an ice cream parlor, and a gift shop) and onto the boardwalk, leaving behind air-conditioned comfort for the baking Colorado plains. We walked a bit before seeing our first animal, a “generic” tiger of likely mixed Bengal and Amur blood. The big cat was lounging by the fence, understandably not feeling very energetic on such a hot day.
A bit further up, we saw a pair of brown bears in another habitat. These two were expressing some stereotypic behavior when we first got there (pacing a lot, bobbing their heads repetitively), likely as a result of the tragic circumstances they were rescued from. Although I was unable to identify specifically what subspecies they belonged to, later, when comparing the photos I got of them to images of other brown bears online, they seemed to most resemble Syrian brown bears, which the sanctuary does own several of. As such, that is what I have identified them as in the media uploaded to this site. As this subspecies is extremely rare if not nonexistent in the AZA, I was very glad to have photographed these rescued bears.
The next animals we saw were the inhabitants of their “Lion House”. This building is home to lions rescued from several circuses in Bolivia, and I also saw what may have been one liger in here (links to images below.) Apparently the big cats here are kept in relatively small spaces because they’re so used to tiny cages that being put in one of their large, open enclosures would be traumatic.
Liger? 1 - ZooChat
Liger? 2 - ZooChat
After the Lion House, the boardwalk took us directly over an enclosure shared by serval and Siberian lynx. I can only assume these cats belonging to two different species were housed together because they were rescued after having bonded wherever they previously lived. Since I don’t have many photos I’ve taken of servals, it was nice to get a chance to add some to my gallery, and even nicer to photograph a Eurasian lynx now that this species has largely disappeared from the AZA. However, since the boardwalk was so high up, it was particularly hard to capture the faces of these smaller carnivorans with my camera. (Per the orientation video the sanctuary encourages you to watch before your visit, the reason they have a boardwalk as opposed to a typical path at ground level is because it’s significantly less stressful for animals which apparently don’t see you as invading their territories when you’re up in the air. I’d take that with a grain of salt, though.)
In a more distant enclosure, I saw a black bear (but I was able to tell, to my disappointment, that it was American, not Asiatic). The next enclosure near the boardwalk we saw animals in housed a pair of tigers, including the first white tiger I had ever seen. While the orange-colored one was active, their leucistic companion was napping in the shade of some small pines.
In the next enclosure, I noticed a largeish canid that I initially thought was a coyote but upon closer inspection, I realized it was a wolf, I believe one that wasn’t fully grown. They were very active, running all around their enclosure and climbing onto an elevated platform. In the enclosure opposite, another wolf – this one snowy white and looking like it might be a hybrid with a domestic dog – slept.
At this point, my friend was getting tired and so sat down for a rest on a bench that was on a shaded part of the boardwalk. But since we didn’t have that much time to continue exploring the sanctuary, I opted to continue down the boardwalk. Not far up ahead, I found a docent, and asked if she could point me towards the Asiatic black bears. She said I would be able to see some in a large enclosure right up ahead, which housed many black bears.
So I came to the enclosure she pointed to. While I indeed saw several black bears, including a particularly hefty one with the "cinnamon" color morph, they all appeared to be American. I continued down the boardwalk and found another docent. After my failure to see any Asian black bears in the enclosure I had just walked over, I decided to ask him for a second opinion on where my best bets on seeing one would be. He shared some disappointing information with me: they were apparently all so far off from the boardwalk, it was unlikely I would be able to see one.
I continued through the last leg of the boardwalk. At the end, near a snack bar, was a series of smaller enclosures for rescued tigers – I believe these are used for cats who have just been rescued and need to gradually get used to a larger enclosure before they are released into the expansive main habitats. Here I saw one orange tiger (sleeping) and two white tigers (awake). Unfortunately, the mesh of their enclosures prevented me from getting any truly great photos of the white ones.
At that point I turned around and walked back the way I had come (which with the one-way boardwalk was, of course, inevitable). Repeatedly I paused to look at the more distant enclosures, using my generous camera lens as binoculars of sorts, and taking shots when I noticed animals. On a few occasions, I saw black bears, and not always able to tell which of the two species they belonged to, I would take many shots, hoping that when I later downloaded them onto my computer, I would discover I had finally photographed an Asiatic black one(s). Unfortunately, all of them later turned out to be American, at least from what I could tell. The highlight of my return journey was being able to get some good photos of another wolf in the same enclosure as the active one I had seen earlier.
As I was nearing the resting area where my friend was, I encountered the first docent from earlier, who naturally asked me if I had any luck with the Asiatic black bears. I told her how I hadn’t, as the other docent had told me they were all out of the public view. However, she said that while that was true for their solo enclosure, there should be some others mixed with the Americans in the large enclosure she had pointed me towards. She added, though, that especially since it was a hot day, I wouldn’t necessarily be able to see any right now. She advised me that if I stayed through the cooler evening hours (the sanctuary doesn’t close until approximately sundown), my chances would improve.
But unfortunately, I didn’t have until the evening hours. So I doubled back for one last examination of the big black bear habitat, and again only saw American ones.
So my friend and I headed towards the entrance/exit. A few times, I would again pause to look at more distant enclosures, and stop to photograph any bears I saw in them. But again, none of them turned out to be the species I had come to see.
Final verdict:
I would’ve definitely liked to spend more time at The Wild Animal Sanctuary – far more, in fact. According to their website, the recommended length of time for a visit is 4-6 hours, yet we were there for less than two. My visit felt way too rushed – I actually have a couple wide-shot photos that I only retroactively realized actually contained animals, because as I was shooting them I had no time to actually take in what I was photographing. Honestly, if it was just me I might well have stayed there until closing, to maximize my chances of seeing the species that had prompted my visit, and also have more time to get good photos of the other animals. But, we had other plans for the day, and so I departed with my friend.
Overall, can I recommend this place for a zoo nerd? I’m not really sure. On one hand, you will have a good chance of seeing several species and subspecies difficult to find in the AZA. The enclosures are also high-quality for their inhabitants, and the setting of the Colorado plains is idyllic. On the other hand, some of the more unusual species you don’t have such a good chance of seeing, as I found out the hard way. In general, many of the species they have aren’t publicly viewable, at least not easily – somewhere on their property, jaguars, leopards, cheetahs, cougars, and spotted hyenas are all apparently kept, yet I saw none of the above on my visit. Many of the enclosures are also lacking in signage, which is why, for example, I was only able to retroactively identify the Syrian brown bears.
I plan on making these reviews of different zoological facilities I visit a series on here. I next plan on detailing my visit to the Denver Zoo, which I also saw for the first time over the weekend.
Oh, and a last note: since my chances of seeing an Asian black bear on US soil seem to be diminishing every day as the last ones in the AZA pass away from old age, I now hope to make it to Pairi Daiza next summer as part of a tentative Europe trip I’ve discussed with my mom. If that comes to fruition, hopefully I can finally check the moon bear off my captive wildlife lifelist.
“However, the Sanctuary is not a Zoo and offers a completely different experience than what most people are used to. Our rescued animals live in large acreage open habitats and are never forced to remain front-and-center just so people can see them easier.
Yet, our elevated walkway (which is more than 1.5 miles long) spans across numerous habitats and provides plenty of opportunities for our guests to see many of the rescued animals closer.
It is very important for people to come to the Sanctuary for the right reasons, and not just for entertainment. With more than 170,000 people visiting yearly, it's obvious the Sanctuary is an amazing place to visit and learn - yet, we purposely do not strive to attract the 1.5 million visitors that would normally go to the Denver Zoo.”
Above, they give the implication that all zoos force all their animals to be on public view at all times, which is obviously not accurate when talking about modern, accredited facilities (like Denver Zoo). So clearly, they don’t have the most positive nor charitable opinion when it comes to zoos. They also put a lot of emphasis on their animals finally getting to experience “freedom”, even though obviously even a multi-acre enclosure is still an enclosure. Their positions on animal captivity also lead to some rather unorthodox practices at the sanctuary. For example, they don’t believe in training animals for medical procedures, and as such will resort to such unusual methods as giving a camel a Mountain Dew to get him to stay still for a check-up, as shown in this blog post (which also shows a black bear of theirs being fed an assortment of human food for a meal, among them Twizzlers).
Despite them having some major philosophical disagreements with me (and the types of zoological facilities I usually visit), and a few questionable ethics, I still decided to pay the $50 admission fee and visit the sanctuary during my trip to the Denver area over the weekend. Mainly this was motivated by wanting to see some subspecies and species of animals I had rarely if ever seen in the flesh, such as Syrian brown bear, “generic” tiger (including several white tigers), “generic” leopard, and Eurasian lynx. (Is that a “right” reason for me to visit, according to the sanctuary? Probably not, though they don’t have to know that.) However, the holy grail for me was their Asiatic black bears. The single biggest motivator for my visit was to finally see that eighth bear species in real life.
Only the night before did it occur to me that I didn’t necessarily have a great chance of seeing that species, as it was going to be a very hot day (almost 100 Fahrenheit), which is not exactly weather that prompts bears to make themselves apparent. In addition, a look at their map on their website revealed that the public boardwalk did not get close to the majority of the animal enclosures, potentially further endangering my chances of glimpsing Ursus thibetanus.
Spoiler alert: even after visiting, I still have yet to see an Asiatic black bear in real life. But, even with that disappointment, was it still worth visiting The Wild Animal Sanctuary? Let’s get into my visit.
After me and my friend got through admission, we climbed the stairs out of the entrance building (which also contained a restaurant, an ice cream parlor, and a gift shop) and onto the boardwalk, leaving behind air-conditioned comfort for the baking Colorado plains. We walked a bit before seeing our first animal, a “generic” tiger of likely mixed Bengal and Amur blood. The big cat was lounging by the fence, understandably not feeling very energetic on such a hot day.
A bit further up, we saw a pair of brown bears in another habitat. These two were expressing some stereotypic behavior when we first got there (pacing a lot, bobbing their heads repetitively), likely as a result of the tragic circumstances they were rescued from. Although I was unable to identify specifically what subspecies they belonged to, later, when comparing the photos I got of them to images of other brown bears online, they seemed to most resemble Syrian brown bears, which the sanctuary does own several of. As such, that is what I have identified them as in the media uploaded to this site. As this subspecies is extremely rare if not nonexistent in the AZA, I was very glad to have photographed these rescued bears.
The next animals we saw were the inhabitants of their “Lion House”. This building is home to lions rescued from several circuses in Bolivia, and I also saw what may have been one liger in here (links to images below.) Apparently the big cats here are kept in relatively small spaces because they’re so used to tiny cages that being put in one of their large, open enclosures would be traumatic.
Liger? 1 - ZooChat
Liger? 2 - ZooChat
After the Lion House, the boardwalk took us directly over an enclosure shared by serval and Siberian lynx. I can only assume these cats belonging to two different species were housed together because they were rescued after having bonded wherever they previously lived. Since I don’t have many photos I’ve taken of servals, it was nice to get a chance to add some to my gallery, and even nicer to photograph a Eurasian lynx now that this species has largely disappeared from the AZA. However, since the boardwalk was so high up, it was particularly hard to capture the faces of these smaller carnivorans with my camera. (Per the orientation video the sanctuary encourages you to watch before your visit, the reason they have a boardwalk as opposed to a typical path at ground level is because it’s significantly less stressful for animals which apparently don’t see you as invading their territories when you’re up in the air. I’d take that with a grain of salt, though.)
In a more distant enclosure, I saw a black bear (but I was able to tell, to my disappointment, that it was American, not Asiatic). The next enclosure near the boardwalk we saw animals in housed a pair of tigers, including the first white tiger I had ever seen. While the orange-colored one was active, their leucistic companion was napping in the shade of some small pines.
In the next enclosure, I noticed a largeish canid that I initially thought was a coyote but upon closer inspection, I realized it was a wolf, I believe one that wasn’t fully grown. They were very active, running all around their enclosure and climbing onto an elevated platform. In the enclosure opposite, another wolf – this one snowy white and looking like it might be a hybrid with a domestic dog – slept.
At this point, my friend was getting tired and so sat down for a rest on a bench that was on a shaded part of the boardwalk. But since we didn’t have that much time to continue exploring the sanctuary, I opted to continue down the boardwalk. Not far up ahead, I found a docent, and asked if she could point me towards the Asiatic black bears. She said I would be able to see some in a large enclosure right up ahead, which housed many black bears.
So I came to the enclosure she pointed to. While I indeed saw several black bears, including a particularly hefty one with the "cinnamon" color morph, they all appeared to be American. I continued down the boardwalk and found another docent. After my failure to see any Asian black bears in the enclosure I had just walked over, I decided to ask him for a second opinion on where my best bets on seeing one would be. He shared some disappointing information with me: they were apparently all so far off from the boardwalk, it was unlikely I would be able to see one.
I continued through the last leg of the boardwalk. At the end, near a snack bar, was a series of smaller enclosures for rescued tigers – I believe these are used for cats who have just been rescued and need to gradually get used to a larger enclosure before they are released into the expansive main habitats. Here I saw one orange tiger (sleeping) and two white tigers (awake). Unfortunately, the mesh of their enclosures prevented me from getting any truly great photos of the white ones.
At that point I turned around and walked back the way I had come (which with the one-way boardwalk was, of course, inevitable). Repeatedly I paused to look at the more distant enclosures, using my generous camera lens as binoculars of sorts, and taking shots when I noticed animals. On a few occasions, I saw black bears, and not always able to tell which of the two species they belonged to, I would take many shots, hoping that when I later downloaded them onto my computer, I would discover I had finally photographed an Asiatic black one(s). Unfortunately, all of them later turned out to be American, at least from what I could tell. The highlight of my return journey was being able to get some good photos of another wolf in the same enclosure as the active one I had seen earlier.
As I was nearing the resting area where my friend was, I encountered the first docent from earlier, who naturally asked me if I had any luck with the Asiatic black bears. I told her how I hadn’t, as the other docent had told me they were all out of the public view. However, she said that while that was true for their solo enclosure, there should be some others mixed with the Americans in the large enclosure she had pointed me towards. She added, though, that especially since it was a hot day, I wouldn’t necessarily be able to see any right now. She advised me that if I stayed through the cooler evening hours (the sanctuary doesn’t close until approximately sundown), my chances would improve.
But unfortunately, I didn’t have until the evening hours. So I doubled back for one last examination of the big black bear habitat, and again only saw American ones.
So my friend and I headed towards the entrance/exit. A few times, I would again pause to look at more distant enclosures, and stop to photograph any bears I saw in them. But again, none of them turned out to be the species I had come to see.
Final verdict:
I would’ve definitely liked to spend more time at The Wild Animal Sanctuary – far more, in fact. According to their website, the recommended length of time for a visit is 4-6 hours, yet we were there for less than two. My visit felt way too rushed – I actually have a couple wide-shot photos that I only retroactively realized actually contained animals, because as I was shooting them I had no time to actually take in what I was photographing. Honestly, if it was just me I might well have stayed there until closing, to maximize my chances of seeing the species that had prompted my visit, and also have more time to get good photos of the other animals. But, we had other plans for the day, and so I departed with my friend.
Overall, can I recommend this place for a zoo nerd? I’m not really sure. On one hand, you will have a good chance of seeing several species and subspecies difficult to find in the AZA. The enclosures are also high-quality for their inhabitants, and the setting of the Colorado plains is idyllic. On the other hand, some of the more unusual species you don’t have such a good chance of seeing, as I found out the hard way. In general, many of the species they have aren’t publicly viewable, at least not easily – somewhere on their property, jaguars, leopards, cheetahs, cougars, and spotted hyenas are all apparently kept, yet I saw none of the above on my visit. Many of the enclosures are also lacking in signage, which is why, for example, I was only able to retroactively identify the Syrian brown bears.
I plan on making these reviews of different zoological facilities I visit a series on here. I next plan on detailing my visit to the Denver Zoo, which I also saw for the first time over the weekend.
Oh, and a last note: since my chances of seeing an Asian black bear on US soil seem to be diminishing every day as the last ones in the AZA pass away from old age, I now hope to make it to Pairi Daiza next summer as part of a tentative Europe trip I’ve discussed with my mom. If that comes to fruition, hopefully I can finally check the moon bear off my captive wildlife lifelist.
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