jbnbsn99's Oklahoma Zoos

jbnbsn99

jbnbsn99

Well-Known Member
I'm doing to the Okies what I've done to Texas! Be warned it might not be pretty. Then again, I already have a mini review of OKC Zoo. This won't be the epic thread that the Texan one was, maybe 4 or 5 facilities. When I get back to it, I will do a full on review of OKC too as I didn't do it justice in the Texas thread.
 
Arbuckle Wilderness Review

Less than 1 hour outside of the town I grew up in is Oklahoma's most famous Safari Park. This is Arbuckle Wilderness. It is located in the amazingly cool Arbuckle “Mountains.” If your are a geology fan I definitely recommend a trip to the area. I remember Arbuckle Wilderness from years ago. The last time I visited was in 1987 I think. I was 6 at the time so I don't remember much of it back then. Yesterday was my dad's birthday, so a trip up that way was in order. I decided to make a little extra jaunt up to Oklahoma to visit yet another zoo. The best laid plans often suck in execution. While backing out of the ATM line at my bank I popped a tire on my car just before I was planning to leave. Over two hours later, with one new tire, and a few bucks less in my wallet I was on my way north to Arbuckle Wilderness.

I get there at around 2:00 which is way later than I like to get to any zoo, so I was hoping to get through it, and see everything in a short amount of time. I head on into the gift shop where you buy the tickets. I happen to ask the clerk if they had a species list. They don't, but she kindly lists the animals that they have. She mentions in the list the Przewalski's Horse. Of course she has no clue on how to pronounce the name. I happen to mention the correct pronunciation which elated her to no end. I end up having to spell it out phonetically for her. Anyway, on to the actual safari.

1st Paddock. The Wonders of Nothing
I enter the first paddock and to my surprise all I see are two Canada Geese. These are wild. Other than that nothing in the first area.

2nd Paddock. Emus and Alpacas Galore
After winding through the 1st area I get to the 2nd paddock where the beady eyes of an Emu are staring me down. Lots and lots of Emu here. I'm not a huge fan of Emus, so I tend to keep my windows rolled up when passing them by. Also in the paddock are Alpacas, Dwarf Zebu, and my very first Yak. Horray Yak! Well I would have said that until the Yak put its head in my lap. What a freakin' huge head. So far in the 1st paddock we have Australia (Emu), South America (Alpaca), Asia (Dwarf Zebu and Yak). What else do we need here. Well of course Africa. Within the main paddock are two smaller enclosures for both Spotted and Striped Hyenas. I wish I had gotten to see the Striped Hyena, but it was hiding in a hole. This may be one of the only places to see two species of Hyena side by side.

3rd Paddock. The Glory of Camels
I pass over another cattle guard and encounter several large and nosy dromedaries. Not only camels, but a lot more Yak. And Nilgai. I mainly wanted to see the Nilgai here. As an antelope buff, it's been years since I've seen one. The camels took all of the Nilgai's glory away. At one point I had 4 camel heads in my car. Much better species mixing here. All Asia, though not at all from the same region. I turn the corner and see a small herd of deer. There is no mistaking the Pere David's Deer with their distinctive head shape. No sign to tell me that they were here though, I just happened to realize what they were from years of studying hoofstock. These were quite standoffish compared to the other animals and none approached the car. I was appreciative of this as it meant I could get a decent photo of them. If I remember correctly there were a bunch of Llamas here too. As I round a corner in this paddock there is another small enclosure for Bornean Bearded Pig. I didn't see and pigs, but I did see a lot of spelling mistakes on the sign for the enclosure like “Bornea” and “alaysia.” F-in' classy. In the center of the paddock is a large lake. Near the lake was the lone male Pere David's Deer. Great photo op. Before I left this paddock there was a small enclosure for Timber Wolves.

4th Paddock. The Deluge of Domestics
This was the smallest drive-through paddock. Sicilian Donkeys inundate you here. Yaks were copulating in the distance. And more Llamas. So far with Arbuckle Wilderness I'm not impressed.

5th Paddock. “African” Savanna
This is the largest paddock. I am surrounded by Grant's Zebra as soon as I enter. Standing just a few yards away is a small group of Grevy's Zebra. So this paddock has two species of zebra. Good for comparisons I guess. Lots of Common Eland here. Got my first look at a bull Eland, big sucker. I've seen plenty of cow Elands and a bull Giant Eland, but never a Common Eland male. Off in the distance are a lot of Addax and Onager. Onager? Really?!? (I might need to be corrected here as it might be a Kiang.) 3 horse species in one paddock, why? Speaking of horses, the lady at the front told me that they had 3 species of zebra, Gravy's, Grant's, and Gray's. What the hell is a Gray's Zebra or a Gray Zebra? Also in the paddock were some Blackbuck. And later were Scimitar-Horned Oryx and Wildebeest. Going around a loop in the Savanna was a smaller enclosure for White Tigers. Didn't see them. Not disappointed. Hate White Tigers. Kept driving. Going around the big loop I got back to the Grevy's Zebra and this time they were intermingled with the Grant's. Got a few decent photos comparing the two species. Probably not many places where you can do this. Grevy's is really a lot larger than Grant's. Next up I go to pass by those Onager and Scimitar Horned Oryx. In separate enclosures were small herds of Sable Antelope and Giraffes. Why they didn't mix the Giraffes with the other animals like so many other parks, I don't know. One last enclosure here was quite sizable and for two White Rhinos. You could get pretty close to these Rhinos which was nice.

6th Paddock. Bison and P. Horse
Finally an area I actually think was OK. American Bison and Przewalski's Horse together. Never heard of P. Horse in a mixed species exhibit, but the idea of them with Bison I like. Well, I would like it better if it were Wisent instead of Bison, but this is North America and there are no Wisent here. Just the two species here. Lots of varied terrain. The lady up front said they have 20 P. Horses, but I only saw 4. You don't actually drive through this paddock, but next to it. Probably for the best.

2nd Paddock. Skirting away from Camels.
I'm back to the 2nd paddock again. This time I see something that I hadn't seen before, a separate enclosure for a few Bongo. Honestly, one of the better Bongo exhibits I have seen as it is a simple forested enclosure.

Back to the front again. I went inside the gift shop as this was the entrance to some of the smaller “walk about” exhibits for Lemurs, Monkeys, reptiles, and birds; but I was told it was closed for the Winter due to the weather. I doubt that I'm missing anything spectacular.

All in all Arbuckle Wilderness was pretty much a waste of an afternoon. Apart from seeing some new species (Yak, Onager/Kiang, Water Buffalo, and finally a good look at a P. Horse), the rest of the experience was well below par. Haphazard species mixing really gets my goat so to speak, and this was one of the worst cases of that.
 
Here is a tentative list of places to visit in OK.

Arbuckle Wilderness
GW Wildlife Park
Oklahoma City Zoo
Tulsa Zoo
Oklahoma Aquarium

Anyone know of any others?

Can't wait for GW to get my picture taken with a Liger...
 
Thank you for the wonderful review. Now I have to visit the place just to be sure if they have the kiang or the onager.
 
They are mostly kulans, i heard they had a few onager crosses though. Canyon Colorado Equid ranch crossed a few of them. Arbuckle was the largest reciever of equids from the closing of the ranch. They got somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 Hartmann's, 100 Kulan, 35 Grevy's, and 50 P-horses. Sold most of them to lesser known dealers.
 
Safari Park said:
They are mostly kulans, i heard they had a few onager crosses though. Canyon Colorado Equid ranch crossed a few of them. Arbuckle was the largest reciever of equids from the closing of the ranch. They got somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 Hartmann's, 100 Kulan, 35 Grevy's, and 50 P-horses. Sold most of them to lesser known dealers.
Click to expand...

This has really bugged me all along. The selling off of endangered species, some of them even critically (kulan - 1,500, onager - 500-600, Grevy 2,500 (loads having died since in this years' drought).

We have CITES internationally, but nationally there is no such legislation to prevent selling for profit. I do not mind when populations are well managed privately and within the framework of a private captive-breeding association (to which Arbuckle Ranch may be assigned).

But I really mean those other lesser known dealers. No legal obligation for good ownership or curating a collection and no legal requirements even to keep individual animals alive and well cared for. If these were just pet animals you would have a revolution in the US on your hands (with the Humane Society and WSPA et al out to call it ...).

Now with those instances of kulan and onager stallions being shot cause they could not house them or did not know how to manage them ... That is what I call a travesty and a criminal felony. The USFWS and the Ministry of Interior should have long ago taken action on such matters.

It is also a full discredit to the erstwhile curatorship by legal authorities attached to the former CCES that when disbanding the CCES collection (and surely not in the spirit that the erstwhile owner would have wanted to) no buyers where even investigated beforehand or been asked to provide for testimonies they would manage the bought up stock with excellent animal care and management of a live collection of endangered equids fully in mind. That is the second felony to my mind.

The third felony being that the curatorship has not informed the studbook keepers where all the stock was sold off to. These animals were more or less part of the AZA SSP stock ..., and they did not even bother to make contact or keep in touch when disbanding the collection.

I do view this whole episode as an international travesty of justice in animal care and welfare (and this coming from a man who does applaud the private EWA association for what it stands for and does ...). This CCES affair really has nothing whatsoever to do with good private management of wild exotic - and endangered at that - stock at all.
 
Well I've let this thread linger long enough. 4 zoos in 2 days. Expect antics to ensue...
 
Arbuckle Wilderness Review number two

It has been some months since I last visited. My a lot has changed. How many people out there can say they've touch all 3 species of zebra in one day!

The walk through area was open this time. Nothing at all spectacular. You walk around a small lake and there are some cages with some animals in them. There is a small yard with a single Bactrian Camel in it. It is to be fed evidently. Same story goes for a pair of small female ostriches. Why you would want an up close encounter with an ostrich is beyond me. Other species are Black/Gray Crowned Crane Hybrids, Macaws and a Capybara, a wallaroo (may have been a small rad kangaroo), and a completely new species for me cusimanse). Funny thing on the cusimanse, there was no label for the cage so I asked a nearby keeper. She had no clue either, she called them a kookaburra, but she did ask another keeper who had the correct identification. There is also a small reptile house, nothing spectacular inside that you can't find in an exotic pet store. All in all this part looks like most British Zoos, so I can leave it.

An update on the drive through. A lot of species have been moved around from the last time I visited. P. horse and Bison are no longer together. Hartmann's Zebra are in with the Asian deer, nilgai, and camels. Yak have been moved as well. Actually two things on the Yaks. Only some of what I saw were really Yaks, the rest were Scottish Highland Cattle. Easy to make the error, especially without a species guide to know what you are looking for. The other thing about the Yaks was that they were now in a wholly new area (or at least new to me since the last time I visited). This was by far the best area of the park. The geologic formations of the Arbuckles are present here, and there are even real live high waterfalls, not the fake ones seen in sculpted in mock rock. It was really one of those awe inspiring sceneries. Maybe the Kulan will be moving here too.

Animals I saw this time, but didn't see the last:
Striped Hyena
White Tiger
Hartmann's Mountain Zebra

This time I enjoyed the drive through much more I think. The added area is by far the most scenic part of the park. Put more species in it.

There was a souvenir book that I didn't buy listing several species that I did not see like Mouflon and Markhor, maybe these were hiding here.

So this was "zoo" number 1 in my two day trip. Next up will be the G.W. Exotic Animal Memorial Park. Expect gnashing of teeth and naughty language.
 
As usual, JBN's reviews are loads of fun to read.

Regarding seeing different hyena species, at the Berlin Tierpark you can see 3 species (striped, spotted, and brown) in side-by-side exhibits. I thought that was pretty special.
 
GW Exotic Animal Memorial Park

Let the vehemence flow forth like oil from an exploded platform.

This review should be as brief as it is brutal. Here goes.

I half knew what I was expecting when I decided to go to the place, so I was prepared to be disappointed. Just how disappointed will become apparent shortly. Unlike some other reviewers I know, I am not afraid to call a wombat a wombat. (And this is meant in absolutely no offense to anyone else who reviews zoos.)

I am preparing to write this review with the aid of nature's perfect muscle relaxant. Tonight, mine is a German style Bock.

Ok, so what is the GW Exotic Animal Memorial Park? Well it seems to have started as a rescue center for big cats. I applaud rescue centers, they have a needed place right now. GW seems to have veered slightly from this path. Now they want to make money. What better way to make money than to let anyone with $25 play with a baby tiger. Yup, you heard me right play with a baby tiger. When I first arrived I was given the option of a $10 self guided tour of the park or a $25 guided tour with the baby tiger at the end. I chose not to indulge in tiger antics.

Something stuck me about the baby tiger situation. Tigers grow up quickly, and are very soon too big for human interaction, yet this place seems to always have the baby tiger as an option. Analysis - this place is a tiger mill, akin to the dreaded puppy mills. My worst fears were brought to fruition when I finally entered the place.

GW Exotic Animal Memorial Park is just one step above a Chinese Bear Bile Farm.

Let me repeat that. GW Exotic Animal Memorial Park is just one step above a Chinese Bear Bile Farm.

Rows and rows of tiny cages for all sorts of big cats, some of which don't exist naturally. This place makes Noah's Ark Zoo Farm look like an animal paradise. Lions and Tigers are crammed in with each other in cages roughly 20'x20'. This mean one thing of course - Ligers. No Ligers are not renowned for their use in Magik. Most Ligers I would have though were accidents (although this has some hints of stupidity to it). This place actually seems to breed them. In two adjacent cages were 5 Ligers and a White Tiger. Well what happens when you put together a Liger and a Tiger, well evidently a Taliger (take that biologic species concept!). Where do you keep a Taliger? Well obviously with a "Barbary" Lion right next door! By the way all of these cages are perfectly within my arms reach, and nothing was preventing me from reaching into the mouth of a Siberian Tiger, well except common sense, and the release form I signed when I entered the place.

Is is just big cats? No of course not. GW wants to bring in as many visitors as possible, so the more the merrier. How about 2 Spotted Hyenas? Or Mexican Gray Wolves? Or New Guinea Singing Dogs? Siberian Brown Bears, Black Bears what looked like an Asian Black Bear. Then there were the primates. Ring Tailed Lemurs I almost expected. Then came 3 species I've never seen even in a proper zoo - Hymandras Baboon, Japanese Macaque, and Pig-Tailed Macaque. Worst of all were two chimpanzees said to have been rescued from nearby Arbuckle Wilderness. Having been there not less then an hour before, from what I can gather, "rescue" is a word with a very broad meaning. These poor chimps were in a cage approximately 10'x15'x10'.

I spent less than an hour at this place. I kind of wanted to vomit when I left. The real reason for my wanting to visit I must make clear by the way. Their website listed that they had Black Caimans, one of the rarest crocodilians in captivity. I'd like to check another one off the list on my way to seeing all of the crocodilians. Sadly it was just another American Alligator, albeit one formerly owned by Michael Jackson who had his own dedicated shrine set up around the Alligator pool. Hell, I can see an Alligator at work. I've even eaten a few, tasty critters I must add.

I will leave it at that. I may ask Sim to put up a gallery for the place, I may not even bother. Evidently GW stands for "Great Waste" and the Memorial will only be held when this place closes down or by someone celebrating the loss of a recently departed limb. This place had signs up on every exhibit begging for money. I was sitting there begging for a tornado. They also claim to be doing their part to promote conservation. Yeah I just threw-up a little too.
 
Thanks for the brutally realistic review.;) While some of us often laud the great American zoos, we cannot forget the absolutely disgraceful sideshow menageries that are sadly still in business. "Great Waste" sounds truly horrible, and it is a miracle that no one has forced that hellhole to permanently close.
 
So Jbnbsn99, could you please tell us what you REALLY think of GW Exotic Animal Memorial Park?
 
I never heard of any place in Oklahoma except OKC Zoo & Tulsa Zoo. Didn't even know they have an aquarium. They used to have an apparently good cat breeding center, Oakhill Center, which is now closed. Of course it was always closed to the public (something I do not particularly support), which is probably why they could not get enough money to keep it going.

As for Kifaru Bwana's complaint about the equids from CCES, I think the main fault lies with the founder and his staff for not making adequate plans for what would happen to the ranch after his death. I wonder how many other private facilities are like this?
 
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