Mary
Well-Known Member
Hi all! I recently took my first trip to Canada and had a lovely time visiting the Montreal Biodome, Zoo de Granby, and Parc Safari. I wanted to share some thoughts on the latter as an American experiencing her first zoos outside of America.
Parc Safari was a great experience, and a majority of the exhibits were really great! And those feline tunnels? So unique and a special way to view lions, especially white lions. What impressed me the most was the drive-thru safari, which had an array of ungulate species I struggle to find in American zoos, particularly gaur, which they had three of that I could see.
The most surprising animal I encountered on the safari was the trio of Persian onagers, which were not listed on their website and did not have any signage. Just a few days ago, I searched far and wide on the web to look for places that house onagers, and could only find Cleveland. You can imagine my delight when the three walked up to my car and curiously stuck their heads in my car windows looking for snacks, to which I obliged with some pieces of lettuce I purchased pre-journey. I can't express how special this experience was, and also how respectful zoo visitors seemed of the requests to not pet the animals and to not feed the camels or zebras [they bite more than the other animals do].
All of these encounters usually are red flags in American zoos, where regulations and AZA have strict limitations on what kinds of safari animals are allowed in drive-throughs. I don't know if it's because Canada has a more polite and respectful culture, but it gave me great peace of mind knowing I was having these amazing encounters as a CAZA accredited organizations and that their standards allow for more contact like this. I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Parc Safari and I highly recommend it to American zoo fans who want to get a bit closer to a zoo collection without fear of feeding into an unregulated and non-conservation based business.
Parc Safari was a great experience, and a majority of the exhibits were really great! And those feline tunnels? So unique and a special way to view lions, especially white lions. What impressed me the most was the drive-thru safari, which had an array of ungulate species I struggle to find in American zoos, particularly gaur, which they had three of that I could see.
The most surprising animal I encountered on the safari was the trio of Persian onagers, which were not listed on their website and did not have any signage. Just a few days ago, I searched far and wide on the web to look for places that house onagers, and could only find Cleveland. You can imagine my delight when the three walked up to my car and curiously stuck their heads in my car windows looking for snacks, to which I obliged with some pieces of lettuce I purchased pre-journey. I can't express how special this experience was, and also how respectful zoo visitors seemed of the requests to not pet the animals and to not feed the camels or zebras [they bite more than the other animals do].
All of these encounters usually are red flags in American zoos, where regulations and AZA have strict limitations on what kinds of safari animals are allowed in drive-throughs. I don't know if it's because Canada has a more polite and respectful culture, but it gave me great peace of mind knowing I was having these amazing encounters as a CAZA accredited organizations and that their standards allow for more contact like this. I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Parc Safari and I highly recommend it to American zoo fans who want to get a bit closer to a zoo collection without fear of feeding into an unregulated and non-conservation based business.
