Strangest Zoo You've Been To

MonkeyBat

MonkeyBat

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
I'm curious to hear about the strangest zoos that people here have been to. Whether it had weird theming, weird decorations, or just was a strange place in general.

For me, it has to be the Cape Fear Serpentaruim. I remember in the main lobby there were all these posters about government conspiracies that I'm assuming the owner believed in and wanted to display in the building. A lot of stuff about chemtrails and government controlled diseases.
 
About a decade ago or maybe it was 10 years ago I went to a place called Bug World in Liverpool. 40 mins later I was leaving as it was all seen. This includes me dawdling to watch a very active giant millipede for about 10 mins. Quite a nice place but I think it was about £10 to enter and for less than an hours stay it was expensive. It closed a few months later.
 
Pairi Daiza is a strange place but strangest of all is (was?) the aquarium which featured a weird curiosity shop with a taxidermy two headed calf and a mannequin playing demonic music on an organ.

Shepreth Wildlife park used to have a tropical house dedicated to the memory of Princess Diana, I remember there being a fish tank with bird skulls in it.
 
Catoctin, not for any theming, but because the paths make absolutely no sense. There's no main path, things just shoot off everywhere. Some have one or two exhibits and dead end. Some sort of loop, then connect to other loops. Most animals don't match the location themed areas, either, so it gets super confusing. I probably spent an hour trying to figure out where I was and double checking that I didn't miss things.

For theming, out of places I've been to, it's Long Island Aquarium. They're going to ride that Atlantis theme to the death. It doesn't make a lick of sense, other than water. They also have confusing paths, odd buildings that are never the size you expect, and very little signage to help you figure out what's in where and if it's for everyone or just children.
 
Los Angeles, not only do the areas make no sense but neither do the paths. There’s a path that leads to a platform then stops to look at nothing. Confusing overlapping paths. Massive condor flight cages are all around the property and there is an entire museum dedicated to them but no condor exhibits in the zoo. For about 20 years there has been an odd inbalance where only some parts of the zoo are nice and the rest is outdated. The whole place is just weird.
 
Can think of a few;

Poole Serpentarium (now closed and converted to an arcade) felt a bit like walking in to a Ripleys believe it or not or an old curiosity attraction to me as when you look in from the outside you could see nothing but the ticker counter as I recall.

It was set across multiple floors in a reasonably narrow shop frontage on Poole Quay.

You passed the ticket desk and went through a door to a very small shark tank with circling sharks (black tip?) then rose up through corridors of lizards, snakes, crocodilians and insects etc. some banks of tanks were packed into the corridors and you had to shuffle through side on (not one for the arachnophobes)

South Lakes Safari Zoo visited during a former owners prime and some of the mixed exhibits were extraordinary (maned wolf & tapir & a monkey sp) and babirusa with no stand off etc. Likely dramatically changed now, not least due to change in holding)

Krefeld Zoo not necessarily the whole zoo but the baboon enclosure did not fill me with confidence regarding its inescapability! and made me feel rather uneasy.

Heythrop Zoological Gardens fascinating collection and when I visited years ago held liger, striped hyena, polar bear all were rare in the UK (at the time) as well as other unexpected animals to be held in private hands such as giraffe, pygmy hippo etc.

I knew the site was used for films and tv work and that the owners had connections to the circus and part of the visit would include demonstrations. The tv work demonstration in front of a green screen was fascinating and the trainer worked a leopard and a male lion through poses and jumps etc then there was a second demonstration where things turned a little more "strange" with effectively a big top circus demonstration called "jungle days" or something to that effect where the same trainer worked a mixed group of two ligers, tigers and white lions all at the same time in a traditional circus act. (Some of these white lions went on to full time circus work in Asia (japan if I recall)).

I left this collection feeling very uneasy; as on reflection the TV demonstration which I admittedly found very entertaining was not so different from the circus performance and my memories of the day are tinged with some guilt. Of the 4 "strange collections" I have listed it is is likely the only one I would not return to or help fund. The merits and disadvantages of circus life on big cats have been discussed extensively elsewhere and you can draw your own conclusions in this regard.
 
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