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| - We visited on a weekend in mid-September. it rained a little, which made the weather pleasantly cool.
On the plus side, the place is certainly interesting and worth your time. The animals are fascinating; the vegetation - which appears to have been imported from around the world - is amazing; and there's always something to pique your interest and attract your attention.
On the minus side, you'll be pervaded by a feeling of mild frustration throughout your visit because of ill-thought-out amenities and services. These are a few that caught our attention:
NO ELECTRIC SCOOTERS. I have a bad leg and can't walk long distances. At almost any theme park - including the uneven ground of the Renaissance Festival - I can rent a scooter from a concession that provides them. Here you'll find nothing but wheelchairs. Someone pushes you, or you walk. It can make for a painful day.
BRING CASH. Lots of it. Your entry fee buys you nothing but admission. Everything else is extra, and they don't take credit or debit cards. Sodas, for example, are $4 or $5 each. There are a couple of automatic tellers, but no signs telling you where to find them.
VERY FEW BENCHES. Although you'll have to do a lot of walking, there are very few seats and resting places. So if you're visiting with kids or you have some physical impairment, this can be an issue.
NO DRINKING FOUNTAINS. Or very few - we found exactly one. Given the usual summer heat here, and the constant danger of dehydration, this is a serious oversight. You can buy bottled water ($4 or $5) at the cafés near the entrance, and we did find a soda machine near the carousel. It wasn't working.
POOR SIGNAGE. Directional signs seem to be randomly placed, with many of the outdoor ones faded and in poor repair. Some - though not most - informative signs on animal cages are missing, or duplicated, or incorrect.
EXHIBITS RANDOMLY PLACED. True, you find most of the cats near one another, similarly with most of the primates and most of the reptiles, but the overall effect is that as a new beastie has arrived at WWZ, they've simply found or built a convenient enclosure regardless of its surroundings. A primate cage among the snakes, a big cat cage among the deer and antelope. It's not a dealbreaker, but it's jarring.
BLEACHERS IN DISREPAIR. The animal shows are enchanting and well presented (I REALLY want that little otter! - but then, so did everyone else!) ... BUT the wooden bleachers round the stage are split and splintered to the point that one sits on them with extreme caution. They seriously need an upgrade.
CAGES, NOT HABITATS. The spaces allotted to so many of the animals cannot decently be called habitats. For example (and I'm speaking here as a completely ignorant observer) why couldn't the barriers between individual primate cages be removed to create a much larger arboreal habitat? I don't know; maybe the apes and monkeys would tear each other apart under such circumstances ... but still (and only as a single example of a defect that permeates the entire WWZ experience) these cages seem awfully tiny for animals made by nature to range for miles.
All in all, Wildlife World Zoo rates more than two stars for apparently being well-intentioned, but not quite three, for not reaching those intentions.
Nonetheless, worth a visit.
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