Miller Park Zoo

Landmark Review
This is a unique zoo run by the city of Bloomington. We got here late so we had to run through the exhibits. It’s located in the middle of a park. There is plenty of parking around if there is an activities going on. We had some issues finding parking and had to walk a long way to get to the zoo. It is seven dollars admission for adults and five dollars for kids. Children under two are free. I am surprised by the animals that you can see here which included lions, kangaroo, tortoise, and seals. This is not a Brookfield zoo by any chance so you won’t see any pandas, giraffes, or other exotic animals however it’s a great place to visit for families.
Hidden deal: Free parking on the park side streets

Tiny tiny little zoo. Great I am sure if you have kids. Lots of daycare groups there.

What a crappy first impression. Front desk admission lady must not feel like working on this beautiful day because she had bad attitude and rolled her eyes the whole time taking to me. Zoo is nice but she ruined my day.

This is a nice sized zoo for families with small children. It has just enough to keep their attention, and not get too tired. My suggestion would be to add a farm animal exhibit to show the animals of Illinois Agriculture.

I have watched this little small town zoo grow up. Started going before I had kids. Brought my kids as they grew up. And my most recent visit was with my boys as teenagers. It is a little gem. In a park that is a gem unto itself, with so much to do in the park as well.

It’s fun to go to a zoo you can spend all day at but this isn’t one of those. Beautiful little place that doesn’t take you long to go through with exhibits all up close and unique. Friendly staff that are willing to answer questions and make things a little more interesting. Big park with splash area out in front of the zoo. Great for all ages but especially for people with smaller ones that wouldn’t make it all day at the big zoos.

I cannot BELIEVE this zoo still houses tigers and other wild animals. For the size, they should be restricted by law to ONLY house farm animals such as goats, sheep, etc and make this a petting zoo if anything at all. A full grown tiger has NO LIFE in this small of a cage, and also absolutely no socialization. Get it together Bloomington! This is UNETHICAL!

From one perspective, this is a really surprisingly nice zoo for being in a small town park. On the other, this is a really depressingly small zoo — small in the sense the enclosures for each animal seemed on the smaller side.
I was with my family visiting Bloomington for a wedding and the next day we wanted something to do before driving back to Chicago. I couldn’t believe there was an actual zoo in this town — so off we went. It was father’s day so I got in free!
My 4 year old enjoyed the zoo, even though we live just a few blocks from the Chicago Lincoln Park zoo — which is obviously much bigger. The zoo was just the right size for a semi-​quick visit.
I share the animal welfare concerns of the other reviewers, but i’m not an expert and am generally not a fan having animals in captivity.

For a small zoo, this is a wonderful place. I love the rainforest exhibit so much.

your the best zoo ever. you have so many cool animals.

Cute little zoo. Can’t recall the admission price since it was free with our St Louis zoo membership.. For a 2 & 4 year old it was perfect. The rainforest and australian exhibits were the faves. Careful though, you could get pooped on in the rainforest! Birds are flying free in there. I felt sad for the lonely sea lion :(no concessions only vending machines. And there is a great park across from the entrance complete with a splash pad.

After spending more hours here than I can count, I still think of this place as way too small to keep certain species.
I was a research assistant taking data on the behavior of a group of animals there. It’s hard not to get depressed when you hear them crying of boredom and loneliness and watch their repetitive behaviors that indicate that something is not quite right. It was not fun. :(
I’m not against all zoos, but this zoo just cannot provide a beneficial environment for some of their species.

What a disappointment of a zoo! Ever since my child was born, we have been going to the zoo. On every occasion, the petting zoo was closed. We are lucky to see the animals if they are out in the exhibit. This zoo is small and really doesn’t have much to look at.

Are you kidding me!!! Have the people that wrote they previous reviews ever been to an actual zoo? This place is a joke, they need to close it down, put the animals in a much better place.

Great place. Good parking. Has great indoor and outdoor exhibits. Recently took our out of town friends and their 7 year old boy loved it!

This zoo is a tiny little gem. Small, but there a few things about this place that unique and great.
The free range kangaroo exhibit. Yes, walk on a designated path among free living critters. Pretty amazing.
The zoo does rescue work from people who owned exotics. Some of the creatures here were once someone’s pet. Including a bobcat who was an unfortunate victim of a bitter divorce.
You can watch the staff feed the large cats.

A great zoo for such a small town as BN! Highlights include a tiger, sea lions, a pack of endangered wolves, a petting zoo, firefoxes, huge tortoises, a great up-​close learning area for kids, an aviary with budgies and finches flying about, two majestic bald eagles that you can see up close, a koi pond, and of course wallaroos in an uncaged enclosure that lets them walkabout amongst the visitors (though they have 2 joeys now and tend to keep to themselves).
The coolest part of the zoo is the walk-​through rainforest exhibit. Inside the lush forest they have recreated, you will find several varieties of free roaming rainforest birds (most active in the AM) and really cute tiny monkeys, a sloth (meh), and very active and entertaining catamundis. Some of the birds are really friendly and ‘greet’ you every time, others are revealed in the treetops to only the most diligent searchers.
Prices are really reasonable at only $ 5 a pop for adults. If you take a ‘long time’, reading all the placards, ride the carousel and finding every hiding animal, you will spend about 1.5−2 hours at the zoo. You can easily rush thru and hit the highlights in 30 min if the kids are fussy.
Memberships are a good deal, local or not, as they provide admission to hundreds of other zoos in the network. If you are bringing kids, one of their favorites is sure to be the show that their senior sea lion, Gremlin, puts on at feeding times (10:30am and 3pm).

This is a small town zoo with not lot of space for the animals. Entrance fee is reasonable: $ 5 for adults so it still makes it a good spot to bring small kids to discover animal species and see them quite close. For the size, they have a decent collection: tiger, monkeys, wolf, eagle, petting zoo, boa… worth a stop for 30 min or an hour.