Waccatee Zoological Farm

Detlleye

This is the place to be if:
A) You’ve often thought, «Man. I wonder what zoos were like before regulations, proper animal care and silly stuff like that was around!»
B) You’ve recently immigrated to the planet and have yet to see a goat, pigeon or deer.
C) You’ve exhausted every other possibility of places to go and/​or things to do in Myrtle Beach.

Nature walk petting zoo with lions, tigers and bears, oh my! Lots of birds, plenty of chances to feed and pet the animals. Lots of room to explore. A walking bridge over some water with boats zooming closely toward the back of the zoo. Hardly any bugs. Some quirky stuff here and there, but overall loved it!

Fiends of mine who come to this zoo suggested my little family tries it out. It’s definitely hidden in the woods, and it’s really unique. If you ever have been to another zoo and come here, you’ll definitely know what I’m talking about. Be careful when entering, because there are peacocks roaming the area.
First, I think the prices that you pay are fairly reasonable. For my fiancé, 2 year old, and myself it was $ 24. You can purchase different kinds of food to feed the animals when you are buying your tickets (ex. popcorn). Make sure you keep your map on you, because it can be a little confusing to walk through.
They have a decent selection of animals to feed. My son enjoyed feeding the deer and the goats the most. There are signs on the pens stating whether or not you can feed them. However, just be careful, because the goats are pretty aggressive.
They do have a concession stand with different options. I didn’t checkout prices, but I would assume they’re fairly reasonable.
The one big con I have about this place is that some of the animals look malnourished. There was at least one deer that had its ribs sticking so far out that I felt obligated to feed it half my cup of food. The other con is that some of the cages are so small and hard to see the animals, even though they are cooped up inside.
Overall, it’s a tourist attraction that most people will recommend you to go checkout. Just be prepared to feel a little creeped out with the situation of the zoo. Kids would most likely love it.

Terrible, depressing place. Majority of the animals are kept in enclosures that are too small. They have tigers, lions and black bears in small cages with wire and concrete floors. These poor animals need rescuing.

Sad, should be shut down, distressed animals in small cages, stunk really bad, why are pigeons in cages? It was horrible. I left feeling so bad for the baboon, the lion and tiger, in jail in there, depressing. And those deadly snakes in tanks as you walk in, just does not seem safe to me, I would not take a young child there. Wish I had never gone. So much land but the animals are in tiny pens. I don’t get it.

For the most part, I loved it here. I took the river boat tour on a Wednesday, but had to leave before visiting the zoo (husband got food poisoning from the local Wendy’s), but just from seeing it on the outside, I had to return the next day whenever we felt better. You pull into the parking lot and there are peacocks everywhere, running loose, so be careful not to run them over.
When you go in, you can buy food to feed the animals, I think its $ 8 for a big bag, which will last for the most part. There were tons of friendly animals, though there are signs everywhere warning that they can bite. The only thing that bit me was a swan. Everything else, I was really careful with and had no problems.
There is also an old car area, with a barn full of old cars if thats your thing.
Now the things I didnt like:
The carnivorous animals were in horrible living conditions. Knee deep in mud, there were old leaves that fell months ago on the top of their enclosures, and were never removed, so they can’t get any sun. As everyone knows, lions LOVE sunlight and it is essential to their bodies like it is to us. The bears barely had anywhere to move around. The cougar was severely overweight because she didn’t hardly have any room to move either. Every enclosure was nothing but mud and all of the animals looked unhealthy. No one was at the concession most of the time that I was there.
I loved it up until the point that I saw the carnivorous animals. I think that they need to give them over to people who can care for them better, but keep the others. They done quite well with those.

Wow someone out there please save these animals soon before they all die of starvation and neglect.
This place should be condemned, I don’t have enough time to tell you all the horrible conditions, the animals were in, Filthy, smelly, dirty, no food, no water, small tight cages. There were several animals that needed medical assistance. After our walk through we left feeling horrible of that these animals are in this jail of complete horror,

I love this place! I was a little skeptical when I saw the cost on the brochure when it had an asterisk by it. I couldn’t believe it was so affordable. I thought that they would make their money by charging us $ 20 to park or something outrageous. I was wrong! They had free parking and it cost $ 4 for children up to 12? and $ 10 for adults. I loved the natural walk ways it made it feel more like a natural setting (no concrete or blacktop). They even had a collection of antique cars as part of the trail. The boys got a kick out of feeding the animals! The zoo had a long bridge by the river that was good for a nice, quiet and peaceful walk. There was a natural habitat of birds where a photographer was taking pictures and he told us the birds come there every year after I made a comment that I couldn’t believe that the birds didn’t fly away because they were not fenced in. There were hundreds of them. We also watched the alligators and turtles that were basking in the sun. We had a lot of good laughs while there at the noises the donkeys, turkeys, peacocks and other animals were making. We were walking under a tin roof and we heard slow, creepy sounding footsteps above. We all guessed it was a peacock and we were right! It was one of the cocky peacocks strutting around like it owned the place! The habitats for the monkeys were really cute because they had real toys! A monkey set in a play car like he was driving, there was a playhouse, basketball, you name it, they had it! There was also a gorilla that people were talking to that seemed to know what they were asking and it was responding by shaking its head! The animals were the usual animals that you see at a zoo with the exception of a few animals I had never seen before that were considered rodents in other countries. The kids said they looked like a cross breed of a pig and rabbit. I’ve been to a lot of Zoos and I really enjoyed that this one was different! Oh, I forgot to mention that the food at the concession stand was affordable too!

Again, small pens. Animals in the July heat with no water in their dishes. No grass for the grassland animals. This is someones pet collection, and not an accredited zoo. I saw people tossing feed at the tiger. FYI people — tigers do not eat peanuts. You CANNOT hand feed most animals, unlike other reviews say. The animals are behind a wire fence & a chain link fence, preventing small children’s hands from going into the pen. Chico the Chimp is housed in something out of a horror movie or a 1950 zoo. Solid concrete, and behind thick steel bars. You can barely see him in there all by himself. The «antiques» out on display are all dusty, mess ground. The bathrooms are mediocre at best. I hoped for improvements. I now hope for the Humane Society or someone to come in and force this place to maintain decent standards of animal care.

Lots of animals. Nice Staff. Odd place.

Great way to spend an afternoon with wife and child for $ 22! Uptight, tree hugging activists, don’t go here. Spend $ 25 a person elsewhere. You will see that some if the animals are kept in smaller pens which made this a perfect place to take my toddler to pet and feed animals. Also, we have been to pittsburgh and San Diego zoos and this place contained some animals that they didn’t have. It’s not fancy and some areas need repaired but I will tell you that you cannot get this close to tigers, lions, and deer at any other zoo. All animals were nourished well. Not sure why previous review said that. Had a great time!

I am still having nightmares about this place.
Not sure why or how we ended up at this creepy place — and not sure why we stayed and walked the whole «path.»
It’s like a car accident ya know? You can’t look away.
Between disgusted and angry and just completely incredulous that people actually bring their children to this place.
It is out of a horror movie. animals living in cages from a horror movie — sick.
And I love zoos — truly love me some zoos — but this place is CREEPY — my father said, «I didn’t know places like this still existed.»
So not sure if this is the expectation of South Carolineans — or if this is just country folk not knowing any better — or both but anyway ummm… hopefully for the sake of the animals this place is going to be shut down soon…
I am really confused by the other positive reviews — like confused — and I could go into details but then you may have nightmares too: (

We love this place! Its not easy to find but thank goodness for GPS and the small signs we found one of Myrtle Beaches best kept secrets. They have many different animals and some of them you can even feed. You have to buy a bag of feed at the beggining which is only $ 5. They also have a nice little nature trail you can walk on and see the Waccatee River. Just make sure to bring food with you because the food stand has been closed every time we have gone. We pack a cooler and sit in the designated picnic area and pavilion to eat.

I had been here a few years ago but it was the Unilocal reviews that made me excited to go again. The zoo is different then other zoos because its very natural (watch out for exposed tree roots!) Lots of animals, both domestic farm animals and exotics. I definitely enjoyed all of it especially the Patagonia Maras which I had never seen before. They seem like they are a mixture of kangaroo meet cababaras, both of those other animals can be found here. There is also this one lama that is with the Scottish Highlander cows that had the same face as my Boston Terrier, which was both really cute and creepy. I would definitely come here again.
Side note: If you go there and take the back path to view the zebras/​emus/​water buffalo, bring fly repellent. The flies back there were crazy.

This is Myrtle Beach «beast kept secret»! Come nose to nose with some of the weirdest creatures known to man like the South American peccarts, Patagonia Maras and the half zebra half donkey Damaras. Waccatee Zoo is open daily from 10 AM to 5 PM. Admission is $ 4 for children 1 – 12 and $ 8 for adults.
TIP! Spend couple bucks on animal food (popcorn or boiled peanuts). You’ll have a great time, kids love it, animals go nuts and can even have a healthy snack at the end of your trip.
Here are some of the animals we enjoyed feeding the most:
* Bonnie and Clyde dromedary camels always begging for food… keep your pocketbooks close!
* Red foxes Sony and Cher (we’re disappointed cause they didn’t sing for us)
* African lionese. Stay away from the her she’s quite grumpy (or just bored?!)
* Iron pumping Harley the Boar takes a nap away from the sun
* Undecided black bears don’t know which way to «vote»…
* Longhorns stay in shape by kicking poor emus… I was just asking if Texas will beat Oklahoma that weekend. Go figure!
While in the area stop by Huntington Beach State Park to greet its free roaming alligators and to visit ever mysterious Atalaya Castle… shoutabout​carolina​.com/​i​n​d​e​x​.​p​h​p​/​2​0​0​8​/​1​0​/​a​t​a​l​a​y​a​-​c​a​s​t​l​e​-​h​u​n​t​i​n​g​t​o​n​-​m​y​r​t​l​e​-​b​e​a​c​h​-​c​h​e​a​p​-​f​u​n​-​t​h​i​n​g​s​-​t​o-do/
Happy scouting!