Catoctin Wildlife Preserve & Zoo

Close to $ 20 a head to get in?! Pft, for that price, id rather just go to the DC Smithsonian National Zoo.
Most of the animals also loom angry or sad like they missed the big two day sale at penny’s.
Personally if it don’t have penguins, it ain’t a zoo. But, the cost runs me off.

My family loves this place. We have the membership. The park is shady and an easy walk on hot summer day. The animals are always visible and appear well cared for and active. You can feed alpacas, deer, goat, ducks and koi fish. There are camel rides and a «safari» ride too where you can feed bison and zebra popcorn from the truck. My sons love the snake house. I have been to the National Zoo where everything is cemented over. This zoo is so much nicer. It’s like taking a easy hike and getting the benefits of seeing a bunch neat animals too. I like the fact that they are a preseve and take injured, abandoned and disabled animals. We drive from an hour away regularly. It’s a wonderful summer day’s activity.

Came from an hour away; checked their hours of operation first with our smartphone and it said they opened at 9am. Got there at 9:05, parking lot was full of cars including some from out of state, all waiting. Office was full of employees milling around, door locked. Finally somebody came out and asked what we all wanted. Turns out they don’t actually open until 10am. Guests were leaving by the carload, little kids in tears. Correct the information, please! We won’t try again.

When i was there it was the day the staff let the sun bears attack each other and one of them ended up dying in front of about 50 people, including many children. From what i understand, this kind of stuff is a regular occurrence. So i guess i understand WHY people go to this place.

This zoo has a few hundred animals from Eurasia, North America, South America, Australia, and Africa. Price of admission was moderate. They have a safari truck ride through five acres of animals that I unfortunately did not have time to do, but it seems fun, although it does cost extra. The women’s bathroom was fairly clean. They have a café for a quick meal. I enjoyed seeing and feeding the animals.

Not only is the admission price expensive, but the zoo is not well maintained. The animal cages are small and it’s really sad to see so many animals pacing mindlessly back and forth in their confined spaces. Others are clawing at the door or trying to bite into the wire fence. The restrooms smell horrible and are clearly not monitored or cleaned during the day… even Target does a better job. I felt like this zoo was really just a money making operation…

I am usually very sure if what score to give something after I visit. This was a hard one because we had an amazing time!
The good:
The safari was a blast & a definite must try! Bumpy (sit in the front if possible!!) but I have never been so close to bison, llamas, camels, zebras & so many more. Buy the $ 1 popcorn! I got some great pictures here.
If you have young children, they will like this much more than National Zoo/​Baltimore Zoo. My 2 year old was actually able to see everything up close, not some animal 30′ away.
Shade! It was 90+ today & no one felt terribly overheated because most of the animals are in the shade.
Clean bathrooms & port-​a-​potties
The bad:
Cost -$ 27 for adults, 24 for kids & $ 10 for kids under 3 (admission + safari)
Many people have mentioned the treatment/​condition/​cages of the animals. I would have given 5 stars if I didn’t have some concerns. They removed the giraffe & lioness others have mentioned. The safari animals, petting zoo animals, koi pond, snakes & turtles (as well as some others) had clean cages, space, etc. But, some of the birds did not have clean water. The wolves were all pacing in a small area. The bears seemed stressed. One exhibit of monkeys was being renovated but (I assumed because of money issues — they had half of a concrete floor poured) while this was happening, they put all the monkeys in one cage. This was clearly too small!
If the animals had larger cages as needed & seemed happier I would have easily given 5 stars. My 2 yo has been talking about going back all day!!! I hope they make some changes — I have been previously (about 4 years ago) & conditions have improved a lot since then so hopefully, they will continue in that direction!

It was a nice park, easy to find and large.
Most of the animals were very interesting.
I left feeling very concerned for many of them. It seems under funded and in trouble.
Many of the animals (the sun bears, jaguar, snow leopard) showed signs of stress and boredom. Pacing, excessive scratching, weaving were really painful to watch. The enclosure for the big cats were so small with no or few toys.
When we got to the petting zoo I wanted to cry. There were 2 small pigs who were malnourished and dirty one was limping. They both looked old and very poorly taken care of.
No hand sanitizer, they were all empty. Porta potty filthy and unusable.
Enclosures too small and dirty.
It could be a great place it has potential, but is just sad. I feel horrible for the animals.
The snake exhibit was nice but needed ventilation smelled horrid.
Not one worker out of 4 or 5 spoke a word to anyone.

There are very few places I love more than this one. This is truly the story of an awesome family doing awesome work and helping the local community. Not only do they have a healthy, happy contingent of animals from all over the world, they do a service by keeping injured animals that cannot be released, abandoned pet exotics, and using those animals to train other people in the area. It reminds me of ZSL on a smaller scale. I don’t think you could ever find a place with animals that are less scared of the people around them and more loved as individuals and respected by workers and visitors. My favorite thing at the zoo is the peacefulness. The national zoo is repulsive to me with hot dog stink, commodification of animals, and misbehaving children everywhere, scaring the bejesus out of the animals in every enclosure. This is a 180 degree turn from that; people stroll through the grounds, feed and touch the happy animals, learn a lot, and the kids are generally a lot tamer. Its an amazing thing to see a kid genuinely bewildered and amazed at the experience of being around a creature so exotic and larger than them, rather than just over-​stimulated and pandered to. This business is a class act. Many times I have gone here and done the safari ride (WHICH IS AWESOME!!) and then just taken a bit to have some ice cream and walk around in the woods.
I the national zoo could take a page from their book and provide an experience that was less exploitative and more familial. Regardless of what happens in the future, I have no doubt that the people who run this place will continue to do the good that they do for animals and education.

I love visiting animal sanctuary’s so I was really excited to visit Catoctin Wildlife Preserve & Zoo. This review is more about my experience there and less about the animal exhibits. For the record, I think many of the exhibits were way too small for the animals that housed them. The big cats probably needed 3 times as much space than they had and some of the animals I saw during the safari ride didn’t seem to be well cared for. They were all covered in flies and one of them was limping badly. The tour guide claimed the animal had been checked out by a vet but I’m not so sure about that. People and animals don’t just limp for no reason and the guy claimed he’d been given a clean bill of health.
Additionally, there were some really young kids (11 – 13) working there which was a concern to me.
First off, Catoctin needs to have a few more directional signs on the highway and leading to the location. We drove right by the location without even knowing it. The GPS pretty much stopped providing directions after we turned on Catoctin Furnace Rd. At any rate, we realized that we’d passed it and turned around. We got there early so there was plenty of parking but if you get there late then I can see how parking would be an issue.
You enter the zoo though the gift shop which has a variety of items ranging from cheap to moderately expensive. I didn’t like any of the t-​shirt designs and definitely think the organization could use a graphic designer to update their logo and clothing designs
The zoo is mapped out by country and the animals are housed together based on their country of origin. That was cool but it would’ve been easier to navigate if there were better signs throughout the zoo. We got lost a few times and there weren’t many employees present to assist us.
Most of the exhibits seemed to be clean and reasonably well cared for but that’s not saying isn’t room for improvement.
We paid extra to take the safari ride which was basically a bumpy ride though an manicured area of the zoo. There were animals held in three separate enclosures. We were given molded bread and hay to feed them which was interesting. I wasn’t a quite sold on the explanation given about the practice of feeding the animals molded bread being okay though. The animals also seemed to be in extremely aggravated by all the flies but when I inquired about it I was told that they were «sprayed» daily and nothing more could be done. Hmm… I’ve never seen that at any other zoo or sanctuary so that tells me that it probably has more to do with the level of care and that something more CAN be done.
I’m sure the employees mean well and that the organization probably has limited funds but Catocin really needs to step up it’s game in several areas. Simply as a spectator though it’s reasonably fun experience. I’d recommend it but would suggest possibly giving an additional donation if you care anything about the welfare of the animals.

this place should be shut down! none of the «cafes» or vending machines, amongst many other things were working. however, most importantly, the care of the animals was horrendous! we were there today, it was 90 degrees and none of the animals had water & their pens were covered in feces. the one sun bears back paws were so swollen he could barely walk. etc, etc. my husband & I were appalled! I’m not sure how this place is allowed to remain open and responsible for the care of these animals.

It’s our first visit to Catoctin Zoo.
The exhibits are definitely low budget — the way my husband would build them if he did it. But, they seem adequate, and clean. A couple of the exhibits made me think the large cats needed more space, but maybe they have a bigger pen than I realized — perhaps hidden on the other side of the enclosure — that’s what I told myself anyway.
Although there are some efforts with native plants and «butterfly gardens» and such, over all it’s not a «pretty» park. But it does have lots of shade… everything’s mostly carved out of heavily wooded and rocky areas.
They have some AWESOME animals and for the most part you are up close and personal. Lions, Tigers and Bears! OH MY! I have never been that close to leopards or a lioness! EVER. And we took the safari and got to feed bison and water buffalo and other such animals. There are wallabies and dingos (not sure I have ever seen a dingo before). There are monkeys and apes and reptiles and amhibians. Definitely a thrill for the kiddos. The only one that seemed far was the giraffe, but she was standing by her food dish and I could see other nearby animals being fed, so I am guessing it was nearing dinner time and she may have wandered closer to us if we’d be there at a different time of day.
We live in Leesburg, so I will compare it to other zoos nearby… It’s bigger and better than Leesburg Animal Park (which rarely has large exhotic cats), but allows nearly the same «intimate» experience (ie. feeding, petting, close interactions). It’s not nearly what the National Zoo is but UGH — I hate going downtown with the crowds and especially in the summer heat… plus while the National Zoo has animals like Pandas or Polar Bears that a small zoo could never have, it doesn’t offer the up close and personal feeding and petting — the animals (for their own safety) are pretty far from you.
We were there on a day with very low attendance, the snack bar was not open which left us with sodas, ice cream and chips to choose from… and it wasn’t cheap either.
The cost was $ 65 for 1 adult, 2 kids, including the safari (safari is $ 8/​person but the highlight of the trip). I would consider it fairly priced.
Overall, I’d go back, and I would recommend it over the National Zoo for little ones.

Things may be better now, but when I visited this place in 2009 I felt bad for the animals because the habitats they were living in weren’t sufficient for them. And I feel bad for giving a low score because I believe most people who work with animals do so because they love and care for them. And by not going and supporting them, they won’t have funds to improve the facility. It’s a double edged sword.

This place made me really sad. My dad remembered going here as a kid and thought it would be fun to go back. By the time we left, we all felt depressed and my dad said he wished he hadn’t given them the money. The spaces for the animals are way too small. Some of the animals, like the wolves, pace frantically in areas that are too small for them. Some of the animals literally looked depressed, like the giraffe, which was tucked away in the back of the zoo alone and had to bend over to get his food (they like to eat their food from the tops of trees). He was literally hanging his head. One of the monkeys sat on the floor with his head held down while another monkey sat near him, almost like he was trying to console him. I’m sure the people who run the zoo have good intentions but the whole place just made us sad.

Not sure how this place has gotten such good reviews. Let’s just say, any true animal lovers steer clear because this place has a number of complaints on other review sites! Poorly kept habitats, feeding human pastries to the animals, Algae covered turtle pond… not good. They have also been reported to the American Zoological Association. Find a real wildlife preserve, not some side show zoo that exploits exotics… please.
check out other reviews…

A great small zoo. There are lots of species and you can get really close to the animals. They have a lion, tigers, monkeys, a kangaroo, bears, deer and many more. The snake exhibit is great as well. Great for the family.

The zoo is awesome for kids of all ages.
Heres some great things:
–The fact that almost all the animals in the zoo can be fed is like the greatest thing in the world to the kids
–The zookeepers even take out the baby wolves to feed them a bottle and show live snakes too.
— And as a parent I enjoyed the fact that they had sanitizer stations all over the place.
–There is one «real» bathroom at the gift shop. Very clean and even a seperate room for changing babies. The rest of the place is port o john which were very clean and some were very large and you could easily squat down to pull up your kids pants
–Everyone who works there is really nice, helpful, friendly, & the gift shop had a very interesting variety of stuff, and good quality, stuff you would actually want to buy
— There were a ton of animals that you could see very clearly, and the zoo has lots of shade which is great.
–little kid parks throughout the zoo was a nice touch that I know the kids appreciated. Plus lots of chairs and benches for the parents to sit and watch
–Pretty big place and nice scenery, big lake with catfish and Koi to feed, although really nothing to eat and soda machines for drinks. They had like some convenient store snack items that were triple the price you would pay if you purchased it at an actual store.
The safari was the best part. The animals come right up to the truck. Its a great experience and I thought the best part in the place.
Only thing I guess was kinda negative but always is, was the price. just be prepared to drop $ 90 for 2 adults and one 2yr old for the zoo and safari. Maybe it’s not pricey or maybe its worth it, but bottom line is I paid it and I enjoyed the place and have nothing bad to say. Definately go check it out

The review by Mia is dead on. Her description is perfect. My 2 year old loved the Koi pond, and all the birds. Some of the animals expect to be pet, and to be fed. The tigers and jaguars were beautiful!
It’s a big place, with lots of shade. I recommend that you pack your own food– the drinks are expensive, and not a great snack bar selection.

Labor Day. Some consider it a day to celebrate labor? Ok, I really don’t know what the purpose of Labor day is, but I spent it at Catoctin Zoo.
Catoctin Zoo lies approximately half way between Harrisburg, PA and Washington, DC and US-​15 North bound. It’s a perfect stop midway through the drive (because 2 ½ hours is SO intollerable).
I wasn’t sure what to expect at Catoctin Zoo. After years of seeing billboards for the new animals, and a nightmare I had involving bears escaping at the zoo predating my knowledge of the zoos existance, I decided that it would be a nice activity for the day to take my friend who was visiting from UK.
I got a lot of attitude from a certain Persian (not «LEILA S») about not taking him to the National Zoo in DC… But seriously, the Smithsonian (read: free) on Labor Day. I can’t even imagine how packed that place was. I have to admit, while we were driving north on 270, I wondered if I should have been a «good host» and taken him to the Smithsonian Zoo although it was out of the way. The thought lingered in my mind even as we pulled into the parking lot at Catoctin Zoo.
As we walked in the gift shop door to purchase tickets, I crossed my fingers that we could at least see something good here so I could stop feeling guilty for not taking my guest to the National Zoo.
The first thing I noticed were these cute stuffed animals of white tigers in hoodies that said «Catoctin Zoo» on them. I left out a sigh of relief, knowing that even if the Zoo was horrible, we’d at least get cute souveniers.
As we purchased our tickets, I noticed they had cups of food you could buy to feed to animals in the zoo. I hastily picked one up and added it to my transaction. That was it, time to enter the zoo.
The white tiger cubs are right in front, providing instant gratification to those enthused by the zoo’s key exhibit. I spent at least 15 minutes just staring at them, and my counterpart, an equally long time photographing them.
We then moved onto the dwarf goats. I got really excited about feeding them and gave nearly half my cup of food to this one eager little goat. I couldn’t help myself and swore to restrain myself on feature exhibits.
The experience of getting to feed the animals in the zoo was amazing. The animals that you can’t feed are clearly marked, and also in most cases, the enclosures to their exhibits imply that you are not to feed them but their complexity to enter.
The animals also get really excited when you feed them, especially the llamas. The zoo in whole is a great interactive experience, allowing those interested to get very close and personal with a variety of animals from ducks to lions, llamas to white tigers, goats to peacocks.
I definitely think we had a better day at the Catoctin Zoo than we would have had at the National Zoo in Washington. It was very personal and intimate, but there were enough «exotic» animals to feel that we got our money’s worth and didn’t pay 13 dollars (I believe, but don’t quote me on that) to feed some goats.
I was also really impressed with the gift shop. I remember being at Houston Zoo last winter, and I was unable to find merchandise with the Houston Zoo logo. It was very generic stuffed animals and book type things. At Catoctin Zoo, almost all of the mechandise in the gift shop carried the Catoctin Zoo logo so it could be treasured as such. And I love my stuffed tiger with the Catoctin Zoo hoodie!