The only reason I m giving this a 1 star is becaus...

The only reason I m giving this a 1 star is because it s required to leave a review. I have lived in South Bend my entire life. Growing up my family and I have quite often visited this zoo. I remember it always being small but the animals back then seemed healthy to say the least. I recently have revisited this zoo for the first time in over 7 years and it was utterly deplorable. The large cats did NOT have adequate enclosures. The lions had a long narrow concrete cell with no toys for stimulation, moving water and no natural foliage. The tigers lived in a small concrete cage with an empty dry pool, a patch of dirty to lay on and no natural foliage either. The leopards and snow leopards at least had foliage in their exhibit. However it was astonishingly small for a LARGE cat species. The leopards were both pacing back and forth along the front of the cage due to obvious signs of stress, boredom and anxiety. The koi/carp ponds were extremely over crowded. The prairie dogs were malnourished with patches of hair missing and abscess visible on them. The crocodile exhibits along with the pond near it had trash and kid toys floating in the waters, real healthy right? I have been to many zoos, unfortunately this will not be one me or my family will be returning too anytime soon due to its terrible conditions. It s nice to hear the zoo is using the 1.9 million dollar donation they received to upgrade the zoos entrance instead of doing much needed upgrades in their exhibits.