Whitney Malzhan

Review of Fresno Chaffee Zoo

Our not-quite-2-year-old had a GREAT time at the z...

Our not-quite-2-year-old had a GREAT time at the zoo! We arrived at opening (9am) and stayed until closing (4pm). We didn't have time to visit the reptile house, but we spent an hour and a half walking around with a napping toddler in a stroller. The new African exhibit is amazingly beautiful, and I love that the animals are all together. The lion cub was out and playing with its mom right up against the glass. We were definitely impressed by the new zoo additions. It had probably been 10-15 years since I last visited.

I am only giving 4 stars since, after visiting several zoos over the last couple of years with a little one, there were a few things that struck me during our visit: 1) Zoo staff is not uniformly dressed and in most cases, not easily recognizable. Most of the staff wore plain, nondescript black jackets. They might have had the zoo logo on the breast, but that was about it. When we had a question, we found ourselves wandering around until we heard a [very loud] walkie talkie/radio, which most wear. 2) Bathrooms are few and spread pretty far apart. 3) Many of the animals had old/poor descriptions or even no description at all. There were a few exhibits that had no signs with any information about the animals. There are scheduled talks about some of the more popular animals, but I have been to other zoos that have signs that mention the animals by name, talk about their background, etc., in addition to the information about the species, and it's really much nicer. 4) What happened to all the birds in the Rainforest? I remember as a kid the Rainforest was AMAZING because there were birds everywhere. During our recent visit, we only saw a small assortment of ducks, a couple other species, and the macaws.

Overall, we had a great time at the zoo. One thing did strike me and make me sad, though, and that is all the signs with the number to call if you see someone abusing the animals. I thought, "Do people really do that?" Apparently, it's enough of a problem that the signs are necessary. So sad.