Never been here, never will. Go watch the Humane Society's video about them before visiting. They are abusing their animals. Please don't contribute to this zoo! A lot of the good reviews on here are VERY similar and were probably written by staff.
Enjoyed visit, not crowded. Animals cages well maintained. Fresh food given not kibble. Animal were curious about me.
How this horrible place is kept open . . . I have no idea. I love animals and i just want to set them all free, especially that poor elephant Asha
I really enjoyed our visit. I've been to 15 different caves. Our guide This time was the best ever. So knowledgable and entertaining. We gave up trying to find the natural bridge itself though. It may be easy to find for locals but not so much for me. More signs please.
STOP YOUR ABUSE of elephants, specifically Asha! HOW DARE YOU! If you cared at all about these elephants you would know that elephants are social creatures and live in groups. Isolation is BAD! Yet you have no problem taking Asha from her family?! GREED INHUMANE MONSTERS ONLY FOR PROFIT! They are not slaves for humans to ride on and scumbags to profit from! SHAME ON ANYONE THAT PAYS TO DO THIS!
I thought the zoo was great. Animals were very cool and lots of interactive opportunities. Staff was very nice too. Favorite part was the aviary with the birds to feed.
This place is a trash box! The animals should be taken away and the owner fined!
Do not give these people your money. My friends and I made the mistake of going and left after 10 minutes. I cannot believe this place is allowed to own animals and operate a zoo. Massive animals were kept in tiny cages with nothing but chain link holding them back. Their was little to no form of enrichment for the animals and they all looked incredibly bored/miserable. Upon further research we've since learned that it has received several citations for animal neglect. Which is not surprising. This place is more reminiscent of a sketchy side show than an actual zoo. Please put your money towards zoos that actually support their animals and care about their well-being.
Nice little zoo. The animals were super friendly especially the goats.
Can't believe you guys would harm defenseless animals like that. Simply disgusting!
Terrible. The animals barely have any room to run or anything.
Disgusting Vile place! Do ANY of you positive reviewers even realize that there is an undercover youtube video (what natural beidge zoo doesn t want you to know) of this place and how these beautiful animals are treated? yeah the cages look clean and they are fed when the customers are PAYING.
For instance witholding food from a baby tiger to make it more docile when an ignorant couple wants to feed & hold it because it s so cute the public stays at each exhibit for what 15 minutes at the most? get out of here with glancing in and saying welp it s clean ....Of course it is no zoo in their right mind would let the public see a dirty cage and starved animals during business hours! what happens once the zoo closes? This zoo should be shut down, do your research before bringing your families and figure out if you can live with exposing them to this!
Our first experience feeding the animals. I can t wait to be back with more family!
This is a sad home for African elephant Asha,. Elephants are social creatures and she is all alone. Stop the cruelty and send her to a sanctuary.....
My family had a wonderful and educational time! The elephant ride was awesome. All animals were great! Although the special interactive tour was too expensive to be able to afford.
We had a good time here even though it was small. We enjoy all the zoos, aquariums, and animal parks that we have visited.
They offer elephant rides for $10 bucks. It is written on the chalkboard in the gift shop in the admission area about the elephant rides, that they don t take credit cards at the elephant stand, times the rides are available (12pm 3pm when we visited), etc. All the info you should want about the park on times and prices should be available at the admission desk and around it. Just ask if you have any questions. She was helpful and friendly to us.
We got to do some interactions with the animals. We don t get to do as many interactions in the big cities with animals at zoos, etc. The little baby pygmy goats are the cutest but I loved feeding all the goats that came to the fence. We fed some of the deer. The budgies were not interested in our food. It is a small aviary and they must have been already full since it was about 12pm and there just wasn t that many of them. They would look at you from afar. A few people got them to eat but majority did not get any takers. We left our sticks in the bag near the ones where you pay so someone could have them for free. We got to see several of the animals at the zoo eat like the chickens, lemurs, turtles, monkeys, camels, etc. The zoo had food laying out for all of these animals. Some of the food did not look fresh as it already had ants on it but I am not sure the animals really cared. We did not see shading for all of the animals but I am not sure they needed it. We got some videos of half of the animals moving around, and jumping from branches, etc. Some of the animals were just sleeping like the bears or hiding like half of the lemurs, baboon, etc. It was a hot day so I can t blame them!
The admission line was really slow and gets backed up. There was only one person working on a busy holiday weekend. The admission/ticket desk is right in the gift shop and that is where you enter the zoo as well. Our hand got stamped so we could leave and reenter the park which was great because we forgot some things. The entrance is right next to the admission desk. The prices for adults, children, etc. is right above the desk so you can see how much it is to get in. Very easy to see. Also, when you get up to the desk there is a sheet of the prices of the multi-pass/combo ticket so you can buy to save some money for the zoo + caverns + dinosaur kingdom (right across the street). The prices for the feed and budgie sticks are up there too. We bought some feed (a large bag) and the budgie sticks we got like 6 of them. We did not see an advertisement on where to get the carrots to feed the giraffes but make sure you get them at the front desk when you buy tickets because apparently that is where people got them when we saw people walking around the park with them. Don t forget if you want to do that!
There are restrooms but they are only inside the park. One set of restrooms is right near the gift shop and the other is near the reptiles but you will see it on your map inside the middle of the animals (no air conditioning in this bathroom). However, the map does not have all of the animals that are at the zoo. You really need to walk around the zoo, go down all the paths, and the unpaved paths because we did our own thing before we even looked at the map and got to see several more animals than was mentioned on the map.
The gift shop is two rooms and there are several things to buy just like any animal gift shop which includes cups, mugs, shirts, sweatshirts, umbrellas, stuffed animals, rocks, pencils, etc. Also, there is an aquarium in there and you can see the lemurs because they have a big glass window right there in the gift shop and they have food outside of that window so the lemurs will likely come up and eat the food and you can see them up close.
Friendly staff.
Simply cruel and unethical treatment of animals in captivity, heartbreaking to see what I did there...
Please do not go here, this is no environment for animals. They ve received so many citations already !
This place far exceeded our expectations. The animals are well cared for, friendly and entertaining. The giraffes were so cool! My boys loved running with the cassowary birds and feeding the animals. The Asian black bear was super cute just hanging out. We had a blast!!!
The animals are in very small enclosures. The only animals that seemed happy were the chickens and goats. It was less than an hour walk through the whole Zoo. They also charge an extra $2 on top of a minimum transaction fee in order to use my debit card. I would not recommend this place to anyone.
Fun and entertaining time. Sometimes the map wasn't 100% clear on the actual animal locations. Outside of that it was a ton of fun! Great for the family.
Keeps that poor elephant in isolation year round and deplorable conditions in the winter (for the past 31 years!). Elephants need a family to socialize. They are incredibly intelligent and deserve better than being a literal roadside attraction. Please do not patronize this terrible place. Send the proprietors a message that they need to rise above this and do the right thing by turning Asha over to a sanctuary.
Do not support this place that's means by purchasing tickets the animal live in pure hell stay away & put them out of business.
They deserve a good review - we went on Sunday morning much slower and laid back. My daughter (5) enjoyed all the animals. We were impressed with such a variety and it is very nice being able to feed them. The enclosures were all being cared for, cleaned and animals being fed while we were there. Gift shop is very nice and admission price to us was a steal.
Only negative is elephant rides did not start till noon and we were there about 9am. If you want to do elephant ride I d call and ask what time they begin on the day you go. We will definitely be back.
This place provided an awesome experience for my family to learn by interaction. We are city raised and longed to see upclose both how to care for and learn from both farm and wild animals. We were able to feed giraffes and feel the surface of their tongue and then Google why their tongues operate the way they do, the same for the baby camel, donkey, and baby tiger, Zeus( this was several years ago).
The elephant is all by herself in a dirt paddock and forced to give rides. Elephants are extremely social creatures and need other elephants for their mental wellbeing. I turned around and walked out. Do NOT support this Zoo. They treat the elephant as an amusement ride.
Beautiful animals, was able to feed some! Had a great time there!
The Natural Bridge Zoo (NBZ) has held the elephant Asha under deplorable conditions for decades and denied her the companionship of other elephants, which is devastating for such a highly social animal. She is exposed to frigid temperatures in the winter and regularly confined to a barn that has damp concrete flooring. In the summer months, she is forced to give rides for hours in the sweltering heat and humidity while at the mercy of her handler.
In 2013, a Virginia state trooper reported witnessing a handler at NBZ jab a bullhook into Asha's mouth eight times while yelling obscenities at her. Asha has endured a life of loneliness, deprivation, and mistreatment at NBZ, a facility that is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has had its license suspended twice, and has been ordered to pay more than $22,000 in penalties over the years.
BOYCOTT ... and pass it on.
Asha the Elephant should be freed of her 31 years of torture and allowed to live her life happily at the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee!
Asha the elephant is abused for peoples entertainment, absolutely disgusting
My husband and I went here back in May during our weekend getaway and the exhibits were REALLY small for the animals, especially for the elephant, alligator and giraffes. It was really sad.. I don't think I will return.
This is a pretty cool place to take your kids to see the animals
The people who run this Zoo are genuinely the worst of this worst America has to offer.The animal rights violations are well observed and documented. The human beings who are responsible for continually perpetrating these crimes are sociopaths. A quick google search will confirm all of this. Well documented through the years. The Virginia governmental agencies who have repeatedly failed to enforce the states animal welfare law bear EQUAL BLAME. I expected this from a zoo in Thailand, but to see it here in America rocks to me to my core, and fills me with genuine, indescribable disgust!!! STAY AWAY!!!!
Very nice small zoo!!! You can feed a lot of the animals
Tourist trap spent way over what I did at the beach in a week vrs 3 days there a weekend trip was absolutely outrageous prices still fun but never again
The zoo was fine bit some of the enclosures seemed way to small for some of the animals
The fact that they still have Elephant rides in this day and age is disgusting. The treatment of animals here is appalling.
It's right of the highway and inexpensive. Not a very big zoo and some of the animals seemed distraught. Other than that I had a good time. You can feed animals by buying bags of feed. They also have some beautiful tigers.
They w0uldve gotten five stars but the camels were thirsty and the elephant had no water
Very clean and the animals were loads of fun and well taken care of.
My parents took me here when I was a kid. The zoo should be closed for good and the owner amd all employees should be put in prison for life, except, give them the same conditions they give their animals. I wonder how they would like it.
How do I see 5 stars on here?!?!?!?!? Most of these reviews are probably FAKE and from the workers at the zoo themselves. I saw multiple macaws with what looked like MANGE. Dirty & incredibly smalls cages. God I feel bad for the pathetic people who work here and have no desire to take better care of animals.
Please do not give these people your money. The animals are kept in horrible cages, some way too small for the animals. Big cats were pacing back and forth in their cages from stress. It was very sad. Not all the animals had water or proper shelter either. This zoo needs to be shut down and the animals taken to a better place that would care for them properly.
Staff abuses the animals..place should be closed and owners and staff jailed. Sickening.
I love zoos already. I did like the fact I could feed some of the animals my self. Needs more places to rest while walking around though.
Such a great little zoo! Really quite a treat to see such beautiful animals right here in Shenandoah valley! You can tell the zookeepers really care for the animals, and they also strive to make the visitors' experience a joy as well. I never got to handfeed a giraffe at any other zoo!
Most of the negative reviews here are anti-zoo in general, many of which clearly from people who've never visited NBZ. If you have a problem with animals in captivity, then you won't enjoy any zoo. But the animals here seem cared-for, loved, and friendly. Definitely a recommend to both locals and visitors!
it was so fun to go there with my family you should vist.
I was in a group of 7 adults and 7 children today, and we had a great time. Lots of fun for all of us! Facilities were good and the animals seem well cared for. I really wonder whether the people who make negative posts have actually been there. We had a picnic lunch in one of their many picnic areas. Super day - great value!
The Natural Bridge Zoo is amazing! The staff was super friendly and knowledgeable. The animals were incredible. I rode an elephant. I fed a tiger, a lemur, a giraffe, an elephant, and many other animals. Our tour guide Tim was great. Well worth the trip. Come early and spend the day. Take the Close Encounters tour, you won't regret it.
If I could give this place NEGATIVE 10 stars, I would. It should be put out of business, and all of the animals that CAN BE SAVED moved to more humane places, to live out the rest of their lives. HORRIBLE, AND DISGUSTING. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED!!!!!!!!!
Visited Natural Bridge Zoo today and it was an incredible experience. The animals are happy. The staff is friendly! The place is clean clean clean! Got the big tour and rode an elephant!! Fed bengal tiger, fed elephant, fed lemur, and held a ball python! Tim grave a great tour! LOVED it!
Very fun and interactive experience. Lacking certain amenities such as a baby changing table and paved walkways for strollers. Those minor inconveniences make the trek a little more tiresome, but the kiddo had a blast.
Too bad the elephant is abused and used as a slave, as in the circus.
There was no water out for most of the animals and the customers were free to abuse the animals in whatever way they wanted because there was NO STAFF present. We had to tell them to stop and they just laughed. So we had to go tell the staff about this family that was doing everything from hitting the animals and throwing things at them, to screaming at the animals and shaking their cages. Even when the staff was told, the family was still there with no supervision abusing the animals when we left. That s not okay. Small enclosures I can look past, for the most part. Abuse and neglect though.. no. It almost ruined the whole trip to go here, I m just glad we didn t have the kids with us on this trip. Nothing about this place is okay.
Beautiful zoo! And wonderful animals! Everything clean and very nice place to get our son! He loves to feed the animals!
Beautiful animals, but very uncared for property and cages. The grass and weeds are taking over the little zoo. All and I do mean all the cages were filthy. Animal waste everywhere. ..and not just a days worth. It's very sad to see the lack of care and love the owner has for the animals. I won't be coming back anymore.
Enclosures very small, some animals didn't look too healthy, parakeet enclosure was the highlight. Staff friendly.
Great prices fun and not over crowded very friendly staff
This store seems a little dated, but maybe I have become accustomed to the newer store in Roanoke.
It's was great for the gr kids petting Zoo they loved
Went to this place before I had went on YouTube we were looking for somewhere to go after original plans fell through. All I can say is I felt really bad for the animals. They were very very fatigue and didn't move it was really sad because they looked so tired I felt bad and demanded my money back because they just looked like they had been through a lot. This is from 3 days ago from 8/25/2018 I wish we never went hadn't I known about how they treat this animals.
It is a horrific example of abuse to animals. They or any other such disgusting so called zoo will be closed down for good. People who bring their children to see these side shows are not or refuse to not see the reality.
This is a horrible place for ALL animals but mostly for elephants. They are NOT meant to ride on their backs for human pleasure. PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT THIS ABUSE!! PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT THIS ABUSE!!
This place is absolutely horrible and thankfully I ve never wasted my money here. The elephant is abused and animals are fed unhealthily. This whole place is disgusting and makes me utterly sick. I wish there was a 0 Star option
Very expensive and very few animals. I have been there several other times and loved it but not this time. Bought food and there were very few animals to feed. If things don't get any better than when I was there I'm not sure how long you will stay in business. I could have went to a farm and seen the animals I saw there. I sure won't be back anytime soon.
Decent trip to the zoo thought it would be more animals.
..Only had 2 hours to walk around.We got there kind of late they still charge us the same price for full day.The animals were awesome
This place is condemnable. It s amazing how many positive reviews suddenly appear after the Instagram petition against this Zoo was created. Beware, they obviously lobby for these fake, positive reviews. Google the zoo and read about all of the violations they ve had this year.
You can ride an elephant or just explore from their wide selection of animals. The place has expanded and opened with a new and unexpected start. I would love to go back with my family!!
Spent the day with my two children and husband here. Wasn't much I actually liked about it. Some of the enclosures were entirely too small for the animals. Cages were dirty and we saw only one person actually trying to clean the cages. My oldest daughter and husband were bitten several times by the parakeets as well as by the Rhea. There was a bird at the snake "house" and her cage was barely big enough for her to be in much less move around in. I do not agree at all with the elephant being used for rides. My girls were not allowed to do this (parents decision). I watched for a few minutes and the handles was none too gentle with it. Overall I was very disappointed with our visit.
Please read about this roadside zoo before going there. Educate yourself about the lack of care and compassion for the animals then decide if it s a place you want to support. Simply google and watch the hidden camera which recorded some unfortunate events. Heartbreaking.
Was very nice to see all the animals and how they live and are treated love it
This is a nice place to feed the animals. The elephant ride is just a small circle but still a very nice experience.
naturalbridgezoo.com