Buildling a List - Free Roaming Wildlife in Parks & Zoos

ccraftccraft Registered Users Posts: 55 Big grins
edited March 21, 2007 in Wildlife
Hello,

My trip last weekend to Northwest Trek near Seattle prompted me to try to research other wildlife rehab/wildilfe park/zoos in and around B.C. and Washington State. Unfortunately, there are a lot of great diretories for "zoos" but none that indicate
a) the best zoos/wildlife parks for photography and
b) facilities where animals are free roaming (not in small enclosures & therefore better for the animals AND photography).

I'm sure a lot of you are like me - you schedule your trips around viewing wildlife and nature. For anyone traveling to a destination, it's great to know if there are facilities nearby that also have access to rescued and free-romaing/cageless wildilfe.

I thought I'd start a list off and see what we can build together.

Here is my list. Feel free to add yours, regardless of where you live.

#1 Northwest Trek Wildlife Park
(Eatonville, WA - 1.5 hours from Seattle)
All animals are north american. The majority of animals were rescued and couldn't be released back into the wild. They have a free roaming area where you can view animals by tram (point your camera out the window). This lessens the impact on the animals. They score high for conservation/animal rights plus have cageless environments that benefit photography.
There is a photographer's tour once a month for $40 US. You get your own seat on a tram for three hours (with lots of room for your tripod, etc.)
http://www.nwtrek.org/

#2 Vancouver Zoo
(Near Langley - about 45 mins from Vancouver)
They have a free-roaming area for black bears, elk and bison. They also have a tram that drives through the area and you can point your camera out the window. They have many rescued animals. However, they lose points for having extremely tiny cages for their monkeys. I'll never understand why zoos can't get bigger environments and I will always think it's completely tragic to have tropical animals in North America. Therefore, low points for animal rights.
http://www.gvzoo.com/

#3 Grouse Mountain
(just above Vancouver)
They have wolves, grizzlies and birds of prey. The wolves are former actors. The bears were rescued. The bears and wolves have lots of room to move around and can easily hide from the public (which is good). While the area isn't cageless, you can stick your lens through the cage fairly easily to get cageless shots... and, best of all for the animals, they have acres to roam around if they want to avoid tourists. high points for conservation and animal rights.
http://www.grousemountain.com/edu_wiledupro.cfm

#4 Birds of Prey Centre
(Duncan, B.C. - 45 minutes from Victoria on Vancouver Island)
This place has a "hawk walk" wher eyou can hike with a free-flying trained hawk. It's pretty cool. On the upsetting side... they ahve a display of live eagles (cageless) that don't have any room to move (they are tied to posts) and you can get thisclose to them. Those who know abuot eagle behavior know that eagles do not like to have people (especially loud and agressive children tourists) thisclose to them. It stresses them out. While it's easy to get a picture, I find it unethical to stress out such a magestic bird for the sake of a photo op. Very low points on an animal rights scale.
http://www.pnwraptors.com/birds_of_prey_visitor_center.html

#5 Northern Lights Wolf Centre
(Golden B.C. - about an hour and a half from Banff National Park on the B.C. side)
I haven't visited here yet, but I plan to this summer. This facility has several wolves and you can go hiking with them (which sounds pretty awesome for photography!) From what I've read, the owners take great care of these animals and go to great lenghts not to stress them out. http://www.northernlightswildlife.com/

#6 Elk Island National Park
(1.5 hours from Edmonton, Alberta)
This is actually one of Canada's national parks. It isn't a zoo.. but it is a caged-in environment where elk, moose, bison, etc. are free-roaming. It's the largest enclosed wildlife area in the world. You can camp there and simply drive or hike and encounter wildlife as you woudl in teh wild. Besides coyotes, there are no predators in the park. It is designated to protect the grazing animals there. The park also has over 250 species of birds, the park is a bird watcher's paradise. This is highly recommended if you're in the area. The wildilfe here is a lot like Yellowstone -- only different looking trees/environment. Scores high on conservation & photography!
http://www.greatcanadianparks.com/alberta/elkislenp/index.htm

Christina Craft - FunkyTown Photography
portrait and wedding photographer Victoria BC
C-2529 Vancouver St, Victoria · 360-775-2539

Comments

  • MaestroMaestro Registered Users Posts: 5,395 Major grins
    edited March 19, 2007
    Off the top of my head....the only free roaming wildlife center of which I know in Texas is Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, Texas, about 50 miles south of Ft. Worth, Texas. I refer to it in this thread

    I'll add more as I think of them for Texas.
  • DJ-S1DJ-S1 Registered Users Posts: 2,303 Major grins
    edited March 19, 2007
    I think San Diego Wild Animal Park qualifies, much of it is free roaming. We enjoyed it -
  • MaestroMaestro Registered Users Posts: 5,395 Major grins
    edited March 19, 2007
    DJ-S1 wrote:
    I think San Diego Wild Animal Park qualifies, much of it is free roaming. We enjoyed it -

    That place looks fun. They even have a photo sleepover.
  • ccraftccraft Registered Users Posts: 55 Big grins
    edited March 21, 2007
    Maestro wrote:
    That place looks fun. They even have a photo sleepover.

    I'm also interested in going here one day (the San Diego Wildlife Park). It would be completely worth the admission (which is I think $99 and a sleepover is $150 or something like that)... but I had read somewhere that they won't permit you to sell pictures of animals taken here. I tried to find info about it again on their website but I can't locate it. Does anyone know if this is the case?

    Cheers!

    Christina Craft - FunkyTown Photography
    portrait and wedding photographer Victoria BC
    C-2529 Vancouver St, Victoria · 360-775-2539

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