Izu Shaboten Zoo — Attraction in Ito

I would give this 0 stars if I could. We visited against my better judgement and I’m still thinking about the poor animals days later. I don’t understand how this zoo has such a high rating across all platforms. Some of the animals are kept in awful conditions. The binturong were in cages far too small for them for example. The same applied for lots of other animals. There was a giant rabbit that was in a cage with no room to do anything other than sit there. There were no staff to supervise tourist interactions with the free roaming animals so tourists were grabbing and shouting at animals inappropriately causing them to be very stressed. There’s a section with parrots that are out in the open and weren’t flying away so it looked like their wings had been cut. This zoo does not promote or encourage natural animal behaviours. All animals need to be able to do things that they would in the wild, such as hiding and climbing and having mental stimulation to avoid issues. Tourists could pay for food and then pass it through tiny holes in the enclosure walls but this meant that the animals that had room, seemed to spend the day pacing up and down waiting to be fed. Meerkats, an animal that needs to be in a group, were separated. There were chinchillas all rolled up in a ball in a totally bare cage, again no food no water, no bedding. One of the worst parts was probably the several owls that were tied to perches despite in one section there being a sign about ‘free flying’ owls, and again there was not even any staff to supervise this. It was an incredibly sad sight to see such beautiful animals tied up in this way, forced awake in the day time and not able to move. It must be a very miserable existence. We left early because it was too upsetting. This zoo (and its visitors) need to do better. There’s no excuse for these conditions in a very well developed country in 2025....

Animal welfare is definitely not even towards the top of the list here. Most of the enclosures were so very small and pretty barren, especially for mammals. The monkeys towards the entrance had only a concrete room painted to look like a sad jungle, with only a couple of trees and no enrichment items that I could see. The sloth had a tiny concrete room with a couple of sticks, like many of the other animals. All of the owls besides one were tethered to stands with very short ropes. Many animals that every other zoo I’ve been to had in enclosures, were somehow left in open areas with no fence. Kangaroos included. The “iconic” capybara onsen is literally a muddy concrete pool that they can jump into. It was very small per the number of animals. The Agouti enclosure smelled very strong of ammonia and it was behind glass minus a small opening that you could drop food into….the ammonia smell was that strong. Many animals were dirty looking and a couple paced in circles or just back and forth. All of the parrots looked to have almost half of one whole wing clipped to prevent them from flying. The animals that were free roaming just went wherever in an odd way - I’m not sure what even kept them in the zoo. My kids liked it because you could pet many of the animals but I wonder how many animals or people have been injured due to the closeness. The only redeeming factor, and the reason for two stars, was the plant areas. My son loved seeing the different cacti, and it’s cool how you could plant your own the bring home. Overall wouldn’t recommend and definitely wouldn’t come here again. We wouldn’t have visited if we would have known just how depressing...

During my trip to Japan, I went to this zoo twice and it was a pleasant experience both times. I loved getting to see/pet the capybaras and various other small creatures. It's clear that the zoo doesn't have a lot of funds to house larger animals and it shows on the enclosures that are available. Some of which were clearly undersized and possibly harmful to their inhabitants. Of which, the most concerning being the owls who are all tied to posts in various parts of the park. I was also surprised that they allow dogs (non-service/ESA) into the park and was worried about how this might stress some of the animals even even with some areas not allowing dogs.

Many of the enclosures have little spots to feed the animals and I thought this was nice. Offloading some of the cost to feed these animals on the visitors, but I also worried that they would possibly be overfed. However, on my second visit to the zoo, I got to watch two of the zookeeper's attempting to weigh a couple of anteaters, which was very cute. Clearly making sure the animals are a healthy weight.

I would highly suggest going through their cactus gardens which was surprisingly the highlight of the park. Housing some absolutely stunning saguaro cacti and featuring plants from three different continents. Connected together on a winding path through greenhouses and animal habitats.

I would go back again but I cannot give the zoo 5 stars due to the poor conditions of some...