Wakayama Castle Park Zoo — Attraction in Wakayama

The zoo is free and I fully understand that children and families love to see the animals. Also the area with the castle 🏯 is beautiful.

So why only 2⭐? It is because the way the zoo is designed it is much to small for the animals. Also there is a lot of concrete and it does not resemble at all their natural living environment. Most animals are rather passive and with dead eyes or show unnatural behavior.

Please consider reducing the number of animals and limit the zoo to small ones, which are happy is medium sized cages. Try to simulate the natural environment as good as possible.

In my humble opinion the zoo in Zurich, Switzerland does a good job. Maybe it can function for some inspiration.

Thank you for your...

Japan has never been well known for its zoo but this is definitely an absolute rock bottom. There are rabbits, chickens and goats in enclosure to make up for the type of animals. It is a free zoo and it can only mean that the funding comes from its prefectural government. Please kindly fund more into this "farm" with better enclosures or just set the caged animals free. The animals look unhappy and the cages are smalI, dirty and rundown. I only take one picture of this most pathetic zoo I have ever been to as it shows a wall painting that depicts a human fighting a bear in a bear enclosure. 🤦‍♂️I pity the poor bear in it who is lying down at the right side of the photo as per the drawing. Defeated...

Visited on a weekday early afternoon around 2pm to see the castle the trail markers were very clear and you were able to get to the zoo a short walk away from the castle. You need to get tickets to see inside the castle or you can walk around outside for free. There is also a cafe/gift shop beside the castle for you to get ice cream and souvenirs which we enjoyed!

We visited the zoo after and since it was so hot that day the animals were either in their shelters or in the shade. We still got to see quite a few of them though. However I'm not sure how much they enjoy living there because many cages only had one animal with no others of it's kind to interact...