Jozani Butterfly & Boutique — Attraction in Unguja

If you think animal welfare is important, DO NOT VISIT THIS PLACE. IT IS NOT THE ZANZIBAR BUTTERFLY CENTRE. There was a bushbaby kept in a tiny cage without any enrichment! Awful to see. The guide also touched the animal, which was understandably very afraid and stressed out. He wanted to take it out to let us hold it, but we were not okay with that. It’s never okay to directly interact with wild animals to ‘please’ visitors. Also, bushbaby’s are nocturnal animals, so putting them on display in a tiny cage during the day, touching them, holding them,… is just pure animal cruelty. Keep them in their natural habitat, not in cages. We really didn’t expect to witness something like that and it made us very upset. There were also elephant shrews in an enclosure. The guide ‘chased’ them so they would move and we could take a ‘good picture’. We told him many times to stop, cause it scared them and we only wanted to see them in peace. He also grabbed a chameleon and put it on my partner’s hand. We put it immediatly back on the leaves, for the same reason as mentioned above. Don’t touch them, don’t stress them out, don’t keep them in cages. Let the animals be in peace. We visited because we thought it was the Zanzibar butterfly centre where they help them reproduce and then set them free in the wild, but it is not. If we knew there were other animals there locked up and being handeld by humans, we would’ve never been there. I hope from the bottom of my heart that they release the shrews, squirrels, bushbaby’s, chameleons, lizzards, … back into the wild. And if that’s not possible because they wouldn’t survive cause they have been locked up too long, PLEASE make them a gigantic enclosure that resembles their natural habitat and don’t ever let visitors into their enclosure or touch them. Please leave...

Butterflies are actually a small focus of this place, it seems to be a knock off of the popular and well reviewed Zanzibar Butterfly Centre which I can’t speak to as our driver took us here instead. They charge $8 USD (18,000 TZS) to show you a couple of bush babies that are in a small concrete closet and tell you they release them after 6months for conservation efforts, which seems dubious at best. It’s unclear where they release them to and how this supports conservation. Tortoises are kept in a fenced area that looks nice enough but they are purchased from the mainland and you are encouraged to pick them up. Our guide indicated plans to purchase other animals as well. While this type of attraction may support the local community economically I don’t think that can be said of the wildlife that it claims to...

🇬🇧 Terrible experience, a place to absolutely avoid out of respect for the animals that are mistreated inside. I visited the facility this morning with friends to see the butterflies and, between a chrysalis and a caterpillar, the guide brought out some galagos (bush babies) for us to take pictures with. The animals appeared stressed and terrified—one of them was even forcibly placed on my friend’s hand and ended up biting him! The guide didn’t know what to do, so instead suggested we continue the cruel tour by holding other animals (chameleons). We had to rush to the hospital to start rabies treatment, while the staff at the butterfly centre made jokes about what happened, downplaying our reaction and repeatedly saying “hakuna matata, mzungu” (literally “white people, don’t worry” in a dismissive tone), without offering a single apology. It was a disrespectful and dangerous attitude towards tourists, but most of all, it was cruel to the poor animals kept in captivity. We regret not having read the reviews beforehand, as this was a last-minute activity. Please don’t support facilities that exploit animals in this way.

🇮🇹 Esperienza terribile, posto da evitare assolutamente per il rispetto degli animali che vengono maltrattati al suo interno. Sono stata questa mattina nella struttura con amici per vedere le farfalle e, tra una pupa e bruco, la guida ci porta dei galagoni (bush babies) per fare foto. Gli animali appaiono stressati e terrorizzati, uno di questi è stato poi forzatamente messo sulla mano di un mio amico e l’ha morso!! La guida non sapeva come fare, quindi ci ha proposto di continuare il cruel tour mettendoci in mano altri animali (camaleonti). Siamo quindi corsi in ospedale per iniziare il trattamento antirabbico, a scapito del il personale del butterfly centre che ironizzava sull’accaduto, sminuendo la nostra reazione e dicendo continuamente “hakuna matata, mzungu” (letteralmente “bianchi, non vi preoccupate” detto in modo dispregiativo), senza alcuna scusa a riguardo. È un comportamento irrispettoso, pericoloso verso i turisti, ma soprattutto crudele verso i poveri animali che tengono in cattività. Ci spiace aver letto le recensioni a posteriori, essendo stato un ripiego di attività decisa all’ultimo. Non sostenete strutture che sfruttano gli animali in...