Blue Zoo Aquarium Baton Rouge — Attraction in Baton Rouge

If I could I’d give less than one star. Understaffed and underwhelming. As a college student trying to get out and have fun with friends this place was nothing short of a human society violation. You could easily reach into a tank and grab a seahorse and no one would stop you because there isn’t an employee for miles. The touch pools with stingrays were also left unattended so kids could fall deeper in the water if parents aren’t watching. My friend went to hold a turtle and the attendant told us to be carful because it was a SNAPPING TURTLE, who puts snapping turtles in an interactive experience????? The worst thing by far was the bird room. I understand due to COVID that many people can’t be in the bird room at once, but that doesn’t stop them from jam packing people into the rest of the building. When we entered the bird room there was a bird limping and covered in dried blood. Another bird was missing a chunk of feathers around their neck, pointing to signs of violence among the birds. To be fair, if you left approx 100 birds in as small of a room as they do it’s understandable why they are fighting each other. The attendant also does not properly explain how to handle birds, which lead to children squeezing the birds tightly. There’s no age requirement for the bird so if you wanted to your toddler could gladly squash a bird. Some of the poor animals were shaking behind the benches hoping to not be noticed. Not to mention, you only get 5 minutes with the birds and in order to distract the birds while people are leaving, they slam a wet floor sign on the ground, spooking the birds (and guests). I understand it’s basically a petting zoo in the mall, but if you’re going to care for animals, at-least make sure they have proper space or don’t have the animal at all if you don’t have the space!!! They also have something about tokens but never once actually mention tokens, if you’re gonna take peoples money, at-least advertise it more.

I’ve never left a review on a place in my life but this...

For the size of the place, it is overpriced. I will say on a positive note that the aquariums are very beautiful and well-maintained. Now for the negatives- the place is extremely understaffed and not managed well. Children were running amok everywhere, and not regulated near the touch ponds. Especially when it came to the turtles,and the small fish near the far end. There was a staff at the entrance touch pond, koi pond (sometimes) and the stingrays only. When my daughter and I approached the turtles, children and adults, where scooping them up out of the pool, and even pulling them out from under the logs. Not one zoo member was regulating this area. It was really sad. I understand as a parent, it's our responsibility to teach/tell our children to follow the rules and respect the animals. How is one though to expect a child to do this when adults are misbehaving. Also we were excited to hear the snake lecture until the two zoo members took the Python and placed it on the floor in the nosiest room where their is a playground!! Then when all the kids wanted to touch it (even after the rules were stated) it was an ambush and once again the zoo staff didn't have a situation under control. The other con is waiting to get into the area to see the birds. After 40 mins of being in line (only advancing about 30 feet) we finally stepped out to feed the Koi fish and turtle. This took about 20 more minutes of our time, but at least it was well spent. When coming back around to check on the line for the bird area, the people in front of us were just barely the next group to go into that area. Also, most people aren't wearing masks, and there are so many people inside a small space. I almost think (even without COVID) that this should be advanced tickets, with limited amount of people for every one or two hours. Hopefully soon this place will have more staff, better service, and rules to follow in the future. This is the first place (zoo, conservation, aquarium, etc) where I felt the animals were...

While browsing BR’s mall kids and I decided to stop here, ask questions for prices and the cashier mentioned that Tuesdays are the Mermaid Show. Of course my daughter and so wanted to see so we paid and walked through. Prices were high but still reasonable. I can’t remember the exact amount, my baby got in free, I believe for the 3 of us it totaled to about $60. We were able to purchase food to feed certain fish, reptiles and birds. The mermaid show was ok, the girl interacted with the children and splashed them a bit. At the end of the walkthrough your kids are able to play at a water table so be expecting to get wet. Take change of clothes or dress them in play clothes. After that we had to walk the rest of the mall wet but the memories were well worth it. We will be going again and this take will take dad to experience it. I’m not sure if there are other days of the week they had events happening. I’m not sure of it has changed but since I went “Tuesdays is the Mermaid show”. You can hold the bearded dragon lizards, pet the tortoises, observe the spiders, and roaches, snakes and frogs. You are allowed to pet the stingrays. Be careful because the stingrays slap your hand lol. Feed the koi fish. Feed the turtles. feed and hold parakeets in a small room. Watch the sharks swim, observed scuba diving swim wear, many other sea fishes. Touch sea urchins, starfishes. Water table fun at the end. There is a small playground to climb on, a small slide, and a photo booth to take pictures together for $7. And there is a souvenir gift shop towards the end as well. Well...