Erie Zoo — Attraction in Erie

Had a lovely day at the Erie zoo. Took the drive from Buffalo (where we have a membership to the Buffalo Zoo) for a chance to see some new animals. Parking was free, and while there was no reciprocity for Buffalo zoo members, the cost of admission was a modest $12 for adults and $8 for children. There was a large variety of wild cat exhibits, delighting my cat obsessed 4 year old, and plenty of other new animals for Buffalo regulars. I particularly enjoyed the orangutans and gibbons. There is a walk-through enclosure with wallabies and a kangaroo which was an exciting experience to get close to the animals without a barrier. A zoo volunteer inside the exhibit provided a great conversation with plenty of kangaroo facts. The layout of the grounds is excellent, with up close views and glass barriers. Easy to navigate a full stroller along the paths, all of which are lined with plenty of trees, shrubs, and flowers. There is a large court yard near the monkey house where we ate our picnic lunch. Plenty of tables with umbrellas to sit and relax, enjoying the monkeys and flowers (and chipmunks! Although I believe that they entered the zoo without paying admission) Lastly there was a train ride that takes passengers along the outter perimeter of the zoo, past a crocodile (real!) and through a haunted tunnel (not real???). Riders then pass over a bridge to enter an exhibit with mountain sheep and stowaway geese. A fairly decent ride length of approx 10-15 minutes for a bargain $4. TLDR Great time. Good...

REGARDING THE GLOW WILD SHOW: Great if you enjoy poor planning and walking around the zoo in the dark 😂 they had the last showing start at 9pm. When you get there after the hellacious parking situation, you get distracted by a show that’s supposed to start at 9:15pm. The show was great, the kids in it are super talented. The show ends at 9:34pm, and my mom and I start walking around the light show. It was gorgeous and we were having an awesome time….UNTIL, at 9:58pm, one of the zoo workers sees us and goes, “Just so you know, the lights are set on timers to go out at 10pm.” I was like, excuse you? At exactly 10pm, ALL of the lights go out on EVERYONE in the zoo. We were halfway through and everything went dark and there were TONS of families with their little kids still running around the zoo. It was creepy and weird and everyone who worked at the zoo shut everything down while there were still HUNDREDS OF US inside. We didn’t get to see the other half of the show and we were shuttled out in the dark by the staff, not at all getting what we paid for. DESPICABLE. This zoo gipped everyone who went to this late show out of the experience, and their money. If they would’ve stayed open till at least 11pm it would’ve been fine. Everyone who went to this show should be refunded end of story, that was SLEAZY. WORST part of our trip to...

My family and I visited Erie Zoo in March of this year. It was very inexpensive, and took about 45 min to walk the whole place. This was the most depressing experience ever. A lot of the animals looked dead in the eyes. The lions were sleeping, and had no water. Their caged area was dirty, and just sad. The orangutans were playing with toilet paper and their caged area had no enrichment. Just dull dirty concrete as well as styrofoam pieces everywhere. The zebra and rino area smelled so bad you can’t stay for more than a minute before you feel ill. It wasn’t a poo smell, it was like a rotten body flesh smell? Maybe they had serious rotted infections? I’m not an activist of any kind. I mean I love animals but that’s as far as it goes. After visiting here, it took a few days before I was not feeling depressed. I even dreamed about the place. I had fantasies about being able to release all of them. I don’t know who to blame for the lack of treatment and basic care these animals aren’t getting. But I’ll start with every single staff member, and so called zoologists working there. You guys should be terribly ashamed for working at the Erie Zoo. I really hope the state shuts you down and can get those animals into a...