Mill Mountain Zoo — Attraction in Roanoke

As someone who came from California to visit Virginia, I was a bit disappointed and sad seeing the Snow Leopard, Lynx, Black Bear and other bigger animals. I'm not here to simply hate or criticize the zoo entirely, but I will speak up when I can see clear signs of distress and loneliness by their actions. The Lynx was pacing back and fourth continuously which if you look up is a sign of distress, the Snow Leopard was lying on top of the rock with clear sign of boredom and unstimulated, both these giant beautiful cats need constant stimulation and physical activity. Like a typical house cat, they love to explore, chase/hunt, play and climb. However these enclosures are not big enough nor tall enough to hold plenty of trees/bushes, rocks, and space to let them truly roam free. They do have rocks and trees but not enough to feel like an actual environment. The Black Bear did have plenty of space and trees/bushes but even then he looked bored and sad. He was just lying on the floor not really motivated to be active. There's more to mention but these are what really stuck out to me. Again I'm not here to simply criticize a zoo because I'm bored but I do love animals and do believe zoos in general do more harm than good both mentally and physically to the animals. It's good to learn and save endangered species but if we are going to do so we must provide an accurate and fulfilling environment that can feel like home. At the end of the day animals are wild and think/act like animals, its similar to taking a child away and putting into a foster home. Sure they'll be taking care of and looked after but they will not feel fully fulfilled or feel really at home. Sorry for a long review but I really truly feel for all animals in any zoo. Thank you for reading this if you made...

Some of the beautiful animals looked absolutely miserable. They are constantly crying/laying around depressed and pacing back and forth plotting an escape- it really bothered me so much.

I don't mean to be a downer because I'm sure staff does a great job cleaning cages, feeding and taking care of these creatures day in and day out.

The otters for example(and if you read other reviews from guests I'm not the only one who noticed)- need a place to swim. The pond that they have is beyond sub par for their needs. And they were like screaming inside their habitat because they probably have gone absolutely insane from not being able to swim around for years! Like unable to swim at all. It looked like a little pond that you might put like turtles or frogs in. They need way way way WAY more space.

To me this would be just like sticking a polar bear in the middle of the Sahara desert. It's not right.

Suggestion I'm from Massachusetts and there's a place called blue hills that has a similar small zoo around Canton- you should look up the otter habitat there and compare. It's an outdoor exhibit where the otters can swim in this fountain pool all day.

It just really bothered me seeing them so upset.

Other visitors agreed with me and actually said it to me before I brought it up- we all noticed the same thing. It's outright cruel to force these otters to live like this. I really hope that someone takes notice and makes proper accomodations for them.

Upon further research according to Gemini:

"Mill Mountain Zoo lost its AZA accreditation in 2016 due to financial instability, a decline in revenue, and outdated infrastructure. It is now accredited by the Zoological Association of...

Giving this a 3 star review because I wasn't aware they hardly had any animals. Now as I look at their website, I see they don't offer much. When we checked in to buy our tickets, we had 3 adults, a 8 year old, and a 2 year old so the price came to $38.00 even (which isn't bad) we drove two hours here and got there right at 10 AM when they opened. It was super shady (which I LOVED) since we had children. The zoo is located on the Roanoke Mtn so it's cooler anyways. We were not offered a map of the zoo when we did check in, and the box to get a map were empty...we started going through the paths which were nice, but it was almost like a maze to find the animals and eventually we ended up right back where we started like 3 -4 times. I don't believe they have 175 as displayed at their check in desk. I feel like I saw MAYBE 30? We were in and out within an hours time, so we went to the gift shop which offered nothing exiting. Our 8 year old and 2 year old didn't even pick out anything (which is strange for being that age, guess nothing caught their eye) -- you do have to either walk through the "Wildflower Garden" which is super muddy and has no appealing flowers, or walk on the hot pavement back to your car which is a good stretch...overall, the only thing I was happy about was the shade, and it didn't take us long to get back to town. I'll be sure to do more research next time...you get what you pay...