Long Island Game Farm Wildlife Park & Children's Zoo — Attraction in Town of Brookhaven

I just spent the day here today and found the place not the same as the last time I was here. (15 or 20 yrs ago) This game farm needs severe updating, there are few less animals and the cages need to be either upgraded or changed. I liked the Llamas and sheep. This is a great place to bring children to 4 to 10 yrs old. I see how children's eyes light up being able to feed the animals and interact (isn't that what these places are for?.. teaching children about the wonders of the wild animal world.

However, the park seems to be in disarray, to me and my guest, it seems as if the park itself is being neglected (there are so many unused cages that nature took back (with over growth of fauna and foliage) The park is not at all pristine or upgraded, there are fewer animals then previous years, not sure why this is. My guest and I noticed cages (or what used to be enclosures that were competly emptied and totally over grown one was a concrete circle that used to have a iron cage on top (but the cage is no longer on it, just has the iron rods in a circle) It looks like the owners no longer want to run this game farm, surprisingly the Long Island game farm rescued the Mountain Lion from the now "closed" Catskill Game farm (that was the best game farm in the state of NY, bar none)

This game farm needs a severe face lift, upgrading the facility to bring it into the tech world and increasing the amount of wild animals ( like including black bears, like the Catskill Game farm, since they closed according to the fact that they were advised to upgrade their game farm but the cost was beyond what they could afford to do it.. and with low attendance and growing overhead costs they closed I fear this Long Island Game Farm is going to be the next one to go, if nothing is done rt

The visit at the Long Island Game Farm today (44th year anniversay 2013) and compared to my last visit to the Catskill Game Farm (summer of 2006) the Catskill game farm in its last few months of operation was much more fun then the Long Island Game farm today,

But it's still a great place to bring smaller children. There is also a new petting zoo just a few miles from the game farm that is a little cheaper, but expanding it's facility yearly and could surpass...

We go every year as a tradition, but I think this may be our last time. Every year, more and more gets taken away. It's sad how far this place has fallen since the 90s. The whole area has a very depressing, isolated feel - as if it's a ghost of its former self just trudging along. It's like the animals also know how things have deteriorated.

The whole back of the park is closed down, which included a theater for shows and some larger animals in their own (I recall a moose, but could be mistaken, as one example) sections. This year, that reptile room is gone as well, not that it was that big to begin with, but at least it was something. Bathrooms used to be disgusting, but they at least renovated that. There are no rides anymore.

Perhaps the biggest insult, though, is the price, which has steadily gone up per year while each year offers less to see. If you take your time, even two hours is a major stretch. A family of four (with two little kids) will cost around $100 just get in.

But the food to feed the animals isn't cheap and the other stuff to do like feeding the giraffe, pony rides, and other add-ons aren't cheap either. Usually if it's a steep price to get in, the extras are a little less expensive to offset that.

if you have kids, they'll probably enjoy it, but there are better options out there. They should just merge with the ecology park or try to share funding with the WCS or something. This place really is on its last legs and it's sad! Going on a Saturday that wasn't too hot, it was not crowded at all - that used to never be the case.

I can't give it one star because the staff is friendly and despite its small size, the animal diversity is pretty good, but yeah, I don't think we'll be back...

Long Island Game Farm has been around since I was a kid, and in that time, I don't think it's changed greatly - which isn't a problem if you're not as frequent a guest as my family is. Chances are you aren't if you're reading this review, anyway.

If you haven't visited the Park, I would recommend doing so in nice weather. My personal favorite portion of the park is where you get to feed goats - the goats might spook younger children since they have a tendency to jump on you at the sight of food, but they shouldn't do any harm past that. The hard part is wrestling food away from them if you want to feed another goat! And if you haven't had an opportunity to feed a giraffe by hand, this is the place to do it. There's going to be a lot of tongue and saliva involved in this effort, but for memorability and photos, it doesn't get much better than that. There's also the deer exhibit, where you can walk among packs of deer, but they tend to be skittish of humans.

Other than that, you can expect your typical petting zoo/small zoo fare, like rabbits and birds. I do wish that the premises had a few more workers roaming around - I've seen people attending the park bothering the animals, like trying to touch them when the signs all around clearly say to not. I think this is part of the reason why the deer are so skittish; you are allowed to touch them, but I watch parents allow their children to scream and chase after them which sends them scurrying in all sorts of directions. It can't be good for them.

Overall, I would recommend giving the Park a try - just be wary of some of the antics of...