Timbavati Wildlife Park — Attraction in Wisconsin Dells

As someone who's worked in several zoos and studied zoo animal science, I wanted to leave a quick review of this zoo! Might be a bit of a long one haha

Starting with the positives. There was a pretty short wait time entering the zoo, staff we talked to were friendly and enclosures and grounds were pretty tidy. This zoo also offered a wide range of experiences in terms of animal engagement as we were able to hand feed giraffes, camels and many many more species that I've never been able to feed or engage with at any other establishment. So in terms of being a fun family day out on the surface, this zoo definitely delivers and children will likely enjoy!

However, and I should state that I am not a professional and am simply stating observations and opinions from my personal experience and studies, I do have a few issues regarding welfare standards. It should be mentioned that this zoo is not AZA accredited and I do kind of see why.

The feeding experience, well definitely fun and unique, does present some serious issues for disease transmission. The stations in which you could feed animals didn't appear tightly monitored to me and presented a major risk of cross contamination from the same containers being used for multiple species or even from visitors not taking proper sanitation precautions (which I did not observe frequently). Allowing visitors to freely wander the zoo with food containers, while providing a unique experience, seemed to be putting a needless risk on the animals through the above mentioned cross-species contamination or even contamination from visitor-based sources (especially considering a lot of visitors participating in feeding were young children). As well as this, a lot of trust was placed in visitors to follow the guides on what to feed to what animals. I witnessed on multiple occasions, instances where visitors would feed an animal a different food than what was listed it could have and on some occasions even feed an animal that wasn't listed at all on the feeding guidelines. Not once did I witness staff intervention when this happened.

Another point I'd like to address is the enclosures. While some had a decent amount of space and provided enrichment features, I noticed a lot of the enclosures were either quite a bit smaller than other enclosures I'd seen for the same species or were very flat without many enrichment based features. While trying not to anthropomorphise, quite a few animals looked bored or appeared to be exhibiting stereotypic behaviour. Some specific enclosure examples were in the "Nursery" exhibit, appearing to be aimed at showing off younger animals. Enclosure sizes were incredibly small in an indoor building (so lots of noise) and were heavily exposed to the public which didn't sit well for me for animals at such a young age. The biggest offender of enclosures for me however, was the two toed sloth exhibit. As someone who spend a lot of time working within a sloth enclosure, to see 5 sloths bundled on a tiny climbing frame, the size of a small bathroom, really did not sit well with me (for reference the enclosure I worked in was over 10x bigger than their one and that was just for two sloths!)

Overall it appears this zoo focuses a lot more on cool, wow-factor visitor experiences than logistical and ethical approaches to their animals which is a common trend in roadside zoos.

As I wrap up, I want to clarify that I am not an expert or professional, the above are just my observations and opinions given my own experience and studies. I also want to clarify that this post is not designed as an attack or to dissuade people from visiting, by all accounts we did enjoy our visit at points. I just simply want to provide some constructive criticism as well as give animal-lovers such as myself a more informed viewpoint on this zoo before deciding to give them their money. I love animals and I love zoos and I firmly believe that all zoos should have animal welfare, education and conservation at their forefront, all areas I did feel...

My family visited the wildlife park today, and overall, we had a good time. We enjoyed seeing the animals and especially liked getting to feed them. The only negative part of our visit was at the parakeet exhibit.

My husband and older son stayed behind due to allergies, so it was just my younger son and I. There were no clear signs explaining how the parakeet area worked, and since this was our first time there, I wasn’t sure what to do. We waited outside the first door for a moment, unsure if we could just enter. Someone exiting the exhibit held the door open for us, so we walked into the small area where an employee was behind a counter selling seed sticks.

We still didn’t see any signage or receive a greeting or acknowledgment from the employee, who was helping another customer at the time. As we started to approach the second set of doors, the older man behind the counter suddenly said, in an annoyed tone, “There are rules I need to explain.” I apologized and said I wasn’t aware.

The guest he was helping chuckled and commented that he probably needed more help in this area. The employee replied, “Or customers with better manners. They think they can just walk right in.” I was taken aback. It felt unnecessary and unprofessional, but I chose not to respond to avoid escalating the situation.

He told us not to step on the rocks—something that was already posted at every other exhibit we visited and something we were already familiar with. I felt this could’ve easily been communicated with a sign, as it was elsewhere in the park, making the process more consistent and clear. He also mentioned we needed seed sticks, which we had already purchased. I showed him, but he didn’t say anything further. I stood there for a moment waiting for some kind of confirmation to proceed, but he said nothing.

A few seconds later, a man and his son came in and walked straight toward the second door. I let them know they should speak to the employee first. The employee looked at them and casually said, “Just stay off the rocks.” No attitude. No lecture. They walked right in, so we followed right behind them.

I enjoyed feeding the parakeets with my son, but I couldn’t ignore the clear difference in how we were treated. I’m a brown woman, and I was spoken to sharply and told I lacked manners. The white father who entered right after me received none of that treatment, despite doing the exact same thing, except without any hesitation. The difference in treatment suggested there was a bias. While I can’t know exactly what was happening in his mind, the double standard in how I was treated and how the dad was treated points toward racial and/or gender-based discrimination, rather than just a one-off personality issue.

When I met back up with my husband and told him what happened, he was understandably upset. I didn’t want to make a scene, so we left after that incident. I do want others to be aware. If you visit—especially if you’re a woman of color—know that the older man, who I assume is in his 70s and is working the parakeet area, (at least on 07/31/2025 around 11 a.m.) may be a bit sexist and/or racist.

We received our tickets for free through the Kalahari, but even if they were free again, we likely...

I based this location on wanting to go to the safari.

I happened to find a room with two queen beds at The Vue through my Airbnb and Rich was offering two free tickets to the Safari. The room was very fairly priced and the tickets were just a bonus!!

We arrived about 8:50 a.m. and they open at 9:00 a.m. There were maybe four or five other people there within a half an hour of us entering and it was great!

We pretty much had the park to ourself and it started to get busy when we were heading out after about 90 minutes. That made the experience a lot better for me, arriving when they open and during the week and Spring helped versus summer/weekend. (I'm sure you get the picture 🙂)

The park was a lot larger than we both expected and because it's in an area that you would not expect a Safari to be, that made it even more cool / exciting.

As with many other people the feeling for the animals being confined goes through your mind as I feel it should naturally.

There were so many photos that I'm not going to be uploading all of them. But the ones I upload you will get an idea of how worth it I think it is to stop in here if you are passing through or if you choose to stay in Wisconsin Dells.

The Safari is owned by a mother and son and I was in touch with her some months back so I could confirm the time of year and the time of day that they would be open. She was very quick to respond and super helpful.

My main complaint or concern would be the housing for the two tigers and the lion and lioness.

Where I see that there were Nice sized open fields for a couple of the other animals they have to run around.... I would only hope that they are working on expanding a similar space for the Lions and tigers/cougars / leopards and any of the other animals who could use that space.

I think they are in the middle of doing some construction and again I'm hoping that's what they are focusing on.

You do not answer through the front gates, you enter through the gift shop where you buy your ticket and then go through their double doors to the park.

Again check it out, there are so many things to do in Wisconsin Dells for kids and even adults - if I had a few days there I would have checked out so much more.

There are also two choices of how to purchase food for some of the animals and you are able to feed the giraffe and camels. We were able to feed the camels, but the giraffe was walking around in the distance and had no interest in the food. $10 for the box that had a few different types of food for several different...