natural bridge zoo

with all the negativity going on with this zoo i thought i would give my review of it. we have taken our daughter here twice, once in 2012 and than again this past april. Both times we went the animals seemed happy and were fat so you could tell they we're well feed. As for the comments being made that the elephant is miserable, i dont believe this to be true. Both times we went her handler was with her and he never left while we were there (we stayed the majority of the day both times) we enjoyed our visit there and we will be taking our daughters again in the future.

they have lots of animals to see and pet. Everything from cheetahs to birds. Its a great stop after doing the drive through safari.

felt like the cages were not large enough for most of the animals, also felt like they could have been cleaned better .I felt very bad for the animals. Other than that, the workers were very nice, esp the worker that delt with the mt lion or tiger as well as the girls that were with the baby camel. the elephant ride was short but worth it. it was nice that you could feed and tough some of the animals as well as the bird exibit was very nice you pay a dollar for a stick with bird feed hold it out and birds would come to you. :)

Though you feel sad to see animals caged and not in their natural environment, the care and love of the caretakers with animals responding to their calls surprises you. We spent a long time near the Bengal tiger cage and was amused to see the white tiger playing and responding to its care taker. Its fascinating to see the closeness of animals to humans and their response when called.

I didn't want to visit another zoo but we had some time to kill late in the day. I was surprised at the number and variety of animals in this small zoo--elephant, giraffes (a baby too), llamas, camels, bears, white tigers, cougars, pygmy goats, fallow deer, zebras, antelope, monkeys, etc. We bought a small bag of feed at the entrance. While there are some animals that you can't feed, there are many that you can feed. We ran out about half way through. I wish we had bought more. Be sure not to miss Ernesta and Skylar, the two cockatoos. If you talk to them, they will talk back to you, saying things like "hi", "how are you", and they can say their names. That was a hoot! On our way out we spotted a man in the cage with the cougar. He told us all about his cougar. Our conversation was quite informative and interesting.

It was okay for a small area out in the country they had a lot of animals just wasn't the attraction I expected for the money.

This exhibit was awesome, tons of animals EVERYWHERE!! I do wish that i knew to have quarters so that i could feed the giraffe, which seemed to be fun, based on those doing it. The monkeys were cute, as well as the flamingos, kangaroos, zebra, etc. I would definitely go back to this attraction!!!

This place was not worth the $$$ at all!! The animals were all enclosed in little cages and the majority you can't even feed, which defeats the purpose of it being an exotic petting zoo. For the prices they charge for admission and feed, you expect much more. The highlight was the parakeet house. Basically the only part we enjoyed.

I went to this zoo on my trip to the Shenandoah valley and it was a wonderful place! We were staying near Luray, which was a bit of a drive, but well worth the trip. As others have mentioned, there are some animals that you can feed, and for the younger kids that was perfect. Our youngest (19 months) was laughing and squealing with excitement at feeding and petting the small deer. How can you not love something that makes your kid so happy?The parakeet aviary was a blast for everyone in our group. Only $1 for a stick of seed for them, but you end up with birds on your arms, your head, one was even climbing into and out of my sons pants pocket! It was a lot of fun and definitely not to be missed. Do watch the birds with the smaller kids though, because some will nip and it can hurt for the little ones. More of a pinch for the adults though.A huge highlight for me was the elephant ride. I LOVE elephants, and here you are able to ride an African Elephant and take pictures doing it. They will take photos for you for a fee, but they have no problems with you taking your own, and the guy leading the elephant even had her raise her trunk as we headed towards the camera just for a better picture. Fortunately I called ahead though, because the rides were only done on Saturday and Sunday, so it would have been easy to miss out if I had not checked on the schedule.Very friendly staff, from the cashier to the animal keepers. Always happy to talk to you about the animals and they seemed to enjoy teaching the kids about the animals they cared for.Hands down this was a great place to visit and I will absolutely come again if I am in the area for future trips.

My husband and went for birthday. He is an animal lover and it was a great experience. It is a smaller zoo and took us about 2 hours to see everything. They also sell feed for some of the animals and we were able to feed everything from goats to giraffe and zebra. They also currently have 2nd tiger cubs that you can be photographed with but unfortunately on the day we were there it was not available. The enclosures are set up in a way that you can walk around the enclosure and see the animal from different angles. I was able to get some fantastic pictures. It was a great way to spend a few hours

We came to the zoo by mistake and boy was it a big one. We had heard about a drive thru zoo and ended up picking up a brochure for this one thinking it was it at our hotel.As soon as we drove up I knew we made a mistake but we decided to have our picture taking with a granddaughter and the baby tiger. We never went into the main part of the zoo. For about 30 minutes we waited for the appointed time with other folks. Our granddaughter (almost 4) enjoyed watching the baby tigers play behind the glass. At 11:30 a woman(assume a trainer) came out and explained how it would work. She said to be sure to have are tickets ready to hand over when it was our turn. My granddaughter went to hand her the ticket and she rudely told her to go back where she was standing. My first thought was she doesn't like children which is a bad position to be in that job. She came off as arrogant and a like this process was a nuisance to her. When we went in we followed her instructions. She put the baby tiger on my husbands lap with my granddaughter on the left side where she was sitting near by and me on the other side to hold the tigers hind end. She put the bottle in the Tigers mouth and had my husband hold it. The baby tiger stood up walking over my granddaugthers legs towards the trainer. Of course my granddaughter screamed and cried clearly afraid(as was I). I never felt anyone was in danger and the trainer was right there to take control. However, she was extremely rude and annoyed that my granddaughter was so upset. My husband asked to take her out and try again if she wanted to. She said we have to get this done in one setting. We exchanged words to the effect that we are the customers and didn't appreciate her attitude towards us or a child who got scared. She told us to leave the room.As I was walking out she rolled her eyes at me. We went to the front desk and complained. To their credit they were nice and gave us a refund and apologized. We left and went to the Safari Park which was awesome!

Very nice & decently priced. It was small & not very big which was perfect with kids. The animals were well cared for & there was a lot to see.

This place is phenomenal, and no trip to Natural Bridge would be complete without a stop here. It would be a fantastic place to take kids, since you get to see the animals at very close range, and even get to feed some of them! The parakeet aviary is highly recommended, but be forewarned, they bite! Feeding the giraffes was a highlight (where else do you ever get to do something like that?) and the staff was awesome!

Love this zoo so many wonderful animals to see and you can hold two tiger cubs and feed them a bottle and have your picture taken

My grand children loved the Elephant ride! It was really hot the day we went but the kids still enjoyed all the animals -