Originally Posted by Graz

Hello im looking into reporting a zoo local to me.
Its a small family run business and has been closed down before due to animals being kept badly.

I went and had another look around today and was shocked at the state of some of the animals on display.

Firstly i went in and saw 4 boscs kept in approx 10ft x 5ft vivarium. A fair size as the Boscs themselves were around 2 foot each. They had a large water pool with very little water which was full of shit. There was a basking spot with an unguarded bulb which could be reached if the animals attempted to jump at it. The Bosc's themselves were in rather poor condition all had shed stuck around them and one i recall had a burn on its nose.

I personally have never used lamp guards in enclosures with clawed lizards species. All you are providing these animals with is a ladder to get closer to danger! I can tell you, in my experience no lizards I've ever worked with have ever "attempted to jump at" lamps...

Are you certain the shed skin was "stuck" boscs don't often shed in one clean piece and have more of a patchwork look.

Secondly i walked over to the Beardie display tank. This vivarium was around 8ft x 4ft and had 4 visable dragons inside. I was shocked when i saw a Chinese water dragon in with them. They were kept on orchid bark and had a pool of sand at the other end of the vivarium. The vivarium itself had 1 basking spot and a larg cat litter tray for the animals to drink/bathe in. The Beardies themselves all looked battered, one missing around half of its tail (yes possibly from losing when being young).

Doesn't sound like my textbook impression of how things should be done, but without proof that the animals are actually being damaged or suffering in this situation, husbandry will always cause disagreements...

Next i moved around and looked at the Spur theighed torts. They were in a considerably large enclosure around 12ft long to estimate. The torts themselves had a considerably different size range. They ranged from around 10 inches to 20 inches. I was horiffied when i saw that there was a green iguana living amongst them in the branches. The iguana looked in good health and had plenty of room to climb around and had a platform with a uv tube above it ( around 6 foot from the ground so this would not be beneficial to the tort's in any way. )

I see no problems with the tortoises, they have a large enclosure and differing sizes really aren't a problem when the animals have enough space to avoid sitting on each other.
Again, the iguana is going to eat relatively similar food and occupy a different area of the enclosure, the only issue I can see is the tortoises eating the iguana poo (which I'm sure they'd love to!)

Next i moved around and saw an albino burmese python in a large vivarium on its own. Reading its description i saw that " it had a feeding problem so as temperarily in this housing and would be put back onto the main display when it was ok ) baring in mind this vivarium it was in was still on display. The burmese itself was covered in mites! These were very easy to spot as they stand out on snakes of this colour.

Do you think it mean't it was in seperate housing to allow it to be individually monitored rather than the main reason being to take it off display? (which it clearly wasn't, misunderstanding of the signage perhaps?)
Are you certain you were seeing mites? if the animal was on barkchip it could easily get flecks of dirt on it that might look like mites at a distance.
Perhaps they had said it had a "feeding issue" as it sounds a little less frightening to the average zoo visitor?

Next i saw the Rhino Iguana. The iguana looked in good health but did not have much room to climb. The vivarium was a good size for the animal but only had 2 platforms for the animal to climb on. It simply laid their in the corner covered in shed.

This one is my favourite. The Rhinoceros iguana did not have any climbing facilities as they are a terrestrial species which are incredibly poor at climbing!

I went into the 'reptile room'. As i first went into the room their was a yellow anaconda. The anaconda was around 11 foot and was in good condition. The vivarium had adiquite space and a large water pool with very little water inside and once again full of shit.

The main display vivarium of the 'zoo' was the burmese tank. This vivarium was very large around 12foot to estimate. Inside were 3 normal phase Burmese and 1 boa. The vivarium was covered in snake skin and shit from the snakes. the burmese varied in size from roughly 8 foot to 13 foot. The boa was around 6 foot.

The next exhibit that caught my eye was the spider's. All of the 4 tarantula's they had were kept on bark chippings ( beach coloured ). These spiders did not at all look in very good condition. With all of them being new world species, ( brachypelma smithi, brachypelma albopilosum and grammostola rosea x 2 ) all par the rosea had almost bald abdomens. one of the rosea was also labled as a hybrid birdeating spider which it was obviously not.

I turned my attention to another display. The royal python and carpet python enclosures. Both of these enclosures had exposed heatmatts ontop of the bark chipping substrate.

Another display which shocked me was a small bearded dragon kept in roughly a 15inch x 12 inch all glass tank with only a uv bulb ontop of a piece of glass! in a tank this size even if heated properly the animal will not be able to regulate its temperature.

Finally i looked up at the ceiling of the reptile room. PARTS OF IT WERE MISSING AND FALLING IN!

I want to report this zoo asap for the well being of the exotics there! could anyone give me an idea of the correct channels to take to ensure they are delt with properly?

Thanks.
Graz.

Originally Posted by Saedcantas

*Yes that is a leaf hat...*

Originally Posted by SleepyD

while raising the age limit on buying may be a good idea there's not a lot that can be done to raise a level of stupidity upto a semblance of coherant sensilbilty

Originally Posted by Ssthisto

The key to royals is hands off persistence and patience.

Originally Posted by Saedcantas

Just a few ideas to consider;



To me, it sounds like really the main problems centre around poor levels of maintenance. With any luck the guys working there are working flat out and doing their very best, but unfortunately they simply don't have the time or the pairs of hands to achieve basic standards.

This is of course all optimism

I think volunteering would definitely be the most proactive and successful route to helping this situation
Lotte***

Originally Posted by Graz

You would be suprised with the amount of lizards i have seen that have burned themselves from reaching unprotected lamps. As i said one of them did have a burn on its nose. The shed was stuck in many different pieces all over the lizards.

Which species have you seen? For all of the lizard species you have mentioned, I still wouldn't recommend using a bulb guard.

Maybe not but keeping different Species of animals together is one thing... when they are from an entirely different continent its another.

I agree, but that wasn't the thing I picked out an issue with


The only problem i have with the tortoises is that they are of quiet different sizes. The iguana would also not spend all of its time on the top of the enclosure.

Seriously, the tortoises being different sizes just isn't a big problem. We have T. marginata between 700g and 2100g, we have G. radiata a good few kgs difference in size, C. galbinifrons between 600g to just over 1kg, H. spinosa where the males are double the size of the females. It is not a reason to report somewhere.
While I do disagree with keeping vastly geographically seperate species together, in a 12' enclosure and animals that primarily spend time in seperate areas using seperate resources, again it isn't the end of the world.


I was not missunderstanding the signage. Why would you display a snake they claimed was ill at a zoo? The snake did have mites. Little black dots walking around a yellow snake stand out a bit. They were 100% mites.

You would display an animal that is ill at a zoo, when you simply have nowhere else to house the animal. It's less than ideal but it's a fact and it happens all over the place. Large snakes and lizards especially end up as candidates for this as who has a spare 12' square enclosure at the ready incase one of these animals gets ill?!?
As for the mites, if they were mites which you seem fairly certain of, so what? It's not a crime to have an outbreak of mites, unfortunately even the best keepers private or professional have to battle these facts of life at least once and from time to time. Again, mites aren't a good enough thing to notch up on your list of reasons to report somewhere.

Maybe i have lacked researching into various different species of Iguanid's but still the animal had no where to hide and mealy a small cat litter tray to drink from/ bathe in.

As I've already said and highlighted with pics, your entire complaint about the rhino ig is based on the fact you just assumed they were like the other iguanas you happen to know about, they arent. This is a fact. The enclosure may well still be sub standard, but the reasons you gave both times are not correct.

i have emailed the zoo offering my help free of charge when i am available. Hopefully they will see the point i am trying to get across and agree to let me help.