Salisbury Zoo officials respond to locals calling experience “lack- luster”
SALISBURY, Md. – Imagine bringing your little one to the zoo and they’re disappointed because they’re trying to see lions, tigers, and bears. Well at the Salisbury Zoo, they might not have lions and tigers, but they say they do have bears, bison, and a bunch more.
Zoo Blues
A recent Facebook post had the community at odds about their feelings concerning the Salisbury Zoo. Friday afternoon “Willie Tatted” on Facebook expressed his frustrations with the Salisbury Zoo after taking his niece there. Saying in part “I can look in my backyard & see more animals than here. ”
The post gained over 400 reactions and over 100 shares, with people both agreeing and disagreeing with Willie’s sentiment. Salisbury Zoo Director Chuck Eicholtz says with 12 and a half acres, they have to be smart.
“In order to keep larger animals here, you need a lot more space. So, if you want to have say, a lion here, basically, this would be one giant lion habitat. They need over 12 acres of space to work in. So, what we’re doing is we choose our collection appropriately for the size of the area that we have. ”
Community Comments
People commented saying they love the zoo amenities like the park, others suggesting to patron Zoo’s out of town. One person shared the post even writing “Wackest Zoo in the U.S.” Developmental supervisor Jamie Nichols explains although their animals aren’t coming from Africa, they can still be amazing!
“Most of the animals at our Zoo are native to the local area. We also focus on Australia and South America… Wallabies from Australia, to ocelot, to Bison which are found here in the Americas to Andean Bears which you can find in South America and then we have a lot of native species too as well.”
Residents Respond
Nick Fritz- Ayers says his favorite animals are the wallabies, flamingos, and monkeys. Ed Glagola, says everyone gets what they pay for, and perhaps they should take a second look. “For the price, it’s free, you can’t argue with that. There’s enough here, and if you look at the animals, the more you learn about them, the less lack luster it is, the more you learn about them, the more exciting the zoo is.”
The staff members encourage the community check it out for themselves. The Salisbury Zoo was also featured in our special series Our Town Revisited. Be sure to check out that piece on our website to see what other expansions to expect!
Earth Day Event
Exhibits are not the only thing that drives visitors to the zoo, officials say it’s also their amazing events and coming up is the one for Earth Day!
The annual event is meant to acknowledge what a big part animals play in our ecosystem, and how important it is to have them around! The event will include vendors and educational resources. Salisbury Zoo Education Curator Kelly Colbert says this year they’re also offering a sensory friendly hour, so that all visitors can have an opportunity to share in this great experience.
“A lot of them are going to have some type of message, or they are giving back to the community in some way. They’re earth friendly in whatever way that they are, we’re very flexible about what ‘Earth Friendly’ means, but we know that helping support our community is a big part of helping our Earth.”
The event will take place April 26 from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm with the sensory friendly hour from 10 am to 11 am. To see what they have planned next, visit their website.
