Dublinzoo Avis 5

I visited the Dublin Zoo a few weeks ago. It has a wide variety of animals, and the zoo keepers seem to really care about them. Still, it doesn't negate the fact that these are wild animals, who have evolved to live free and in nature, in spaces ranging from a 100km2 to a 1000km2. When you look at them through the lense of 'human ethics', you can't argue that they are well cared for. But they are not humans, they are wild, and there's no level of human care that we can provide in a zoo environment that can replicate their living conditions in the wild, I.e. what they need to live a full, healthy, balanced life. I approached the Zoo suggesting that, at least, they try to enrich their environment with herbs and zoopharmacognosy, which they ignored. These are proven methods that can, not only enrich the animals life and bring back a bit of wilderness to them, but even extend or save their lives. It sadens me profoundly to see these majestic animals prisoners in the name of human entertainment and conservation. The snow lion, cheeta and elephants were clearly distressed, pacing and panting continuously. If they were human, would we put them in cages for show? How ethical is this? I understand that zoos will continue to exist, but at least, please consider doing more to enrich their environment and provide them with more space. We owe them this. Please check the life saving work of Caroline Ingraham in zoos and take action! Thank you.

Been there with the kids and family. They enjoyed it. Motivated employees explain a lot.Unfortunately, I doubt whether the keeping is always species-appropriate.

We flew to Dublin for the day just to see this zoo, it is a huge zoo so a lot of walking but all well worth the experience! Zoo was brilliant, not badly priced, all animals were happy and in large outdoor enclosure whilst they were being cleaned out indoors in the morning. They each have an indoor enclosure and a large outdoor enclosure both of which you usually can view through a window or viewing platforms. Great videos of red pandas being handfed by staff and Elephants having a dip in their pool and splashing each other… now that is happiness. Snow leopards had a food drop off right infront of us and was showing of there meat by bringing it to the glass to enjoy it.

Was charged for 4 tickets instead of 2 on checkout and after speaking to the Zoo by phone straight away was assured this would be refunded. I received the email confirmation and was advised the refund would be in my account around 10 working days.

Fast forward over 3 weeks and still no refund. I have been told at the start of this week there is only one person who can issue refunds and they were back to work on Tuesday and would sort this. Tuesday came and no refund to be told they were on annual leave and not back until the Wednesday. Wednesday came and passed and surprisingly no refund received. They have now stopped responding to our chain of emails altogether.

The zoo itself was very good, just being let down by their customer service, or lack of it...

Liked - well laid out, clean
Disliked - apparent mental health of the higher order animals, such as snow leopards, lions, and wolves.

I observed on my visit that all of these higher order predators were engaged in ritual and repeated pacing around well worn tracks in their enclosures. I first saw this phenomona at Marwell Zoo in the UK, by Siberian Tigers, years ago, where the animals repeatedly pace backwards and forwards along the same piece of ground, often at the rear edge of their enclosure. This is a sign of mental health issues, which is very sad to see. I am an amateur, but this behaviour is apparently very common in zoos around the world, where these intelligent creatures have no mental stimulation whatsoever. I was so concerned that I later emailed the Zoo management, but all I got was a bland response from the Zoo, saying that the animals were fine and their wellbeing was of the utmost importance to the Zoo. Sorry, that is obviously not the case. I DO NOT recommend visiting this Zoo.