Cougar & Friends Encounter in Cleveland

I ranked it very satisfied, because the encounter with Miriam was absolutely delightful. The keepers were very knowledgeable about all of the felines. My daughter and I had a wonderful time. We love all cats and this experience was amazing. ***I also want to add my review of the Wildlife Walk, as that link was broken and wouldn't let me put my review. The only problem I had at all with the felines, was that there was a Wildlife Walk going on during our experience, and the guide was VERY loud. I believe he had a microphone. Anyway, it interrupted our session, and everyone crowded behind us to see the cats. It would have been better if the tour had not been going on during our experience. Also, there were too many people on the Wildlife Walk when we took ours. My daughter and I just hung out at the end of the group, because there were so many people and our guide wasn't loud enough for everyone to hear. With so many people on our tour, we didn't hear most of what she said about the animals. If we hadn't done the Feline & Friends Experience, we wouldn't have heard anything about any of those animals. So NO problems with the feline experience, but the Wildlife Walks could be a little better planned out.***

Ashley did a great job but it was disappointing that we got to physically interact with only one cat. She mentioned there would be another "carnivore" they we would get to meet but that didn't happen. The experience was much like the normal zoo tour with the exception of the lynx for a lot more money. Lastly but most importantly it really upset me to see how small the animals' enclosures are. I saw many animals pacing which is a clear sign on distress in animals in captivity. They all had very small enclosures especially for the size animals they were like the wolves. Even the small animals were going stir crazy. It broke my heart and made me nauseous. Another thing I can't shake it the 'primate building'. Are you all keeping primates in small cages in the dark?? This is certainly what it looks like from the outside. I pray to God I'm wrong but something tells me I'm not. I will not be supporting this establishment in the future because of what feels to me to be very cruel conditions for the animals.