Catskill Game Farm
Written: Jun 17 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Large collection of animals and room for interaction and contact.
Cons: Not aesthetically pleasing.
The Bottom Line: The animals appear to be treated fairly well and the price is alright. The grounds are rather dismal, shady and brown; the animals' setting unimpressive.
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| Thorbjore's Full Review: The Catskills |
"Do you want to go see the animals?" I asked my son, who practically started wagging his tail. He is two and a half and we had an unexpected Friday off from work and daycare; the sun was shining but it wasn't too hot.
We live in Western Massachusetts and are almost exactly halfway between NYC and Boston; the Catskills are just about an hour and a half away.
We arrived at Catskill Game Farm and parked among the dozen or so other cars there -- yep, school is still in session and it was a Friday. We didn't have any crowds to fight off.
They charge $17.95 for an adult, $12.95 for a child, and four and under are free. I think seniors pay $15.95. I paid my admission and the lady said that there were no elephants today and no shows; she returned my ticket to use any time during the 2006 season to come back when they were up and running. I thought that was REALLY nice.
You enter and exit through the lengthy gift shop. It is jaundiced yellow and has fluorescent lighting. There is something really anemic looking about the setting so the souvenirs look kind of junky until you stop and look around.
Upon emerging into the actual zoo, the first thing you are struck by is the giraffes. My son lurched forward in his stroller and stared in awe; he never saw anything like that before.
We walked around and there was something kind of scummy about the place, but I couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was.
Their collection is expansive. They have the bovine area with different kinds of cows, steers, buffalo, bison. Then there are the members of the horse family grouped together, Shetland ponies, zebras, various African and domestic varieties of the donkey and so on. Its central area has a similar flow, keeping goats, llamas, alpacas, deer, reindeer, camels (one hump or two? There is the Arabian variety and the two humped variety), and mountain goats. Up a steep hill is where you can see exotic birds, snakes and tortoises.
There is a feeding area where you can walk in and among the goats and deer and hand feed them. There is a sign to carry smaller children -- I highly recommend listening to this advice. Some of the animals become quite aggressive, a larger goat having yanked on my shirt as a testimonial. The deer are competitive with each other, but a small child could easily get nudged or bumped or knocked down in their scuffling. Frankly, when I was little one of them bucked me with its antlers and knocked the wind out of me. Things hadn't seemed to change much.
They give you generous sized wafers, 20 for $3 or 40 for $5 with which to feed the varmints. It doesn't sound like much, but if you break them into halves or even thirds, they REALLY go a long way. It sure beats that armless bandit they used to have that would spew a few grains for twenty-five cents. Since my son is kind of small, I let him feed the animals through the cage so he could experience it up close and at their level without the jostling. He loved it.
No strollers are allowed in there (the gated feeding/petting zoo portion), I think to ensure you will carry your child and protect him or her a little more closely. They have a parking area for the strollers and remember to bring your cameras and stealable belongings.
Don't go back to the stroller when you're done. At the opposite side of this feeding area is the African collection and I could find no way to access it without cutting through the feeding area -- and I asked other stroller pushers who concurred.
The African area has all kinds of gazelles and antelopes and a pair of rhinos and LIONS (which I was most excited about.).
Now. A word about the presentation. Remember I said there seemed something kind of scummy about the place, but I couldn't put my finger on it? It turns out to be a good thing. I think it was the fact that you walk along a dirt path. The animals have dirt floors in their confinements. It is extremely shady there. It is just one leafy canopy when you look up, so it seems dark. So everywhere you look is just brown, green up above.
This is good, though. If that kind of tree coverage wasn't there, then the animals would probably want to be in their shelters and not on display - or they would be suffering or uncomfortable in the sunlight during the hotter seasons. I think what seemed unattractive turned out to be a good thing for the animals, their comfort and protection, but also for us because they are willing to be outside where we can see them. It is NOT a photogenic place. I am very into photography but didn't take many pictures because it seemed either dismal or there would be sunlight filtering through, making it too contrasty. It didn't have flowers or interesting landscaping ... it was just VERY functional. Even if the animals' shelters were a little more architecturally interesting, maybe in keeping with the part of the world the animals are from ? Moorish inspired stables for the camels? Like that. It was just quite plain.
The animals' settings seemed a little gloomy, though humane. Some of the goats had all kinds of rocks and things that made their areas more attractive and "natural" (you can see the mountain goats jumping up mountainous rocks). The animals had a decent amount of room to move and some kind of shelter that seemed like they had access to. But for the most part, it was just trees surrounding a dirt ground. All were surrounded by cage-like fencing that was dark green and didn't call much attention to itself. The lions and rhinos had that ditch between them and their onlookers, and that is more eye-pleasing, of course.
If you have a stroller (or don't) I recommend being in decent shape to take on the hills and uneven ground. Some of the hills were steep and there is plenty of loose gravel. Bring a travel companion to share the burden if you need to. If you are handicapped and in a wheel chair ... this might not be a great place for you to go. I thought about that when I was there, wondering how someone could get around there on a wheel chair.
There is a "train" there that goes around the park. It doesn't look much like a train and does not run on tracks. I didn't bring my son on it because he wasn't impressed with it. I don't know, frankly, that the park is big enough in size to warrant a train ride.
They had a little amusement park area and the rides cost extra - I don't know how much and I did not see what they have since they weren't open that day.
The food? Bring your own. Ha. The place that was serving food was infested with aggressive flies. We ordered a cheeseburg and french fries with a large soda and I think it cost about $8 (in terms of being in a park, this isn't bad and they served a decent portion of steak fries). There is a sign on the window that says, "please don't ask for a lid or straw - we don't have them in order to protect our animals." Also, when you buy those bulk crackers, you will not be given a bag for the same reason. I crammed ours into our stroller compartment. A man in front of me tried to use his map of the park as a hammock of sorts to carry them. Oh, yeah, the human food! It was okay and I thought the price was okay for its location, but seeing those flies everywhere just made me grimace. The kitchen people were diligent about keeping the screens closed, but I was icked out over it (and I'm not a germ phobe, so it may mean a little more coming from me).
As for overall cleanliness ... I think they could have used a few more shovelers for the little tootsie rolls and goat pellets and cow pies, etc. It seemed like the odor of poop hung heavily in the air and navigating the petting zoo area was more than a little icky. And there were tons of monster sized flies that seemed to be quite territorial of their poop nests.
We had a good day, though. I showed my son the lions and I yelled, "LOOK! LIONS!" He lunged forward toward the pole and screamed, "LOOK! MUM! FLIES!" He swatted at them and was interested in the black buzzing cloud he could form by waving his hand around.
Then we went past the zebras.
"LOOK! CARSON! ZEBRAS!" I exclaimed excitedly.
He was slumped over in his stroller, his eyes trained on the ground.
"CATERPILLAR! MUM! THERE'S A CATERPILLAR DOWN THERE!"
Ha. We had fun, though, and he talked about the animals on the way home. (The ones we could not have seen in our back yard!)
In terms of other zoos, there certainly are better ones. And there are worse. The most important thing to me was that the animals looked clean and healthy. They had a good amount of room to move and stretch out and interact with one another, but it's not the miles and miles their free cousins enjoy in the forests, deserts, mountains, plains, and jungles. Would I go there again? I'll take my son there again when he's older, but only because of proximity.
I have to give it a thumb sideways. If you're traveling to the Catskills from farther afield, you might find something better to spend your time on. I think we were there an hour and a half and I felt like we covered everything. If they had the shows and rides, we probably could have killed a similar amount of time. You can see a better zoo somewhere else. If you are in the area already or are not too far away and are looking for something different to do, it is a decent place to go.
Here is their web site (it is very sparse and really only gives you directions to the place, hours of operation and pricing): http://www.catskillgamefarm.com/
Thanks for reading!
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Jun - Aug
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Epinions.com ID:
Thorbjore
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Becki
Location: Pittsfield, MA USA
Reviews written: 89
Trusted by: 74 members
About Me:
Worry looks around. Sorry looks back. Faith looks up.
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