Central Florida Zoo Review

I got sick of driving 90 minutes to Tampa to go to the Lowry Park Zoo, so i decided to take the short drive to the Central Park Zoo in Sanford, about 20 miles north of Orlando. I was very surprised at what a lovely zoo it was, and had no idea it was an AZA accredited zoo.

The zoo is in a really great area and is a lot of fun to walk through. You walk along a boardwalk most of the time in swampy areas and enjoy the nature trails.

When i approached the Red Kangaroo exhibit a heard of Emus approached me. Within seconds i had a small group of Emus watching and following my every move. I slowly walked towards the Red Kangaroos sleeping by the other end of the walkway and the closer i got the more they woke up. The big one held his fingers spread to let me know he was ready to rumble, with eyes half closed. When i got 30 feet away the other Kangaroos got up and hopped off. I walked away and came back to see a large Kangaroo playing with a smaller one and was so happy to witness it!

The Two-toed Sloth pair was extremely active, and i watched them explore their exhibit for over 20 minutes with not even a hint of slowing down. Their roommates, two Cotton-top Tamarins were almost non moving, and it appeared the sloths were trying to play with them a bit. In Washington DC, the sloths share their exhibit with a group of Golden Lion Tamarins, and the GLTs usually will NOT leave the non-moving sloths alone.

They had a nice Elephant exhibit which had no Elephants because of the cold weather, but the Amur Leopards were moving around a bit.

All in all i was very pleased with my visit to the Central Florida Zoo. They are working on raising money to purchase not only a Sumatran Tiger, but also an Orangutan which i would love to see. Before leaving i took them up on the offer to upgrade to a annual membership so i can come back and visit again!