Lions and tigers and bears, oh yes! Not all private zoos are worth supporting, but Zooz in Stevensville, Ontario, is one of the good ones. Owned by the Tykolis family, who started the attraction as a petting zoo on a hobby farm decades ago, it’s evolved into a 108-acre park offering a clean, natural environment for its 400 exotic and domestic residents. The four-legged creatures roam in natural enclosures within yards of the two-legged visitors who pass through the gates from mid-May to mid-October.
Inside the boundaries of this zoo — located in a rural community near Fort Erie along the Canadian/U.S. border — there’s a play area with climbing equipment and swings, a picnic zone and canteen, water splash pad and an outdoor theater featuring movie night once a week. The walk through the park is long but definitely possible. However, the Gator Express tram carries visitors from primates to wild cats, bears to hippos, giraffes to water buffalo.
Part education, part entertainment, Zooz offers regular presentations, such as the birds of prey demonstrations designed to teach us something about critters essential to our ecosystems. Brave participants can step up and touch a boa constrictor during the reptile class.
Allow time to take a stroll along the boardwalk over “Mellow Marsh,” a mini wetland designed to provide breeding habitats for native wildlife. Signs encourage leaning over the railing to search for turtles, frogs and other marsh inhabitants.