Zoo de Castellar

I found it difficult to review this attraction, because on the face of it we were visiting in the context of it being a family day out, and it was certainly priced that way (€86 for a family of 4), but it also announces in many places that it is a rescue zoo. I don't know much about its rescue profile apart from the small bits of info you can read at the park itself. I managed to Google it and find out that it takes in animals that are confiscated by government departments like customs, but there is no information about whether it tries to rehabilitate the animals and release them back into the wild, or if it functions as a permanent home. So for these reasons I will score it as a commercial zoo, and be prepared to be disappointed.

We visited on a bank holiday Monday in October and it was quite busy — we had to drive around a bit to find a space in the parking area, which is a field beside the zoo. From there you walk up a rough path to the entrance, and already on the way up you begin to see signs of much-needed maintenance on things like fences and pathways.

Deeper into the park, the installations are also in much need of some love and quite a bit of investment. Again, I struggle to review and score this, as it's also not cheap to run these places and staff them so the animals are well cared for, and they do get involved in rescue scenarios too, so I cannot be too harsh.

One area I feel they are seriously under-utilising is food and drink. There is no real café there, just a counter with a couple of fridges where you can buy some cold drinks, and a coffee machine. I know from reviewing many attractions that you can easily spend more on food and drink in these places than you spent on the entrance ticket, so it feels like they could do so much more here. Needless to say, bring your own food and drinks.

Upon paying and entering, you are also offered the opportunity to buy some bags of mixed nuts to feed the animals, and I am not sure if this is a good idea. I am guessing the idea is to bring their feed bill down by getting visitors to buy the food and feed the animals — on face value quite smart — but it does seem to have turned the animals quite feral in their approach, creating holes in the fences for guests to pass in fruit and nuts. It also leaves a lot of food lying around, and we saw at least one large rat running free.

I remember visiting here maybe six years ago, and at the time there were baby tigers and baby lions that you could pet (for a reasonable price). I also seem to remember leaving the zoo with a much more positive outlook — at least enough to bring us back this time — but I am afraid to say we will not be returning to Castellar Zoo. We wish them all the best in their rescue efforts and thank them for the animals they have helped.