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Top Wildlife rescue services in Tampa, United States
Top Rated Wildlife rescue services in Tampa
Top Reviewed Wildlife rescue services in Tampa
Reviews
So much fun and some great education for myself and the kids. Our guide, Luxe, was very nice and informative. We enjoyed the animal encounters as well.
This place is definitely worth the visit!
Our tour guides name was Alexander and he was fantastic, knew so many interesting facts about the animals, in particular the alligators and crocodiles.
You take a short walk around the the enclosures where you can go in and feed the tortoises it was an amazing experience you can even feed the alligators which was fantastic you can interact with almost everything at no extra cost…definitely remember your bug spray!
Our tour guides name was Alexander and he was fantastic, knew so many interesting facts about the animals, in particular the alligators and crocodiles.
You take a short walk around the the enclosures where you can go in and feed the tortoises it was an amazing experience you can even feed the alligators which was fantastic you can interact with almost everything at no extra cost…definitely remember your bug spray!
Alexander was our tour guide today, great knowledge of all the exhibits, can answer any question you throw at him with confidence. Great way to end our trip to florida with a really exciting tour would recommend to anyone who's in the area 😀
I had an amazing experience at Croc Encounters. I would like to personally thank Alexander (the expert tour guy) for answering all my questions, my family's, and everyone else in the group. Thank you for making our experience so much fun and educational. We learned so much about these animals!
During the tour we got to hold a snake and a small alligator.
We also fed a lot of medium size alligators and interacted with big turtles!
This place is a local GEM! I would encourage anyone to go visit!
During the tour we got to hold a snake and a small alligator.
We also fed a lot of medium size alligators and interacted with big turtles!
This place is a local GEM! I would encourage anyone to go visit!
Extremely informative. Was a lot of fun feeding the tortoises and alligators ( pellets) and the kids had a great time! Only thing I would add would be some fans along the boardwalks were they stand and talk once they're able to. Support your local wildlife rescue and help them get there!
They do 4 tours a day.
They do 4 tours a day.
Was an amazing time! I enjoyed it just as much as the kids did. Our tour guide was so informational and amazing. I’d recommend this to any reptile lover. Such a great place! Keep up the great work!!!!
It’s small but worth it if you like a personal touch! We were skeptical when we first arrived but it all worked out perfectly. After tickets were purchased over the phone,Alexander was an excellent guide. He was passionate, friendly and very patient while my 4 year old ran around exploring. It’s not what I expected but it felt so intimate everyone in our family enjoyed it. We feed the tortoises and held the snake and baby alligator 🐊. Total time there 90 minutes. Bring water and use the bathroom before and you’ll have no worries. 👍🏽
Croc Encounters is a great little tour facility with lots of varieties of reptiles to observe. Tour guide Alexander was a wonderful facilitator and was very knowledgeable about every animal we encountered, he even had answers to every question that we had so he really knows his stuff. We got to hold Crocs and snakes which he demonstrated for us very well so there's nothing to fear. The facility itself is in a bit of disrepair and could be renovated a bit, but after taking the tour it's definitely a great place to donate to in its cause to preserving the wildlife of Florida. Would recommend for a relatively cheap activity for families, it's $45 per person and $99 total for groups of 3 or 4, so we got in for a good price and all had a great time!
I phoned Joe early in the morning because there was a duck in my yard that appeared to have something wrapped around his bill, preventing him from eating. I was a bit panicked to say the least.
It was early in the morning, and Joe answered the phone, a bit groggy, and assisted me. The duck managed to get the object that was stuck on his bill around his neck like a necklace. But the duck was no longer in distress!
I described what the duck was doing (floating around the water, drinking) and noted he was able to eat now, and appeared not to be in distress anymore.
Joe advised of things to look for when the duck calmed down. He told me to phone him if I thought the duck was in any sort of distress, and he would drive all the way to my house and help me.
Thank you, Joe, for helping the helpless.
It was early in the morning, and Joe answered the phone, a bit groggy, and assisted me. The duck managed to get the object that was stuck on his bill around his neck like a necklace. But the duck was no longer in distress!
I described what the duck was doing (floating around the water, drinking) and noted he was able to eat now, and appeared not to be in distress anymore.
Joe advised of things to look for when the duck calmed down. He told me to phone him if I thought the duck was in any sort of distress, and he would drive all the way to my house and help me.
Thank you, Joe, for helping the helpless.
These responses are ridiculous. I see why they made those reviews. Terrible attitude for a business.
They wouldn't even answer the phone imagine that
Here me out, I have never been to Big Cat Rescue for a lot of good reasons, I will list my top three...
1. Their donations aren't for the cats. It's about the money, if they were spending it on the cats, the enclosures would look bigger and there would be more foliage and possibly more land. The sanctuary looks like it hasn't been redone in about 20/30 years.
2. They promote cub petting. Which is a cruel act against the cubs especially the mother. I understand if it's a smaller species of cat like a lynx or a caracal. But not cubs, especially tiger cubs who depend on their for at least a year or two.
3. For the people that have visited this sanctuary, if you want the better for the animals, stop visiting Big Cat Rescue and go to an actual zoo that takes care of their animals or visit one of the wolf sanctuaries in California, who are struggling financially and the state trying to take away their land. Visit Clearwater aquarium or Jacksonville zoo who rehabilitate animals and properly release them in the wild
That's all for my review
1. Their donations aren't for the cats. It's about the money, if they were spending it on the cats, the enclosures would look bigger and there would be more foliage and possibly more land. The sanctuary looks like it hasn't been redone in about 20/30 years.
2. They promote cub petting. Which is a cruel act against the cubs especially the mother. I understand if it's a smaller species of cat like a lynx or a caracal. But not cubs, especially tiger cubs who depend on their for at least a year or two.
3. For the people that have visited this sanctuary, if you want the better for the animals, stop visiting Big Cat Rescue and go to an actual zoo that takes care of their animals or visit one of the wolf sanctuaries in California, who are struggling financially and the state trying to take away their land. Visit Clearwater aquarium or Jacksonville zoo who rehabilitate animals and properly release them in the wild
That's all for my review
They need to change to name from wildlife rescue to don't bother us, we don't really care!
Nice place!
I found Joe honest and kind. He kept in touch throughout the whole process and was a great communicator. I'm very happy and may be using him again.
I called about a baby opossum, the guy said just put it in the woods somewhere! What kind of a wildlife rescue is this place? I will care for it myself, and call around some more.. geez!!!
Called around 10pm to ask about an abandoned duckling with a deformed beak I found in my neighborhood. The man I spoke with was informative and pointed me in the right direction. Thank you again for the quick response!
called about some 5 day old ducklings that had been washed up in the rainstorm and were being neglected by their mother and was met with a very cold, uncaring man. told me to let the ducklings die, that no one would come for them based on the type of duck they are, that ducks are water proof anyways (which they are not until they are at least 2 weeks old according to another actual wildlife establishment who cares about the animals they save so that shows he has no idea what he is even talking about) and that i shouldn’t be concerned with them. thankfully i called another establishment who actually does care about wildlife and they gave me actual helpful advice, we were able to get the ducklings back to full health and the mother eventually came back for them. do not call this place if you genuinely care and want help with wildlife. i called one other time about an abandoned duck and was met with the same cold, uncaring man then as well. if you are rude and don’t care about animals why run a wildlife rescue? makes no sense.
edit: also pretty sure guy has reviews removed seeing as when i posted this there were zero reviews even though i left a negative review before about my experience which is super odd. if this gets deleted again, i will review again because people need to be warned not to call this place if you need genuine help and actually care about animals.
edit: also pretty sure guy has reviews removed seeing as when i posted this there were zero reviews even though i left a negative review before about my experience which is super odd. if this gets deleted again, i will review again because people need to be warned not to call this place if you need genuine help and actually care about animals.
Four of us were booked for a 9AM a private tour. We showed up 30 minutes prior to our tour at 8:30AM as directed by the email. When we got there the gate was closed. We called and no one answered the phone or retuned our call. We sat in the car in front of the gate until a few minutes before 9AM when someone finally came and opened it up. So if you have a 9AM tour, you don’t need to get there 30 minutes early. All the staff members were friendly and helpful. A pleasant surprise was that our private tour included a ride around the grounds in a large electric cart. Our guide was Ginny and she was great, very friendly and knowledgeable. She taught us a lot about the Big Cat Rescue and their mission to stop people from owning big cats and outlawing petting circuses. Which is all in addition to taking care of all the big and small cats along with managing their medical issues. We watch the BCR YouTube channel and the live webcams and know who some of the cats are and their stories. We all loved the tour and loved seeing all the cats we knew, it was fantastic! You can see and hear that the cats love it there and are treated very well. The smaller cats were purring and the bigger cats were chuffing. You get to be very close to them and most of them like the company. We live over 1000 miles away but the next time we’re in the Tampa area, like Clearwater, we will come back to see the cats again and help support the BCR. We recommend going to see the cats, it’s a wonderful experience.
We had Kristen, Bridget, and Jeff as our guides. They were very friendly and made the experience educational yet enjoyable. They answered questions honestly and if they did not know the answer they did not pretend. As a whole Big Cat Rescue is so worth the money. You get a guided tour where you have a device and a fresh ear phone. When you pass by a rescue cat the guide will play a story through your ear phone so you understand what happened to and why the cat is now in a sanctuary. All of the habitats are large and truly enjoyable for the cats. This truly was an amazing experience that will touch your heart. They had said at the very end that if you call and read off the script (pictured) it is worth 100 signatures on a petition.
The best experience, up close and personal with these majestic cats! We did the Keeper Tour which was great as the group was much smaller and it was a much more intimate experience. Our tour guide Dillon was great and knew so much that he was able to answer everyone's questions. Hands down amazing experience for myself and my family. Everyone should go and educate themselves.
Absolutely wonderful place that rescues big cats from bad situations and gives them a safe habitat and care. Such an amazing experience!!!! I would highly recomend visiting Big Cat Rescue. It was very clean. The cats looked and acted very well cared for. The guide Jennie was very informative and really sweet. Elizabeth the volunteer was a total sweet heart too. Everyone was great. Such an amazing experience!
Went on the keeper tour. We loved it and the work they have put into the rescue center is amazing. Staff are great and very knowledgeable. The 2 hour tour may have been a little long on my 10 year old, but the 12 year old loved it. For 2 hours it may be a little expensive but I think it's well worth it.
I don't know if I have the words for how much I love this place and what they do for these cats' lives who have (with a few exceptions) been rescued from horrible conditions. These cats have huge enclosures and the cats who choose to do so take turns going on "vacation" in even larger enclosures. The bigger cats vacation enclosure is 2.5 acres! You can watch the big cats' vacation enclosure 24/7 on explore dot org. Some people only see a small part of a cat's enclosure and think the enclosure is small. If it looks small, they went through a door or tunnel from a much larger area. The cats get enrichment (different sprays or spices on toys and treats) to help keep them from getting bored since they should be living in the wild instead of in cages. Because of the amazing care they receive, many of these cats live into their 20's when they would only live to be 10-12 in the wild. The cats couldn't be more spoiled or loved by the staff, keepers, and interns who go through very extensive training and are all really knowledgeable. The tours are awesome and given by volunteers so every bit of the money goes towards the care of the cats. BCR does so much to fight for big cats' rights, end the abuse, and would actually love to go out of business! They know big cats should not be in captivity and provide the best possible care and the most love for their cats who were born into captivity and therefore can never go free.
Best place around !
Truly amazing rescue. when the guides talk about each cat you can hear the sympathy in their voices and see the passion in their eyes. As happy as it was to see these animals happy, safe and VERY well fed, its still emotional hearing about where they came from and how many cats are still out there not receiving the care they need. We had a great guide named Tonya. She was very knowledgeable, very personable and cool as hell. She volunteers there most days out of the week. Shes there to make a difference, not for a paycheck. Everyone there is a special type of person. Also. They are working to get a big cat public safety act hr 1380 passed. You should call your local rep and tell them you support the act!
Big Cat Rescue is really great! They do amazing work there caring for big cats that would otherwise not have a safe place to live out their days. They are not a zoo, but an actual rescue. The cats always come first. Highly recommend a visit. You'll learn a lot.
Big Cat Rescue is a huge favorite of mine. I went once eight years ago and returned this year for my birthday. They take such great care of all of the cats and the tour guides know every single one's story. Their mission is noble and the education they provide is top notch. Being able to see these cats relaxed and peaceful is an amazing experience that everyone should get to have.
The care they give is amazing. They truly love the cats.
I loved visiting this place and I love going back when I'm in Tampa. This is not a zoo but a place for felines who can no longer live in the wild. You will meet cats that used to be mistreated or were rejected by zoos because of their age/health. The only way to visit is with a guided tour where they will tell you the story of every feline living in the rescue. I loved how they have big areas to play and run. The volunteers do an amazing job here, they're very informative, and the cats look very happy. At the end of the tour, you can go visit the store. There is also an area where you can adopt one of the cats.