If you like to shoot animals, I mean photograph them, there is a great little zoo on the west side of the Valley of the Sun (Phoenix), just off the 303, called Wildlife World Zoo. As a former first grade teacher, we took our students there every spring to see the animals they had been studying during the last quarter of school. They loved it.

In these times of COVID, it’s a great zoo for camera buffs (if you like zoos, but that’s another conversation) because the animals are quite close.

Some wander the grounds. Just kidding, the little alligator is in an enclosure.

You can buy feed and present it to the giraffes at their feeding station.

As you walk through the Down Under enclosure the kangaroos and wallabies are literally just behind a single rope fence.

There are a tram ride and a train ride that take you into enclosures. I’m not gonna lie, it’s a little Jurrasic Parkish. The animals in these enclosures could come right up to the vehicles. I’ve had the tram driver have to shoe away the ostriches before.

The big cats are in enclosures…of course.

The monkeys have various islands throughout the park.

Some very interesting reptiles…

And birds. Lots of birds. Some are free-roaming in the park or in enclosures and some are in cages.  

As a photo workshop, we had access to a private bird show which was pretty cool. Their macaw population largely comes from private owners who either got them as a pet and realized they couldn’t t or didn’t want to take care of a perpetual toddler OR the bird outlived the owner.

  The flamingo exhibit right at the front entrance provides for some great reflection images.

There is a walk-through aviary with some pretty exotic birds in it.

So regal.

Who doesn’t like a happy ostrich?

Yikes!

The ducks are free to come and go. They know when they have a good thing.

Look for this workshop with Amy Horn at Arizona Highways Photoscapes. She ran this one and it was great. It is a COVID safe one as you would drive yourself there, get excellent instruction, and be able to easily social distance. I’m not sure when it will show up again on the calendar but it is definitely one to look for.

Happy Shooting!!