Gorge Wildlife Park is a privately owned zoo in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. The zoo has many animals on display including native Australian species, exotic animals, birds and reptiles. Gorge also offers ‘animal encounters,’ allowing guests to feed and cuddle captive animals including koalas, meerkats, capybaras, lemurs and reptiles.
Investigators who visited Gorge, documented dozens of caged primates who were kept behind metal bars or glass windows. Similarly, captive birds were confined to cages many times smaller than their natural territories.
At Gorge, investigators also observed animals being fed inappropriate, and even dangerous, diets. Wallabies were thrown vegetable scraps, which included carrots, sweet potato, potato and apples. Carrots, apples and sweet potatoes should be fed as treats, only in small quantities. Raw potato is toxic to wallabies in large amounts.
At Gorge’s ‘kids zoo,’ bunnies, guinea pigs, chickens and goats are bred and displayed in open pens. Rabbits and guinea pigs are fed large quantities of food known to cause health issues, including lettuce, chaff and corn. These foods can cause teeth issues and gut stasis, a serious condition which can lead to death. Rabbits are also given unlimited carrots, which are high in sugar and should only be fed as a treat. Guinea pigs were observed being fed eucalyptus leaves, which are toxic to almost all non-native animals, including guinea pigs.
Gorge participates in the breeding of non-endangered species, to add to their collection.
