WILDLIFE & CONSERVATION
Big Cat Habitat and Gulf Coast Sanctuary
Sarasota County · Gulf Coast
Twenty acres east of Sarasota holding about 300 rescued animals, most of them arriving from places that could no longer keep them.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
Big Cat Habitat sits at 7101 Palmer Boulevard on more than twenty acres and takes in animals that have nowhere else to go: private owners who could not cope, closed roadside attractions, seized collections. Around 300 animals live here across more than sixty species, among them Bengal tigers, African lions, jaguars, cheetahs, bears, wolves, lemurs and capybaras, along with exotic birds and primates. It is a registered nonprofit and draws over 100,000 visitors a year, and the entrance money is what feeds the animals. Live animal presentations run through the opening hours, and visitors can buy treats to feed some of the animals, walk through a petting zoo and put children on a pony. It opens Friday through Sunday from noon to four and is closed Monday through Thursday, which catches people out. It is a sanctuary rather than a zoo and looks like one, plain enclosures and working pens rather than landscaped habitat
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