paul bunyan's animal land

This is a small family-owned animal park. The animals seem to be well cared for. I've taken grandkids here several times. You can wander around the grounds and interact with the deer. They only downside would be uneven terrain so you need to be mindful of where you step.

This place is only great with the free roaming deer. The other animals are so confined and dirty. It's just sad. Nobody here seems to really be happy about working there or caring for the animals. The caged animals look very unhappy and when I mean they're in tiny cages, I mean just inches larger than their bodies. They are crammed. We love the free roaming deer, but the other animals deserve better caretakers and larger areas. An actual zoo would better suit them.

This is yet another secret treasure found in Bemidji. When my grown up (39 year old) daughter had her birthday her girl friends took her out to somewhere VERY special and they took her to ANIMAL LAND. She loved it especially the camel. Great pictures, lots of laughs, many memories. Wonderful place. Clean and safe place for all ages.

We stopped with our grand daughter. She loved the free roaming deer to feed. The caged animals are kinda sad looking. Hopefully they are well cared for! The staff was kinda crabby. If you don't like animals why work there. But it was fun. Oh and we liked feeding the trout. That was great. May bring our other grand children soon. I know they would enjoy it.

Make sure you ask about the "surprise" behind the counter! Our kids favorite part was feeding the deer.

This place is an embarrassment, a shame and a sham. I've always heard negatives about PBAL, but it's 10 times worse than I would have imagined. Animals without any sort of stimulation in small, dirty cages. Like some sort of clandestine lab for torture experiments. Exposed to all the elements of late MN Spring and early Summer, a number of these animals were clearly lethargic and clearly depressed. The obese bear with a mangled nose is so sad....totally bored and unmotivated and extremely overweight. The raccoons, fighting with each other over food sent through them via a tube by customers. NO LIMITS placed on how much the animals are fed by patrons. Primates in tiny cages, running and hiding in fear when people approach. Nocturnal animals forced out in the daytime. Most of the caged animals had no real escape from spectators or the elements. As an educator, environmentalist, and animal activist I will work at getting Paul Bunyan Animal Land closed down. Rude, impatient, unfriendly people at the cash register. This hell on earth is a gross and pathetic look at what people will do for money. DON'T waste your money on this animal prison. Make a donation to the ASPCA, PETA, your local or national Humane Society instead and make a difference.

The animals are in tiny cages (I mean REALLY small it almost seems illegal), they have concrete floors, one of the cages was a Leopard sharing with a domestic dog? and the animals really don't seem well looked after and it's quite depressing to walk around there. I would suggest not encouraging it and saving your money for somewhere legitimate that focus's on the animals wellbeing, education of visitors and their release back into the wild.

Sad little "game farm" which harbors caged animals in suboptimal conditions. Avoid this attraction, it is very disappointing and I am not sure why zoning even allows it!

I have a love - hate relationship with this place. We would stop at deer feeding places like this during the summer when I lived in Minnesota growing up. I have fond memories of feeding those free roaming deer. I wanted to give the same memories to my kids.It was just like I remembered it. You buy a cone of corn and those tame deer, mules and goats approach you and lick you hand and eat the corn. Everyone squeals with delight!What I forgot was the bear and other animals squeezed into tight cages. Those majestic animals in boxes made me sad.Stick with those fun free roaming deer, goat and mules and free the other animals into a center that takes these captive animals. A cage is no place for these creatures!

We've visited a few times now and my children always enjoy the chance to see and feed the animals. The deer are very tame and will walk after you wanting to be fed. There are stations to wash hands and a little gift shop.

It is a very small zoo, and for the town it is a great place to bring the kids! They have all the main animals you could want but the coolest part is feeding the deer that are in a great big open space!

Really loved this attraction, especially the deer park part of it. I could spend hours feeding and petting the deer. Well worth the time and one of my favorite stops in Bemidji.

I thought this place was going to be acute little farm with goats and horses but it was not that at all. There were all kinds of wild animals in small cages. Everything from bears to monkeys. They did not look well taken care of or happy.

We took the grand kids to Animal Land one afternoon when it was too cool to do water activities. Wasn't sure what to expect but pleasantly surprised. This is a great place to take your family if you want to see deer, lions, fish, and other wild life. It is entertaining for all ages and is easy to get get to with plenty of parking. Feeding the fish and other animals kept the kids busy and happy and it didn't break the bank.

Based on the mixed reviews, we almost skipped Animal Land - that would have been a shame, because my kids LOVED this place. There is a nice collection of animals, which was surprising, since it's not an actual zoo. My family of 4 (kids are 12 and 19 mos) got in for under $20 and animal feed was $1 a bag - I bought 4 and that lasted well during our visit. There were tubes for most of the animals to send the food down to. That was fun because the animals all knew what was coming and the raccoons were so cute plopped on the other end of the chute and peeking through it to see if their snacks were coming down! They have exotic animals too, but the most fun to feed were the deer. You get to go inside the gate, and they come right up to you and eat out of your hand, and you can pet them. Some of them are a rare piebald breed - splotchy white with beautiful blue eyes, and there were a number of fawns too. My whole family had so much fun interacting with the deer - the 12 year old and the baby had so much fun being so close to these pretty animals and feeding them from their hands, and that made it so much fun for us, the parents, to see. Definetly worth a stop - DO NOT MISS!!