The next stop on our journey south was to the Navajo Zoo in Window Rock, AZ. This is the only tribal zoo in the country, exhibiting only animals found in Navajo Lands. It now houses three “patients” that came in to WRCNU that were deemed non-releasable due to their injuries.

In December, a couple of the caretakers/staff from the Navajo Zoo drove up with a large van to transport a Coyote, Sandhill Crane and Golden Eagle to their facility. Since this was generally on the way down to our final destination, we took a day to visit the zoo and the adjacent Navajo Museum.

Joel and I did a walkthrough of the zoo and were able to see the Sandhill Crane and the Coyote. We also viewed the Eagle Aviary but there were many Golden Eagles inside and I wasn’t able to figure out which one came from us!

The zoo is fairly small but the exhibits were very clean and most of the residents were older; in my mind a testament to the care taken and pride the team has of their facility. I stopped by to say “Hi” to the Zoo Manager and he ended up taking me on an hour long “behind the scenes” tour of the facility – Amazing!