Date of Visit: July 16 2021
Shamba Safari is a drive-through safari park located in Neshkoro, Wisconsin. The facility celebrated its grand opening on June 16 2021, although the site has had exotic animals for much longer than this. The facility is owned by the same man who owns the infamous Timbavati Wildlife Park, he previously used this site as an offsite breeding facility known as R-Zoo.
Visitors drive through the facility in their own vehicle, passing through 4 different hoofstock paddocks and passing by 7 additional exhibits. Ultimately the drive makes a loop, and the admission price allows you to drive this loop as many times as you like.
With the exception of the big cat enclosures each exhibit is simply a large open grassy field with a pond, which is perfectly adequate for all inhabitants. Around half of the third drive-through paddock is forested, but the other half is an open grassy field similar to the other paddocks.
The big cat enclosures (one each for African Lion and Generic Tiger) are just sandy corncribs with rock hides in the middle. Not good by any means but above average by Wisconsin roadside standards (it accomplishes this by actually having hiding places).
Here is a species list, drive-through enclosures have their number bolded. These do not correspond with the numbers on the map, which are too confusing for me to make sense of.
1. Dromedary, Domestic Bactrian Camel, Common Eland, Nilgai, Addax
2. Plains Zebra, Common Wildebeest, Scimitar-horned Oryx (Banteng was also marked here on the map but I didn't see it and I'm not sure how I could have missed it)
3. Indian Rhinoceros Common Wildebeest, Scimitar-horned Oryx (the smaller species can go between through the fence between this enclosure and #2)
4. African Lion
5. Generic Tiger
6. European Fallow Deer, Emu, Greater Rhea
7. Nilgai, Arabian Oryx
8. Common Wildebeest
9. Grevy's Zebra
10. Southern White Rhinoceros
11. Southern Cassowary
12. Generic Giraffe (This is the only enclosure that is allowed to be viewed on foot, although it an be seen just from a car)
Overall, Shamba Safari is - fine. The cat enclosures are bad but that's really the only bad thing I can say, all of the other animals have perfectly adequate exhibits with tons of room to roam. Except for the strangest and most concerning part of the facility, one I was simultaneously extremely excited about and extremely nervous about:
There's prairie dogs everywhere. Throughout the safari I saw hundreds of burrow entrances and perhaps two dozen Black-tailed Prairie Dogs. I first saw them in exhibit 6 and assumed they had a way of keeping them in, but then I started to notice them in the other paddocks and even adjacent farm fields. Uh oh. Prairie dogs are not native to Wisconsin, and they are banned from being imported into the state on the grounds of being a potential invasive species. I asked a keeper about it, he told be that several years ago a few prairie dogs escaped, and they had been unable to capture then despite their best efforts, and now they live wild here. It appears I am the first to document to this introduced population, which is strange because the nearby farmers are clearly having trouble with them.
So, overall, the facility minus the whole prairie dog thing Shamba Safari is fine. For introducing a possible invasive species, not a fan. But I did get so see a wild prairie dog for the first time, so that's cool I guess.
Shamba Safari is a drive-through safari park located in Neshkoro, Wisconsin. The facility celebrated its grand opening on June 16 2021, although the site has had exotic animals for much longer than this. The facility is owned by the same man who owns the infamous Timbavati Wildlife Park, he previously used this site as an offsite breeding facility known as R-Zoo.
Visitors drive through the facility in their own vehicle, passing through 4 different hoofstock paddocks and passing by 7 additional exhibits. Ultimately the drive makes a loop, and the admission price allows you to drive this loop as many times as you like.
With the exception of the big cat enclosures each exhibit is simply a large open grassy field with a pond, which is perfectly adequate for all inhabitants. Around half of the third drive-through paddock is forested, but the other half is an open grassy field similar to the other paddocks.
The big cat enclosures (one each for African Lion and Generic Tiger) are just sandy corncribs with rock hides in the middle. Not good by any means but above average by Wisconsin roadside standards (it accomplishes this by actually having hiding places).
Here is a species list, drive-through enclosures have their number bolded. These do not correspond with the numbers on the map, which are too confusing for me to make sense of.
1. Dromedary, Domestic Bactrian Camel, Common Eland, Nilgai, Addax
2. Plains Zebra, Common Wildebeest, Scimitar-horned Oryx (Banteng was also marked here on the map but I didn't see it and I'm not sure how I could have missed it)
3. Indian Rhinoceros Common Wildebeest, Scimitar-horned Oryx (the smaller species can go between through the fence between this enclosure and #2)
4. African Lion
5. Generic Tiger
6. European Fallow Deer, Emu, Greater Rhea
7. Nilgai, Arabian Oryx
8. Common Wildebeest
9. Grevy's Zebra
10. Southern White Rhinoceros
11. Southern Cassowary
12. Generic Giraffe (This is the only enclosure that is allowed to be viewed on foot, although it an be seen just from a car)
Overall, Shamba Safari is - fine. The cat enclosures are bad but that's really the only bad thing I can say, all of the other animals have perfectly adequate exhibits with tons of room to roam. Except for the strangest and most concerning part of the facility, one I was simultaneously extremely excited about and extremely nervous about:
There's prairie dogs everywhere. Throughout the safari I saw hundreds of burrow entrances and perhaps two dozen Black-tailed Prairie Dogs. I first saw them in exhibit 6 and assumed they had a way of keeping them in, but then I started to notice them in the other paddocks and even adjacent farm fields. Uh oh. Prairie dogs are not native to Wisconsin, and they are banned from being imported into the state on the grounds of being a potential invasive species. I asked a keeper about it, he told be that several years ago a few prairie dogs escaped, and they had been unable to capture then despite their best efforts, and now they live wild here. It appears I am the first to document to this introduced population, which is strange because the nearby farmers are clearly having trouble with them.
So, overall, the facility minus the whole prairie dog thing Shamba Safari is fine. For introducing a possible invasive species, not a fan. But I did get so see a wild prairie dog for the first time, so that's cool I guess.
