I hope this is the right place for this post, feel free to delete it or move as necessary.
My wife and I went to Safari Wilderness in Lakeland Florida this past weekend. Safari Wilderness is a large private facility accredited by the ZAA, but not the AZA. The owner is the same as Giraffe Ranch in nearby Dade City, FL. He is also the former Director at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo who had to leave under unusual circumstances involving Safari Wilderness, Giraffe Ranch and LPZ.
The facility is accessible by reservation only and you are taken on a bus/jeep tour of the park and then on a brief walking tour of the main visitor area. They also have options for Llama Treks, Kayaking, and Camel Treks. However, the kayaking is not going right now as the water is very low due to the little amount of rain.
One enters off of a rural road with a large entrance sign and proceeds down a rock/shell road to the parking area, which costs an additional $7 to park in. Personally, I think parking should be free here, or just raise the entrance fee to cover it. Being as the park is by reservation only parking is not an issue. After parking one walks towards the check-in building which doubles as an event center, gift shop, canteen, and restrooms. In this area there are also small exhibits for guinea pigs and a few other small animals. Just outside this building is a large free flight aviary and ring tail lemur enclosure, there are pathways through the aviary, but one is not allowed in at this time. There were peafowl, swans, ibis, and several other species in this aviary. Surrounding the aviary is an enclosure for African spurred tortoises.
Once your tour group arrives in the entirety you are boarded onto the open bus/jeep for the main tour. This tour lasts around 2 hours and you are driven through large enclosures. The first had llama, scimitar horned oryx, red lechwe, water buck, and ring tail lemurs. The second enclosure had greater kudu, nyala, ostrich, and one ibex. The third enclosure, "Africa" has grants zebra, Watusi cattle, warthogs, and more water buck. The last enclosure, "Asia" had Asian water buffalo, llama, axis deer, and fallow deer, and possibly a couple other species I am missing.
One is allowed to feed the llama and buffalo from the bus when it stops, but not the other species.
Upon returning to the main area one is given a 20-30 minute walking tour of the smaller animal enclosures which has red ruffed lemurs, collard lemur (one), parakeets, coatis, an African porcupine, and a few more ring tailed lemurs. There is a coral for dromedary and Bactrian camels in this area as well. Wandering the main grounds are also bot bellied pigs, and chickens.
Overall this was a really fun experience. The cost is a bit high at $90 a person for the bus/jeep tour, but with the limited amount of people going out it was worth it, I think. The park could use some more varied species, but the balance was done fairly well. However, it would be nice to keep the species in their correct geographic area in regards to their "Asia" and "Africa" areas.
My wife and I went to Safari Wilderness in Lakeland Florida this past weekend. Safari Wilderness is a large private facility accredited by the ZAA, but not the AZA. The owner is the same as Giraffe Ranch in nearby Dade City, FL. He is also the former Director at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo who had to leave under unusual circumstances involving Safari Wilderness, Giraffe Ranch and LPZ.
The facility is accessible by reservation only and you are taken on a bus/jeep tour of the park and then on a brief walking tour of the main visitor area. They also have options for Llama Treks, Kayaking, and Camel Treks. However, the kayaking is not going right now as the water is very low due to the little amount of rain.
One enters off of a rural road with a large entrance sign and proceeds down a rock/shell road to the parking area, which costs an additional $7 to park in. Personally, I think parking should be free here, or just raise the entrance fee to cover it. Being as the park is by reservation only parking is not an issue. After parking one walks towards the check-in building which doubles as an event center, gift shop, canteen, and restrooms. In this area there are also small exhibits for guinea pigs and a few other small animals. Just outside this building is a large free flight aviary and ring tail lemur enclosure, there are pathways through the aviary, but one is not allowed in at this time. There were peafowl, swans, ibis, and several other species in this aviary. Surrounding the aviary is an enclosure for African spurred tortoises.
Once your tour group arrives in the entirety you are boarded onto the open bus/jeep for the main tour. This tour lasts around 2 hours and you are driven through large enclosures. The first had llama, scimitar horned oryx, red lechwe, water buck, and ring tail lemurs. The second enclosure had greater kudu, nyala, ostrich, and one ibex. The third enclosure, "Africa" has grants zebra, Watusi cattle, warthogs, and more water buck. The last enclosure, "Asia" had Asian water buffalo, llama, axis deer, and fallow deer, and possibly a couple other species I am missing.
One is allowed to feed the llama and buffalo from the bus when it stops, but not the other species.
Upon returning to the main area one is given a 20-30 minute walking tour of the smaller animal enclosures which has red ruffed lemurs, collard lemur (one), parakeets, coatis, an African porcupine, and a few more ring tailed lemurs. There is a coral for dromedary and Bactrian camels in this area as well. Wandering the main grounds are also bot bellied pigs, and chickens.
Overall this was a really fun experience. The cost is a bit high at $90 a person for the bus/jeep tour, but with the limited amount of people going out it was worth it, I think. The park could use some more varied species, but the balance was done fairly well. However, it would be nice to keep the species in their correct geographic area in regards to their "Asia" and "Africa" areas.
