Six Flags Wild Safari Six Flags Great Adventure news

TinoPup

TinoPup

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Six Flags Great Adventure / Wild Safari is in New Jersey. They are notoriously tight on information and provide no way to contact them for questions about the animal park (no phone, e-mail, or contact form, messaging is turned off on social media, etc), so information here will be sparse, unfortunately!

A few updates I do have:

-The safari opened for the year on March 20th. The walk-through area is still not open, with no mention of if it might be this season. The safari is working the same way it did last year - you drive yourself, but windows must stay up and you are not allowed to stop at all, except to allow animals to pass.
-The "rare" bongo will be deputing in mid-April, including a calf.
-Two siberian tiger cubs were born over the winter.
-There are four giraffe calves.
-Two elephants have passed away in the last year.
 
TinoPup said:
Six Flags Great Adventure / Wild Safari is in New Jersey. They are notoriously tight on information and provide no way to contact them for questions about the animal park (no phone, e-mail, or contact form, messaging is turned off on social media, etc), so information here will be sparse, unfortunately!

A few updates I do have:

-The safari opened for the year on March 20th. The walk-through area is still not open, with no mention of if it might be this season. The safari is working the same way it did last year - you drive yourself, but windows must stay up and you are not allowed to stop at all, except to allow animals to pass.
-The "rare" bongo will be deputing in mid-April, including a calf.
-Two siberian tiger cubs were born over the winter.
-There are four giraffe calves.
-Two elephants have passed away in the last year.
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Two elephants dead last year? Sheesh! How many are they down to now?
 
TinoPup said:
No, unfortunately. I only know they're down to four because of a very recent USDA inspection. Inspections with elephants usually include their names, but this one doesn't.
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Thanks for your response and the info.
 
It's amazing the species exhibited and breeding that has occurred here. However unlikely, a comprehensive history book would be nice. I started visiting in '88 and you would barely know it exist outside the tri-state area.
 
I found a website has a lot of cool historical photos of the safari. There were some interesting species there in the early years like Painted Stork, Pygmy Hippopotamus, and hartebeest. I also counted 18 elephants in one photo!

There are also pictures of information guides/old maps which are also interesting to look at.

One in particular that I liked was the original proposal for the safari, which included some animals that never ended up being included like Moose, Mountain Goats, Cape Buffalo, and Polar Bears.
Here’s the link: Welcome to the Six Flags Wild Safari History Homepage
 
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Great find!!! @red river hog
I started going to Great Adventure in the late 80's. Completely forgot they had leopards (I saw a melanistic one I swear was with the tigers). I also remember the hippos. They were in pond where the giraffes are.
 
TinoPup said:
Four.
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From what I am aware of, Gloria died in 2019 and I’m not aware of another elephant dying. That could have happened, though, you can’t always find sources online. Six Flags did not publicize Gloria’s death but I found it in an elephant database. If this post was in 2021 only one elephant died in the last year from the post. As of 2022 still four elephants, three are in the main paddock, and the fourth one, Joyce, lives behind the scenes alone since she doesn’t get along with the other elephants. You may notice one of the elephants, Lucy, has a giant notch in one of her ears. She is over 60, and she’s had it for a long time.

There is a new giraffe encounter for 2022 for 29.99 and you can purchase at the gift shop or online. You can stop at Camp Aventura to feed giraffes and the truck takes you on a safari tour, but you skip the lions, Serengeti Plains and baboons.

At Camp Aventura, the green iguana passed away. He was around 20 which is as old as they get.
 
Kevin2342 said:
From what I am aware of, Gloria died in 2019 and I’m not aware of another elephant dying. That could have happened, though, you can’t always find sources online. Six Flags did not publicize Gloria’s death but I found it in an elephant database. If this post was in 2021 only one elephant died in the last year from the post. As of 2022 still four elephants, three are in the main paddock, and the fourth one, Joyce, lives behind the scenes alone since she doesn’t get along with the other elephants. You may notice one of the elephants, Lucy, has a giant notch in one of her ears. She is over 60, and she’s had it for a long time.

There is a new giraffe encounter for 2022 for 29.99 and you can purchase at the gift shop or online. You can stop at Camp Aventura to feed giraffes and the truck takes you on a safari tour, but you skip the lions, Serengeti Plains and baboons.

At Camp Aventura, the green iguana passed away. He was around 20 which is as old as they get.
Click to expand...

Yes, the post was in 2021, as the date on it shows it's from March 2021.
 
TinoPup said:
Yes, the post was in 2021, as the date on it shows it's from March 2021.
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I know, it said at the beginning of the post. I was just mentioning and correcting that one elephant died within the past year of this post, because it was from 2021.
 
Kevin2342 said:
From what I am aware of, Gloria died in 2019 and I’m not aware of another elephant dying. That could have happened, though, you can’t always find sources online. Six Flags did not publicize Gloria’s death but I found it in an elephant database. If this post was in 2021 only one elephant died in the last year from the post. As of 2022 still four elephants, three are in the main paddock, and the fourth one, Joyce, lives behind the scenes alone since she doesn’t get along with the other elephants. You may notice one of the elephants, Lucy, has a giant notch in one of her ears. She is over 60, and she’s had it for a long time.

There is a new giraffe encounter for 2022 for 29.99 and you can purchase at the gift shop or online. You can stop at Camp Aventura to feed giraffes and the truck takes you on a safari tour, but you skip the lions, Serengeti Plains and baboons.

At Camp Aventura, the green iguana passed away. He was around 20 which is as old as they get.
Click to expand...
The current elephants left are Lucy, Tanya, Barbara, and Joyce. All have been there for a long time.

Additional news, in the Australia section the park no longer has swans. They all moved to other zoos.

The sulcata tortoises that lived in Camp Aventura are now on Aldabra Island with the Aldabra tortoises since the outgrew their exhibit. they formerly rotated with the Burmese python at Camp Aventura.They can only be out when it is warm enough though.

Samson the Argentine black and white tegu is in the former green iguana exhibit since he outgrew his old cage.

Sea lion shows are no longer going on, for the health benefits of the animals. You can still see the sea lions in Safari Discoveries, and they have relocated next to the cheetahs.
 
According to the following sources, 1.3 African elephants have passed away at Six Flags Great Adventure in the past eleven years.

Sources:
• Six Flags Great Adventure in United States - Elephant Encyclopedia and Database
• Chicago's Last Elephant Leaves Brookfield Zoo - Chicago Parent
• Joyce: One elephant’s incredible rescue from slaughter and unforgettable journey to peace
• Rip at Six Flags Great Adventure in United States - Elephant Encyclopedia and Database
• Six Flags bought endangered animals for years without a permit, records appear to show – The Morning Call
• Six Flags Great Adventure (Jackson, New Jersey) - The Elephant Commentator
• Six Flags Great Adventure news [Six Flags Wild Safari] - ZooChat

For a number of years, Six Flags Great Adventure had 1.6 African elephants. On September 23, 2010, 0.1 Joyce arrived from the Brookfield Zoo. To this day, Joyce lives separately from the other elephants, despite attempts to integrate her into the herd. On November 26, 2011, 40-year-old 1.0 Rip passed away from septic peritonitis and a colonic rupture due to enteroliths. In September 2018, 47-year-old 0.1 Gloria passed away from congestive heart failure. On October 6, 2019, a female African elephant passed away from cecal volvulus. On November 23, 2019, a female African elephant passed away from mesenteric volvulus and a large intestinal rupture leading to sepsis. The elephants who passed away in 2019 were 48-year-old 0.1 Debbie and 47-year-old 0.1 Sheila, however, it’s not known publicly which elephant passed away on which date.

0.4 African elephants now reside at Six Flags Great Adventure. Those elephants are 53-year-old Tanya, 51-year-old Barbara, 51-year-old Lucy, and 39-year-old Joyce.
 
Elephant Enthusiast said:
According to the following sources, 1.3 African elephants have passed away at Six Flags Great Adventure in the past eleven years.

Sources:
• Six Flags Great Adventure in United States - Elephant Encyclopedia and Database
• Chicago's Last Elephant Leaves Brookfield Zoo - Chicago Parent
• Joyce: One elephant’s incredible rescue from slaughter and unforgettable journey to peace
• Rip at Six Flags Great Adventure in United States - Elephant Encyclopedia and Database
• Six Flags bought endangered animals for years without a permit, records appear to show – The Morning Call
• Six Flags Great Adventure (Jackson, New Jersey) - The Elephant Commentator
• Six Flags Great Adventure news [Six Flags Wild Safari] - ZooChat

For a number of years, Six Flags Great Adventure had 1.6 African elephants. On September 23, 2010, 0.1 Joyce arrived from the Brookfield Zoo. To this day, Joyce lives separately from the other elephants, despite attempts to integrate her into the herd. On November 26, 2011, 40-year-old 1.0 Rip passed away from septic peritonitis and a colonic rupture due to enteroliths. In September 2018, 47-year-old 0.1 Gloria passed away from congestive heart failure. On October 6, 2019, a female African elephant passed away from cecal volvulus. On November 23, 2019, a female African elephant passed away from mesenteric volvulus and a large intestinal rupture leading to sepsis. The elephants who passed away in 2019 were 48-year-old 0.1 Debbie and 47-year-old 0.1 Sheila, however, it’s not known publicly which elephant passed away on which date.

0.4 African elephants now reside at Six Flags Great Adventure. Those elephants are 53-year-old Tanya, 51-year-old Barbara, 51-year-old Lucy, and 39-year-old Joyce.
Click to expand...
I thought Lucy was more than 51(like around 60-65 ish) because a few years ago Safari tours told me she was in her late 50s already and has a giant notch in one of her ears for a long portion of her life.
 
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