Gifts Are What You Make of Them

Greetings friends and family welcome to the holiday hangover. With Christmas 2017 squarely in the rear view mirror we can now turn our attention to the end of the year bashes! Buuuuut before we do. I want to talk about gifts. Gifts are, what you make them.

I think of gifts and I think of nicely wrapped presents under a tree and the excitement of what’s in them. You see, that’s the kid in me. That’s the dreamer, the person who “wants” things. The reality is though the best gifts you will ever have in your life are the people you love and those who love you. Each and every day you get to spend sharing stories and emotions with them are all gifts.

Possessions and toys are awesome to have but imagine having them and having no one to share them with. Like yo I got this new Porsche 911 check it oouuuuttt to no one? LOL or check out my new X Box that I don’t have anyone to play with. You see what I am saying? I even consider the friends that I play games with online as gifts. We love each other and are there for each other.

You are also gifts to us at Timbavati Wildlife Park as well. Without your support and encouragement our worlds would have a lot less sparkle to them as well. Happy Holidays to you all and if you need a material gift for someone, don’t forget we offer VIP Tours year round. Thank you all and we love you. 

The First Day Of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas Timbavati gave to me..Giraffes and some carrots to feed!

I was going to do all 12 days but that’s a lot to type ha ha ha. Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog. First off I would like to thank The Wisconsin Dells Tourist Information Center for the shout out that they gave us on Instagram last week, you guys rock socks. As they stated, we are definitely open year round and have daily tours at 11AM and 1PM.

Now on to this week’s topic, which is Christmas shopping. I know this isn’t entirely animal related but tis the season right? I love to surprise my family with gifts year round. I just don’t feel like it should be a birthday or christmas to give them gifts. That keeps it interesting you know?

So like many of us last minute shoppers, I don’t put a lot of stock into the holiday until the very end (which is now). I find myself still honoring the holiday and putting something under the tree for them.

A trip to the Wisconsin Dells is fun year round. There are indoor water parks here that are always open. Of course we’re open and a VIP Behind The Scenes Tour makes a stocking stuffer. I mean let’s face it, you could get your kids Red Rider BB Guns but we all know how that ended for Ralphie right?

While I’m at it, I would love to know what your favorite Christmas movie is. If you didn’t know, "Die Hard" is officially a Christmas movie now. I like the film "Elf." I also like "A Christmas Story" and "Home Alone." What are your favorite films?

Here’s a look at our VIP Behind the Scenes Tours. We will talk with you next week!

What's Your Favorite Animal? http://qoo.ly/jvm38

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What's Your Favorite Animal? - Timbavati Wildlife Park - Timbavati Wildlife Park
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What’s Your Favorite Animal?

Greetings to you all my friends, this week has been a bit of a dream to me. In that dream I’ve reflected on my childhood that was and it reminded me of how animals were so inspirational when we were young. The strength of the animal is something that our ancestors observed revered and watched with awe. This takes me to this week’s topic, what was/is your favorite animal.

Those of us who seek strength and freedom favor animals that take to the skies. The tawny eagle who at 3 feet tall is one of the smaller eagles in the family. Some people favor ferocious felines like lions and tigers. Some identify with the stability of a camel or in the case of sports identify with the tenacity of the badger.

When I was growing up and i moved on from the phase of dinosaur discovery, my bond was with a German Shepard. I hadn’t spent more time with any animal than my grand dad’s favored pet Jorrel. If I had to reflect on life and say I had a favorite animal, I would absolutely say without hesitation that it is a German Shepard.

What's Your Fav?

Which brings me full circle to the title of this blog and my question to you. What is/was your favorite animal? Is it the sly fox whose systems of tunnels can be a hundred years old? Perhaps your more partial to the tortoise whose strength lies in the wisdom of its age and its slow and steady path.

Funnily enough, most people who tell us what they’re favorite animal is without being prompted will cite the sloth. I believe that there is an elegance to the sloth’s movements. When you move at such a consistent and deliberate pace you rarely misstep. I think some people identify with that controlled movement and the grace that the sloth traverses with.

In any event I really would love to know what your favorite animal is, not was. To remember this is to remember the passion and wonder of our youth. To hold on to this is what magic really is. So now I am dying to know, what is your favorite animal. Leave it in the comments below.

If you’re unsure of what your favorite animal is then allow me to welcome you to Timbavati Wildlife Park where we have tours daily at 11AM and 1PM year round. We also have VIP Behind the scenes tours that will give your an even more enhanced experience led by one of our professional animal handling staff members.  Ok it’s animal time, WHAT YOU GOT?

Here’s a look at the waterfalls area in Timbavati Wildlife Park, is your favorite here?

When Do Animals Hibernate

Hello all and welcome to December! Temperatures have been mild in Wisconsin throughout November so it’s still been really fun to get out and enjoy the fall colors. I have been thinking a lot about the temperatures and it got me to wondering, when do animals actually begin to hibernate.

Hibernation is a survival skill, animals store fat and food reserves and sleep for months to survive the harsh winters. But what do they do when it’s 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit? Well the short answer is middle to the end of October.

See even though the temperatures are up, fall has still happened and foraging is a bit tougher for herbivores. So everyone pretty much packs it in at the same time. What I find unique and a bit troubling about hibernation is actually when they wake up.

Animals should begin to emerge from their slumber around mid March. With global warming and warmer temps, bears in Yellowstone Park have been waking up out of their slumber in early February. Something like this can be problematic because food supplies aren’t where they need to be at that time requiring them to travel into places that might not be safe to find food.

Hedgehogs however can be around all the way through December with the warm weather. Did you know that if a hedgehog gets too cold in its den that it will actually get up and chance dens in the middle of winter? They should get space heaters or something :).

I think it’s more interesting to note who doesn’t hibernate for the winter. Porcupines don’t, neither do badgers (they might have taken a nap on Saturday though). Bobcats and mountain lions? Nope they stay awake and so do skunks.

At Timbavati Wildlife Park we don’t hibernate either. We’re now open all winter long. Check out website for tour times. Foxes don’t hibernate either, so here are some foxes for you to fawn over and we’ll follow up in a few!

Cheers

Badgers Win!

Greetings friends and welcome Tuesday! I know a lot of you had a blast this holiday weekend and some of you were even brave enough to go shopping in the mosh pit that we all know and love called Black Friday. Of course if you’re from Wisconsin you were probably cheering for Bucky Badger this weekend. In case you missed it, our beloved Badgers had an undefeated season this year.

The Wisconsin Badgers hadn’t gone undefeated since 1912. This got me to thinking, what was going on in the world in 1912? So I dug it up and wanted to share a few fun facts about what was going on the last time the Badgers sat undefeated in the college football world.

For starters the government of modern day China was established on January first. New Mexico became a state on the 6th of January. A guy named Fred Law parachuted from the Statue of Liberty LOL, that’s pretty rad. On February 14th Arizona became the 48th state.

Here’s a big one for you, on March 7th Roald Amundsen announced the discovery of the North Pole. The Girl Scouts were formed on March 12th, I wonder if they started with cookies and then decided to be a club or not? :) Hmmmmm. On march 15th, Cy Young retired from baseball.

On March 16th William Howard Taft’s wife planted the first cherry tree in Washington D.C. if you have never seen that site in the spring, it’s astonishing. The cherry blossoms are something to behold and there are hundreds of trees.

On April 15th and probably the biggest event of this year and decade was the sinking of the Titanic. Fenway Park and Tiger’s Stadium both opened on April 20th. On May 7th, the Pulitzer Prize was approved by Columbia University. Ahh and on May 8th, Paramount Pictures was founded. On May 15th Ty Cobb got suspended by Major League Baseball for attacking a heckler LOL.

Things seemed to get a little predictable after that, Taft and Roosevelt went at it for the Republican Nomination over the summer. Taft won and Roosevelt started the progressive Bull Moose Party. On August 27th “Tarzan of the Apes” was first published. One month later on September 27th, W.C. Handy published the first blues record.

On October 14th of that year while campaigning in Milwaukee for the Bull Moose Party Theodore Roosevelt was shot. He had a manuscript, glasses case and a heavy coat on, he only had a flesh wound. He gave his speech and said it would take more than that to kill his campaign LOL. After an hour speech he then went to the hospital. On November 5th, Wilson a democrat defeated both Taft and Roosevelt in the presidential election.

There are other things that happened in 1912, a lot of other things but I’d say that’s a pretty interesting year to look back on, here is a picture of what our Badgers looked like back then.

Then of course at Timbavati Wildlife Park, we have badgers too and here’s what they look like!

The Timbavati Wildlife Park Peng-Win Countdown

Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post! Timbavati Wildlife Park has had the fortunate pleasure of having two of our very own starring in a Wisconsin State Lottery Commercial called "Peng-Win Countdown!" Here’s a toast to Mama and Papa. They are our South African penguin couple that inhabit the Waterfalls Area of Timbavati Wildlife Park.

Their debut on television and made me want to break down the commercial. Let's look at what it actually took to pull this feat off. The promotion that the Wisconsin State Lottery is running is called the Peng-Win Countdown. It’s basically a winter special edition high value scratch-off ticket.

But Where's The Snow

Since the Peng-Win is a play on penguin, the wintry thing to do would be to have real penguins work on the piece. Ok so for starters, this piece was shot in Wisconsin last month. Well there isn’t any snow on the ground in Wisconsin at this point. Just like the ski slopes that are already open, one can make snow and convince everyone that it’s winter when it’s fall. That’s Hollywood magic for you there.

The commercial opens with a bunch of penguins in an enclosure at Timbavati Wildlife Park. That’s actually our park and our enclosure. The Hollywood magic begins when you see six penguins in the enclosure just kind of hanging out. If you keep the camera really still and shoot two penguins 3 times and then overlay all 3 shots in one frame, abracadabra, you now have six penguins. The effect looks really cool too.

Next one of our penguins walks out of the enclosure and then out of the front gate of Timbavati Wildlife Park. Once it gets out of there, it goes to the nearest gas station via residential street and buys a Peng-Win ticket. It then returns to the enclosure where the ticket sits prominently with Mama and Papa with a big beautiful Christmas bow on it.

I talked with our General Manager about the shoot and it was filmed over the course of three days (with breaks of course).  Post production took two weeks before it was finished. This is a great look at how these commercials get made and it’s rewarding to see two of our very own grab the spotlight for our park.

Helping The South African Peng-Win

To celebrate the launch of Mama and Papa’s starring roles in this commercial we are making a donation to the Dyer Island Conservation Trust. They’re an organization that’s heavily involved in African penguin conservation. We encourage you to visit their website www.dict.org.za to learn more about this worthy cause.

Here is a look at the commercial and a toast to our local Wisconsin Dells celebrities, Mama and Papa! Don’t forget we’re open all winter long as well. Till next week!

Quick Facts: Bobcat

Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. It’s been awhile since we kicked some animal facts and I figured that this bobcat here looks interesting enough for us to talk about. Because who doesn’t enjoy bobcats? Of course at a distance, but still, we love them.

First let me open by saying bobcats look cute but don’t ever go try to pet them. They aren’t too keen on that. Matter of fact, if you see one you might want to just go the other way. Unless you’re at Timbavati Wildlife Park which of course we will keep you safe.

Bobcats get their name from the shortness of their tail. It’s a descriptor of the short tail, like a bob haircut, bob haircut cat tail thing, Bobcat! They are also referred to as bobtail cats and sometimes wildcats. A real wildcat though is a different thing.

Bobcats hunt in low light conditions. They will typically hunt at dawn and dusk. That seems to be a thing with a lot of large cats, life is a lot of sleeping and hunting. In the winter months they will hunt more during the day hours simply because their prey is far and fewer during those months.

A full grown bobcat can weigh up to 33 pounds. They are carnivores that hunt small mammals and birds. The crazy part about these cats which I guess are about the size of a medium sized dog is that they are capable of taking down a full grown deer. That’s incredible when you consider how big a whitetail actually is.

If a bobcat kills something that big it can’t eat it all and it’s too large to carry off. When this happens they will bury their kill and come back to it later. Mountain lions do this as well. This is referred to as caching.

If you’d like more bobcat facts, check out this video on them. Remember we’re open all winter long for daily tours at 11AM and 1PM. We also have private VIP tours available as well. Talk with you all next week!

We Specialize In Interactivity

Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. I can remember the first time I visited Timbavati Wildlife Park. There was something going on here that I had never experienced at any zoo before. Timbavati has a next level experience when it comes to interactivity.

I mean look at the picture of the giraffe that caps this blog post. We all can identify that there’s a giraffe in the picture but take a look at the Safari Train Ride in the back of the picture on the left. That train is passing through one of our pastures and people are feeding all manners of grazing animals on the ride.

When the Safari Train leaves the pasture one of the next stops on its path is the giraffe and camel feeding encounter. Again, the interactivity is beyond what I have experienced anywhere else and it doesn’t end there.

We have Koi ponds and petting areas where you can feed pygmy goats and baby animals. We also have our renown parakeet encounter where you go inside the enclosure and the little budgies can land on you. From our wildlife presentations to the emu’s in the woodlands area, there are lots of opportunities for people to have an interactive experience.

This weeks video takes a look at some of our guests enjoying our giraffe encounter. Remember we’re now open all year round and are currently running guided tours at 11 am and 1pm. That’s all for now, talk with you next week.

The First Frost of The Year

We’re Still Open!

Even though the season has ended and the outdoor water parks have emptied their pools for the winter, we’re still open. We never actually completely close, we maintain a staff for the winter and we work with all of the animals all winter long. Their training, feeding and exercise regimens don’t change at all. We retain a full-time staff all winter to facilitate the care and nurturing of the animals.

We now have daily tours at 11am and 1pm. We also have VIP Behind The Scenes tours that allow guests to have an up close experience with the animals that you normally wouldn’t otherwise have. VIP tours require 24 Hours notice so please call the park in advance to schedule.

In other exciting news, we are looking at options for a Black Friday Weekend Sale so stay tuned and follow our feeds for more information about that. We are also going to be looking at winter projects for park improvements that we want to share with you, so the winter is going to be a really exciting time!

We will close this week’s blog with a look at the Safari Train Ride! Talk with you next week!

http://www.timbavatiwildlifepark.com/2017/10/30/first-frost-year/ ‎

Baby Bats In Time For Halloween!

Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post! We are in full swing for the fall, pumpkins and all! We’re so batty that we are giving away a free pumpkin with the purchase of a Child’s Fall Combo Ticket. That’s right, while supplies last, if you purchase and redeem a Child’s combo ticket she or he will receive a free pumpkin to carve up for Halloween. Speaking of bats, we have some exciting news from the world of our straw coloured fruit bats.

At first glance, the picture from this blog is probably quite unassuming. If you look closely though you can see that both mama bats on the left and the right are holding their young. Yep, we have baby bats!  Baby bats are called “pups.” Pups will nurse for about 6 months before weaning.

A mother bat usually will only give birth to one pup a year. Bats are considered to be one of the slowest reproducing mammals. They typically will give birth in the spring when temperatures are warmer. A group of bats is called a colony and the pups are usually kept together for safety and warmth.

A mother bat can locate her pup by smell and sound. She can find her pup in a colony of millions. Speaking of sounds, did you know that male bats sometimes sing to attract a mate? Bat’s love insects but also like fruits as well. They actually help plants pollinate the same way a honey bee does!

Timbavati Wildlife Park is ecstatic to have our new bat pups and you can visit them in nursery number two. We’re open all year round so it’s always a good time to come see the pups. Please see our website for details!

Quick Facts: Sloth & New Baby Owl Monkey

Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post! As I promised you all last week we got the cameras out and are excited to show you all some new images from Timbavati Wildlife Park. It really got us going and here is one of the first images to come from the shoot.

This little guy is the baby owl monkey that a lot of you have been asking about. He is only a few weeks old and has been peeping out at visitors that pass through. Baby owl monkeys are hard to breed as the gift of life and reproduction rates are a lot lower for owl monkeys than they are for a lot of our other animals.

Another noteworthy area of care for this little guy is isolating both he and mom from the other owl monkeys which kind of leads me to the crux of this blog. A lot of our animals in the park come and go quite regularly. We work with Zoos and fairs, tv shows and hollywood to bring enjoyment to people all over the United States.

Our nursery is the first short stop in the lives of our animal friends. Our nursery allows us to monitor their development and work with them on a daily basis to that the animals get used to working with people from early on.

There’s also a safety factor for the animals as the herds, packs, flocks, troops, mobs and creeps that they belong to might have competition for dominance and bloodline survival. In those more territorial societies we bring the young in until they are old enough to look after themselves in their species based encounters.

This Friday is also International Sloth Day! So this week’s video is all about Sid! Don’t forget we have a free pumpkin for kids when they buy and redeem a Fall Combo Ticket while supplies last! Talk with you next week!

Mama and Papa are The Stars Of The Show!

Greetings and salutations friends of Timbavati Wildlife Park! We are sooo excited to talk to you all this week. First let me start by saying congratulations to Mama and Papa who have been cast in a new television campaign! Second we are excited to announce our fall photo shoot!

That’s right, we have just traversed every inch of the park and snapped a bunch of cool heart warming pictures to entertain you all winter long. The animals at the park are always coming and going in some capacity. We have zoos and other attractions that we work with all over the country to educate and entertain people all over America. Which means we have new residents in the park and we can’t wait to introduce them to you. Give us a couple of weeks and we will begin to roll those pictures out for you.

Now back to mama and papa. Without giving to much away, Mama and Papa have been added to a commercial campaign. This week the cameras and lights focused on our pair of South African Penguins. It’s a winter time campaign and it’s funny because we had a full film crew and a snowmaker in the park to give us that winter wonderland feel.

As I was walking through the park thinking about the shoot and Mama and Papa’s role in the campaign I thought to myself, “these are warm weather penguins” but we’re going to make them look like antarctic penguins. You know there are more warm weather penguins than there are cold right? Well at least now I’m not the only one who knows this little fun fact.

When the campaign launches I will share it with you as our little stars are now celebs! We genuinely appreciate the chance to have our penguins filmed and can’t wait to show you the outcome of the shoot. Here is a look at Mama and Papa in this week’s video, talk with you all next week!

Oh yeah, starting this Friday, every child receives a free pumpkin when you buy a Fall Combo Ticket for their admission. Happy pumpkin carving season!

http://www.timbavatiwildlifepark.com/2017/10/10/mama-papa-stars-show/

Quick Facts: African Penguins

Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post! This week Friday is actually African Penguin Awareness Day. Most people typically associate penguins with frigid temperatures but the reality is, there are more warm weather penguins than there are cold weather penguins. We love all penguins evenly around here.

In any event the South African penguin is also referred to as the Black Footed Penguin of the Jackass Penguin. It’s probably because they become unruly after a cold beer, LOL I’m kidding.

Seriously though it has a couple alias names.

Did you know that a penguin can dive to depths up to 130 meters? Yeah they’re little submariners for sure. They can also hold their breath for a few minutes at a time as well. They eat jellyfish and I wonder how they do that without being stung by them. It’s a hmm question for me :).

Penguins really love anchovies so if you’re ordering a pizza for them make sure that there’s some on the pie for them. I left you a bunch more facts to go over in this week’s video.

Don’t forget we’re open every day right now and we have a “Fall Combo Ticket” for everyone because everyone likes a discount right?

Talk to you all soon!

Fall Combo Ticket

Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post! On this side of the table we are gearing up for a really big fall at Timbavati Wildlife Park. I know you’re probably thinking, “What do you mean a big fall? Summer is over and so is the Wisconsin Dells!” Nope, wrong, cue the buzzer, we are a wildlife park. We offer private tours all year long by appointment. We are also open every day in the fall.

This brings me to this week’s topic which is an announcement! We are actually running a discount right now in the form of a Fall Combo Ticket. A Combo ticket grants a person a general admission and a ride on the Safari Train!

Well the safari train takes you into our exclusive pasture where you can have an up close animal encounter and takes a ride around to our Giraffe and Camel Feeding Encounter. It is literally the “Wildest Ride” in the Wisconsin Dells. Get it? Wildest Ride? Yuk Yuk? No? Ok, you get the point :)

The leaves are starting to change and we’re really excited to bring you all new images this fall from the brown and orange backdrop that’s starting to frame our home. Those are in our plans for the next couple of weeks and we can’t wait to show you what we come up with!

What kinds of events do you all look forward to in the fall? We’d love to hear from you about your plans. This week’s video follows up with the combo ticket discussion so check it out and enjoy!

Talk with you next week!

Farm Animals Appreciation Week

Greetings Friends and welcome to this week’s blog! This week are are celebrating National Farm Animals Awareness Week. The lives that a lot of our visitors live is one of urban concrete and offices. Cubicles and board rooms, deliveries and commerce. Being in Timbavati reminds us that there is a world that exists beyond the internet and a netflix subscription.

When I thought about farm animals for this blog I realized, I haven’t touched a goat since my elementary school field trips that took us to local farms. You know what? Most people that visit Timbavati haven’t seen farm animals since they were kids too. There’s a simple elegance to the interaction that can only be described as organic when we have those precious moments to interact with the creatures that help us survive and provide for ourselves.

The same thing goes for the highly intelligent pig. We have pig races daily and occasionally have a young one or two in the nursery and they are as kind as they are entertaining to observe and interact with. Not to mention they love oreo cookies and race for them as a prize at the finish line in the pig races that we have daily.

I guess until I had a chance to enjoy these animals up close I really didn’t get a chance to appreciate farm animals in this light. That’s what Farm Animal Appreciation Week is all about!

Check out this week’s video and remember, we’re still open during the fall there are lots of chances left for you to come and half an adventure. See our website for information about our Fall Combo Ticket!

We're Still Open!

Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. Summer has wound down and we’re all back into our fall flow at this point. I know we technically don’t change over until about the 21st of September, but let’s face it a labor day barbeque pretty much seals the deal for the end of summer.

The same way those changes impact the rest of everyday life, they impact Timbavati Wildlife Park as well. I’m sure you’re wondering how, and that’s what we’re talking about today. Firstly, the foliage in the park all begins to change to the beautiful colors of autumn. You know the classic “Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” color schemes we all grew up watching and loving.

There’s a change in the park. With the vacation season over and traffic in the Dells slowing down sans the weekend warriors. Timbavati Wildlife back has a little less bustle and a bit more tranquility attached to it. There are still people of course but the park feels a lot more like just you and the animals looking at each other, a lot. I mean believe me, they’re watching you when you show up.

Then of course the fall really changes the animal’s behaviour. It’s an instinct thing primarily. In the summer months, animals typically are less active to burn less energy. They’re conserving body fats and what not so that they don’t have to exert as much energy hunting and foraging.

Well when you get into the cooler months they become much more active to build up their natural reserves for the winter months. They want to bulk up and usually are more frisky as the weather cools in the fall.

When you’re looking for family activities or a school field trip, consider us an option because we’re open as long as the weather permits!

Happy Labor Day!

Greetings and Happy Labor Day everyone! Today is our national observance for the American Worker and the jobs that we all do to keep this great country of ours in motion. The very first Labor day was organized by the Central Labor Union in New York City. This was celebrated on Tuesday September 5th 1882. They held their second one a year later on the same date.

Labor day was moved to Monday in 1884 because who likes Monday’s right? LOL Funnily enough Labor day and its origins also have roots in the 8 hour work day movement which recommended 8 hours for work, 8 hours for recreation and 8 hours for rest.

Today’s labor day actually falls on another day of observance which is National Wildlife Day. National Wildlife Day was founded in 2005 by Colleen Paige in memory of conservationist Steve Irwin AKA the Crocodile Hunter. Most of us remember him for wrestling big crocs and handling snakes by hand  but his biggest contributions to humanity were his conservation and rescue efforts for animals.

National WIldlife Day is day intended to learn about conservation efforts around the world and you can get involved in the day by using the hashtag #NationalWildlifeDay in your posts. What better way to celebrate both days than to come and learn about our conservation involvement from our professional animal handling staff at Timbavati Wildlife Park. Thanks and we hope to see you soon. 

Quick Facts: Porcupine

Greetings friends and welcome to the last week of August. If you’re a kid reading this, sorry but the summer is over. It’s time to get those backpacks out and hit the books once more! If you’re a parent, Yayyyyyyyyyy school is back in and we can get our weekdays back! And so the cycle of life continues.

Speaking of life cycles, did you know that baby porcupines are born with quills? Yep they have quills at birth. Now luckily for a female porcupine these quills are soft like fur at birth and won’t harden until a few days after the baby is born.

A baby porcupine will hand out with mom until it’s old enough to defend itself. That’s usually around 6 months old. I kind of get the feeling that defending itself really isn’t an issue with 30,000 quills.

Speaking of quills, a porcupine's quills have barbs on the end of them. If you’re ever unlucky enough to get stuck with them, they will take part of you with them when you pull them out. Now there are animals that a porcupine has beef with. These predators have learned a little trick.

Porcupines have no quills on their bellies. Bobcats, cougars and fishers have all figured out that if you flip a porcupine over that it’s defenseless. Now as a human, I have no desire to flip a porcupine over, I am content with watching them eat bananas and be the chill little critters that they typically are.

You can see them eating bananas and being chill in this week’s video! We also have many more fun facts in the video. Talk with you all next week! 

The Birds of Timbavati Wildlife Park

Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog. This week I just wanted to take some time to appreciate the avian denizens of Timbavati Wildlife Park. In the past we have looked at Emu and crowned cranes we have also taken a look at our penguins and kookaburra. When I think about it though, there is a collection of birds in the park that entertain serious birders and casual birders alike.

When you enter the waterfalls area, you are greeted by our kingfishers the kookaburra. The Eurasian owl and tawny eagle are in close proximity as well. We also have the cutest peach faced lovebirds you will ever see. When you look at the ponds directly across from them you can find our mallard ducks, lesser flamingos and siberian red breasted geese as well.

A quick jaunt through some of our award winning rock work will bring you to our penguin encounter which is home to some park favorites the south African penguin. This warm weather pair of penguins love basking in the sun and swimming in their pool. It’s kind of funny to mention the works warm weather and penguin in the same sentence. The truth is that there are a lot of warm weather penguins we just tend to think of them as cold weather fowl.

Now when you enter our woodlands area we have more of our larger birds and raptors. The second largest bird in the in the world is the emu. Ostrich is one, emu is two. I have stood toe to toe with both and let me tell you that when you’re eye to eye with the largest raptors in the world you don’t notice the couple of inches worth of difference between the two. Those are some large birds and if you don’t have a treat, don’t plan on hanging out with them for very long. The crowned crane and the greater rhea aren’t small birds either. The Woodlands area has a lot to offer in the way of birds.

With all of that said, you’d think that we would have more than enough birds to keep the worm population in check, we do but we aren’t done yet! The Interaction Area at Timbavati Wildlife Park has more birds than you can shake a stick at as well.

Our nursery areas have many many different species of birds in them. From the impeyan pheasant to the turaco. We have a lot of birds in the nursery area. When you step around the side of Nursery 2 you come to our macaw encounter. This always makes me feel like a pirate because the birds in this area will absolutely talk to you when you walk up. There are lots of clicks and whistles to be heard here for sure but its the occasional “HELLO” that will stir you until you figure out that it’s the parrots.

The crowned jewel of the interaction area and one staple of the interaction area in general is the parakeet encounter. In this encounter, you walk right into the enclosure and feed the birds directly. They come and land on your hand and peck birdseed off of a stick that you can buy in the park. It is a hit with everyone that steps into it.

I wasn’t able to put every bird that we have into this week’s video but there’s more than enough feathery fun in our park to entertain you and your fine family when you fly through out entrance! Talk with you next week friends!

Checking In On Our Spider Monkey

Greetings friends and happy World Lizard Day! As you can see from today’s picture post, we are enjoying our monitor lizard and the entertainment that observing it brings. In 2015 Timbavati Wildlife Park took on the task of creating a Spider Monkeys Encounter. This new attraction gave our guests a prime time view of our primate pals.

In 2016 we welcomed the birth of our first spider monkey baby. Spider monkey females will only hare one baby every two - five years. Needless to say baby was a hit. This led my desire to want to know more about spider monkey younglings.

First let’s begin with what a baby spider monkey is called, a baby. LOL yeah there’s no special name given to baby monkey’s, they’re just called baby or an infant. The first 10 weeks or so of an infant’s life is spent clinging to mom’s belly or being carried on her back. After that the baby will begin to adventure away from mom towards independence. The baby will nurse for up to two years.

This week’s video takes a look at our own spider monkeys and has a little bit of a surprise in it for you our friends. Thanks for reading and we will talk with you next week!