Crowned Cranes of Timbavati Wildlife Park

Greetings and welcome to the end of July? Yeah that’s it, this Wednesday is August first and that means there’s a last minute push to get that summer vacation in the Wisconsin Dells together. When you come to the Dells, we hope that Timbavati Wildlife Park is in your itinerary I mean you wouldn’t want to miss hanging out with a majestic bird like the crowned crane would you?

The crowned crane is the national bird of Uganda and is native to Africa south of the Sahara. It belongs to the crane family "Gruidae." They can be found near rivers, marshes and other wetland areas. These birds do not migrate but will make local and seasonal movements according to the food resources, the nest-site availability and the rains.

The crowned crane is a fairly large bird standing about 3ft tall. They can weigh up to 9 pounds.  They have a red pouch called a "gular pouch" that hangs from their throats.

These birds are omnivores and consume many types of prey including seeds, insects, grasses, fish and other invertebrate. The grey crowned crane has a long hind toe which can grasp a branch allowing them to roost in trees.

During the breeding season, the grey crowned crane performs a beautiful dance, bow, run and jump while inflating the gular sacs and giving off low booming calls. These calls are given with the head lowered to shoulder level.

Now don’t forget we have VIP Luxury Tours and Noah’s Ark Combo Tickets available. Check out our website for more information. Below you will find a short video with a few more fun facts and footage of the Crowned Cranes!

Wildebeests In The Great Migration

Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. I got a chance recently to sit and film the wildebeests at Timbavati Wildlife Park. I thought to myself, self, how about you and I do some digging to know more about one of the largest antelope species in the world. You know what I came up with? It’s called The Great Migration.

This migration in Africa is joined by thousands of zebras and gazelles. Most of the migration movement takes place in Tanzania and Kenya. The Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Conservation Area are among the areas that the migration takes place in. The Great Migration sees over 1.5 million Wildebeests and 200,000 zebras all marching in one direction at the same time.

Between January and March around a half million wildebeests are born. They just the number of new calves a day at 8,000, I’d say that’s one busy stork. During the great migration the animals travel 800 km or more. Research has also shown that when a herd of wildebeest face an obstacle or threat swarm mentality is used to push the herd past that challenge.

There are a ton of challenges during the migration also. There are predators, exhaustion, I mean the Serengeti alone is home to more than 3,000 lions. Add a croc and a leopard or two and the migration is as challenging as it is epic.

Luckily for you folks you can enjoy the wildebeests right here in the Wisconsin Dells at Timbavati Wildlife Park. They graze in our Grasslands Area and are visible from the Safari Train Ride as well as from the park on our general admission. Hop on over to timbavatiwildlifepark.com for more information.

A New Look At The Safari Train Ride of Timbavati Wildlife Park

Hello all and welcome to this week’s blog post. This week we’re going to take a new look at the Safari Train Ride at Timbavati Wildlife Park. Before we get into that though, did you know that this week is National Zookeeper Week? That’s right, when you’re strolling through the grounds at our park feel free to tell anyone on staff thank you for the hard work that they do. We appreciate their hard work and effort just as much as you do.

Now onto today’s topic, the Safari Train Ride. If you remember when we first moved into our new home, there used to be a go kart track behind the train ride. We took that out and put the beautiful pasture up front where you can feed animals.

Now when the train takes off, when you look to your right there is a pasture with rams and such. The train takes you to a picturesque view of the pasture that holds our ostriches, wildebeests and zebras. From there you pass into a really large pasture for a chance to feed a few antelope and perhaps a large flightless bird or two.

You leave that pasture and take a left at the kangaroos and tortoises and blam! You’re right at the giraffe and camel feeding encounter. This is of course, exactly where you want to be. Feeding a giraffe is definitely a life experience. It’s something you have to do at least once.

You’ll take a quick pass by the cat house and be dropped back off by the gift shop. That’s the train ride, if you’d like to see the penguins, lions, tigers, birds, snakes, monkeys, owls, sloths, badgers… I think you get my point here, then you want the general admission. I promise you this is a very wild time! Check the video out and visit our website for more information.

The Woman That Talks With Tigers

Let’s begin by saying this. There are people who are animal lovers and there are people who are animal whisperers. Now I won’t go all sage mode on you guys about what animals mean because I don’t know what they mean, nor do I intend to interpret that for you.

Now let’s kick this down to the level of your pets at home. When your dog needs water you know. Sometimes the dog may actually show up to you with a dish. When you spend enough time with your pets and animals you begin to know what they say and what it means.

Take the cat that you have at home. This fine feline will let you know when it wants to be pet. It will let you know when it’s hungry and all around is just a great pal. Animals who have relationships with humans typically have the same kinds of behaviors. Now when they’re bigger like our tiger Diva here we have to take safety precautions but it still boils down to how much time you spend with them to know who they are and what they need.

I’ll never forget the time I watched Mark Schoebel the founder of Timbavati Wildlife Park talk to and pet a lion. I took my best friend Champ with me and let him see the lion up close. Champ, Mark and I hung out all day and Mark just beamed with light showing us those big cats. You see Mark’s dad came home from WWII and was such a BA veteran that he wanted to own a lion. Yes almost 4 generations ago now that’s how this whole thing kicked off and here’s where we are today.

Our staff tends to, loves and cares for each animal we have deeply. Every animal that we have in our park has a professional handler that works with them daily to make sure that from the animals to the people we all have a great time. This week’s video shows you an example of that relationship.

I was instantly blown away when I saw Mark talk to the big cats, I was also just as floored when I realized that our very own Wendy can talk to tigers. This is the kind of person I want to give me my VIP Luxury Tour when I am going to give my family a thrill. The smile on these kids faces will tell you that it’s worth every cent. Don’t take my work for it though, Just listen to the tiger!

The Ostriches of Timbavati Wildlife Park

Greetings Friends and welcome to this week’s post! Welcome to the week of the ostrich. Ostriches may not be able to fly, but they can break records. They are the largest living species of bird on the planet, growing to between 4 and 9 ft tall. They also lay the largest eggs of any bird in the world. One ostrich egg is the equivalent of two dozen chicken eggs!

Two records might be enough for any other bird, but ostriches are truly extraordinary animals. They also hold the record for the largest eyes of any land animal - only half an inch smaller than a standard tennis ball! So think of them the next time you hit the court.

At first glance they are can be quite funny looking animals. With long necks and full fluffy bodies perched atop two strong and very long legs, one ostrich can weigh as much as two full grown adults. And speaking of full grown adults, an ostrich's wingspan is as wide as Kobe Bryant is tall. That's over six and a half feet!

The male ostrich is black and the female white, and they only have two toes on each foot which helps them run at speeds of up to 43 miles per hour, twice as fast as Olympian Michael Johnson. Which means the common ostrich holds one more record - fastest two legged animal in the world.

Contrary to popular belief, ostriches do not hide their heads in the sand when in danger. They actually run away or lie completely flat on the ground making their feathered body appear as a mound of dirt.

Did you know people ride ostriches and race them? Ostrich racing has a long, rich history in Africa and the United States, and there are even depictions of it in ancient Egyptian art. As crazy as it sounds it still draws quite a crowd - about 100,000 people turned up in Arizona to watch them in 2016.

You can’t ride them but we have our own little flock of ostriches. Check out this weeks video for more information about the world’s largest bird.