Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog. Today we’re checking in on our lesser flamingos in the Waterfalls Area. The lesser hails from sub-Saharan Africa and India. The name flamingo is a derivative of the latin word “flamma” which means flame. It’s an adjective that was used to describe their plumage.
Flamingos ware wading birds that live near bodies of water such as shallow lakes, lagoons and tidal flats. Flamingos feed by holding their beaks upside down in the water. They get a beak full of water then filter out the mud and silt through small hair-like filters called lamellae.
The lesser flamingo is one of the smallest flamingos. It stands 2.5-3 feet tall. The lesser also weighs between 3 and 5 pounds on average. Flamingo legs can be longer than their bodies. What we might see as a bending knee on a flamingo is actually an ankle. Their knees are
actually higher up the leg and out of sight.
During the breeding season the female will lay a single egg. When the eggs hatch the chicks join what is called a creche. Creches are groups of young birds being led by a few attending adults.
Timbavati Wildlife Park is home to a diverse array of flora and fauna. Visit our website today to plan your visit. For a limited time we have our Fall Combo Ticket available. That’s a general admission plus Safari Train Ride for one great price.
Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog about the cotton-top tamarin. Before we delve into that topic I would like to say farewell to the month of September. The air is becoming cooler. Soon the leaves will begin to change and the backdrop of Timbavati Wildlife Park will be outlined in beautiful autumn colors. It’s a great time to see the park. With that said, let’s take a look at our little friends the cotton-top tamarins.
Cotton-top tamarins hail from the forests of South America. Their most recognizable feature is their namesake, the white tuft of hair on their heads. These little creatures live in the trees for most of their lives. As one of the smallest primates on the planet they have an abundance of predators to watch out for. This makes the forest canopy a safe place to live and traverse.
A cotton-top troop is made up of mostly males. The troop however is led by the eldest female. The cotton-top marks its territory by dragging its rear end down the trunk of a tree, leaving its scent on it. It will also rub its scent on its feet and climb up and down the trees. When opposing troops of cotton-tops meet they display aggression by displaying their rear ends to each other.
The cotton-top is an omnivore who lives on a diet of fruit, insects and rodents. The cotton-top also likes green plants, eggs, and tree sap. The gestation period for the female is 183 days. She then typically gives birth to a set of twins.
Timbavati Wildlife Park is home to many different species of animal. We’re a family friendly educational experience with hours of entertainment for you and your party. Visit us online to plan your trip today. Thanks and we’ll see you in the park.
Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. Today we are taking a walk into Nursery 2 and looking at the red-handed tamarin. The red-handed tamarin is a native of South America and dwells in wooded areas north of the Amazon River. As you can see from this week’s photo it gets its name from the reddish brown fur on its paws.
Red-handed tamarins belong to a group which are referred to as “New World Monkeys.” This is a distinction given to monkeys discovered in Mexico, Central and South America. They all share similar characteristics. Some of those characteristics for example are that they are small to medium-sized primates which typically have long tails. Red-handed tamarins are small and only weigh a pound.
These little monkeys are omnivores. They will eat plants, fruits, flowers, eggs, frogs, nectar, insects and small reptiles. Red-handed tamarins live in small groups of 4-15 members. These small groups of monkeys are referred to as a troop, a barrel, a carload, a cartload or a tribe.
The red-handed tamarin is a great climber and can jump great lengths. They can easily jump from trees as high as 60 feet to the ground without getting hurt. The red-handed tamarin is also very quick with a top recorded speed of 24 miles per hour.
Only one female in the troop will mate during the breeding season. The gestation period for this lone mother is 140-170 days. The mother will typically give birth to two babies. The entire group looks after the babies. The father is the primary caretaker for the young and only defers to the mother for nursing.
Timbavati Wildlife Park is teeming with animals and educational information. For a limited time we have our “Fall Combo Ticket.” This gives you our General Admission plus a Safari Train Ride for one great price. Visit our website today and plan your visit. Here’s a video with more great red-handed tamarin facts.
Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. September has been mild and awesome. This week we’re talking about the construction of Timbavati Wildlife Park. Many of the structures in Timbavati Wildlife Park are made from repurposed and reused materials.
Timbavati Wildlife Park sits on the site of the former Riverview Waterpark. The timbers and steel under our beautiful rock entrance? All reused! Our observation tower was a water slide in the old park. Whenever we can we seek to recycle and repurpose materials.
Engine Number 9 on our Safari Train Ride is itself repurposed from a different location as is it’s track. When you ride on the train it will take you past the Aoudad pasture. This area used to be a go-kart track. The go-kart overpass has been repurposed as a shelter and enrichment area (see this week’s picture) That’s re-purposing at it’s finest.
Going The Extra Mile To Re-purpose
Our reuse and repurpose goes beyond that. A lot of the steel used in the construction of our rhino pen is recycled. The rustic rock and wood benches at Timbavati Wildlife Park are made with repurposed and reused materials.
If you’ve never been to Timbavati Wildlife Park, right now is a great time to visit. We now have our “Fall Combo Ticket” for a limited time only. For one great price you will receive a general admission plus Safari Train Ride. We also have our VIP Behind The Scenes Tours available as well. Visit our website for more information and you can view our Safari Train Ride in this week’s video. Thanks and have a great week.
Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. September has been very comfortable so far, the mild temperatures are awesome for a great walk in the park. While walking through Timbavati Wildlife Park you’ll no doubt encounter our brand new Prairie Dog Encounter. It’s at the very front of our Interaction Area. Today we will take a look at our new little fuzzy friends the prairie dog.
For starters prairie dogs are not part of the canine family. They are actually a rodent, think really big squirrel. They were called dogs because of the little barking noises that they make. They come mostly from the Great Plains in the United States and can withstand everything from a midwest winter to a Texas heatwave. That’s built to last. It’s always cooler in winter and warmer in the summer when you’re underground.
As you can see from this week’s video prairie dog video, they are expert tunnel makers. They burrow as a way of life. Prairie dogs also like in what are called “towns.” A prairie dog town is a large collection of prairie dog families. A prairie dog family is called a coterie or a clan. You need multiple clans to make up a town. A prairie dog town can have upwards of 10,000 prairie dogs in it.
As you can also see from this week’s video prairie dogs post a lookout. This lookout will bark if something looks out of place. They also clear tall plants from their burrows so that they can see predators approaching.
Timbavati Wildlife Park is home to a lot of really cool animals and the prairie dog has been an awesome addition to our 2019 lineup. We’re open 7 days a week and can handle everything from corporate events to field trips. Visit our website for more animal facts and fun. Thanks and we’ll see you all in the park.
Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blogpost. Before we get started with our topic on penguins, I want to remind you all that we still have a name the baby owl monkey contest running. You can click the pinned post on our Facebook page for details. Now onto our next topic, Jake and Elwood.
Timbavati Wildlife Park is now home to two new South African Blackfoot penguins. We all know and love Mama and Papa our long time penguin pair. This summer they were joined by Jake and Elwood. Now why the names Jake and Elwood? Our owner Alice Schoebel explained to me that juvenile penguins are referred to as “blues” because their feathers have a blue tint and they aren’t black and white in color yet.
Apparently she shared this bit of useful knowledge with one our guests and this prompted him to ask “Are both of them boys?” When Alice told them “yes” this guy immediately called them the “Blues Brothers” without hesitation. Boom from that moment on they were called Jake and Elwood.
A lot of animals around Timbavati Wildlife Park have cute stories about their names. Some are attributed to personality, some are attributed to color and some of them are even named by you. Make sure you like our pages for interesting tidbits about our animals and notifications about specials that we are running. Thanks and we’ll see you in the park.
Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. Summer has been awesome and the milder temperatures are nice and comfortable. Whilst we bask in the glow of the August son I have to give everyone an advanced warning that summer is coming to a close. Now we’re open all year round but after Labor Day 2019 we will no longer offer Camel Rides or Swine Time Pig Racing for the remainder of the year.
Fret not good people as you still have two full weeks of riding and racing. Some of you reading this have never seen a pig race. Did you know that pigs can run at speeds of up to 11 Miles Per hour. Now humans can run at speeds of up to 28 miles per hour, but we can’t take a corner at 11 mph much less top speed. Trust me on this I have the bruises to prove it LOL.
The Swine Time Pig Races are a family favorite that takes place at our very own Porker Park. These swift swine are set on an oval of agility in a race to recover the vaunted Oreo Cookie! These races come packed with a ton of funny pig puns presented by our professional animal handling staff. Bring the whole family and watch them squeal around the oval while you still have time this year.
Camel Rides will also be coming to an end for the year this Labor Day. If you haven’t visited our Camel Rides in the woodlands area yet, what are you waiting for? Did you know that camels are the oldest form of transportation? You can also find camels living comfortably all over the world. In some remote locations it's still the only way to move people and goods. Those are just a few of the cool camel facts that you can learn when you take a ride on a ship of the desert. Our staff love asking questions about the camels.
We only get to take a few precious moments in time and make them memories. These shared experiences last a lifetime in the minds of both the young and the young at heart. Stop in to Timbavati Wildlife Park today, we have an adventure waiting for you. Take a look at this week’s video for more on camel rides and pig racing. Make sure you follow our pages to receive info on specials and contests. We will announce the winners of the “Name The Baby Spider Monkey Contest” this week. Thanks and we’ll see you in the park.
Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. Summer has been absolutely beautiful in the Wisconsin Dells and if you haven’t made your way up here to visit us there’s still plenty of time. Also, if you haven’t entered our “Spider Monkey Naming Contest” don’t hesitate to do so. This week we are talking about the straw coloured fruit bat.
This bat hails from the continent of Africa and is common across much of the continent and in Madagascar. The adult straw coloured fruit bat weighs around 9 ounces. It has about a seven inch body with a more than 2 foot wingspan. It’s pretty big, it falls under the category of megabat.
The straw coloured fruit bat is nocturnal. You probably guessed that by its oversized eyes right? These social creatures will roost in groups from 100k to 1 million bats. That’s a lot of guano aye? They find food by site and by smell. They eat fruit and plants so they do a lot to disperse seeds and pollen for the flora that helps support them.
There are a lot of really cool straw coloured fruit bat facts. For more facts and a close up look at Atticus take a look at this week’s video. This week Alice Schoebel gives us an up close look and education about our furry little flying friends. That’s all I have for this week. Make sure you follow our pages to stay informed about everything from fun facts to free giveaways. Thanks ad We’ll see you all in the park.
Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. This week we have a very unique topic and video, “Bonding with a Rhinoceros.” For those of you who don’t follow our social feeds (which you should stop reading right this minute, go and like/follow/subscribe/share/favorite retweet us right now, then continue reading) the rhino pictured here is a young male named Naasaha. The gentleman in the picture is our very own Matt Schoebel. Today we’re talking about the bond between Matt and Naasaha.
Hopefully at some point in everyone’s life one will have had the opportunity to bond with an animal. Those of us lucky enough to experience this kind of relationship know the joys of coming home to your favorite pet. A rhinoceros is not a pet, but it is most certainly filled with personality. Matt is a professional animal handler who was raised in the business and has a lifetime of experience with animal care. They both create a unique opportunity for an educational and entertaining experience for us to watch.
I have set out to film Naasaha on many occasions. By and large when he sees me coming he goes the other way. I have to film him ambush style like TMZ lol. Matt here? Not a problem. Matter of fact, he can call the rhino over with just a whistle. Seeing the bond between Matt and Naasaha shows us all that the level of affection and care that they have for each other is extremely high.
This week’s video gives you a great look at Matt and Naasaha. But why just watch here when you can come up to the Wisconsin Dells and see Naasaha in our Grasslands Area from our Safari Train Ride. Follow our profiles and visit our website for more information. Here’s this week’s video thanks for reading and we’ll see you all in the park.
Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. It’s July and it feels like it! The heat has been on around the Wisconsin Dells and so has our season. This week we’re taking a look at a new little resident of Timbavati Wildlife Park, a baby bobcat. This little kitten can be seen in the Waterfalls Area of our park. While we’re here, let’s take a look at a few bobcat facts.
Bobcats get their name from the shortness of their tail. Apparently someone thought the tail crop looked like a fashion statement and the name stuck. 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. They are carnivores and will typically prey on small mammals and birds.
A full grown bobcat can weigh up to 33 pounds. They are a foot and a half to two feet in length and can also run at speeds of up to 30 miles an hour. They live all over North America from Southern Canada to Mexico.
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.
Bobcats mate primarily in the winter. The gestation period of the female bobcat is 60 to 70 days. Fortunately for us, we happen to have a new little baby bobcat in the waterfalls area. Check out this week’s video for a first look at one of the little new residents in Timbavati Wildlife Park. Thanks and we will talk with you all next week.
Greetings friends and welcome to the month of July! That’s right the middle of the summer is upon us and family vacations are in full swing! You want to know what else is in full swing? Our Sloths! A sloth hangs around all day long with its curved claws. Let’s take a deeper look at one of the most requested animals in Timbavati Wildlife Park.
There are two types of sloths in the world, the three-toed and two-toed sloth. Sid, one of our park’s more recognizable residents is a two-toed sloth. Sloths are found in Central and South America. While their feet have three claws their hands only have two.
While sloths are categorized as herbivores they have been known to eat small insects and lizards in the wild. Typically they love leaves, shoots, fruits and vegetables. A sloth’s temperature can range from 74 to 92 degrees Fahrenheit. If their body temperature gets too cold the bacteria in its stomach that helps it digest food can actually stop working. A sloth can starve to death with a stomach full of food if it can’t stay warm enough to digest its food.
Now a human can eat digest and remove bodily waste from a meal in 12 to 48 hours. A sloth by comparison can take up to 30 days to digest a leaf. This is interesting when you think about that in tandem with the speed of a sloth. A sloth moves quite slowly and deliberately to conserve energy. It even sleeps for up to 15 hours a day to save energy. This is a common theme in the animal world. A lot of animals sleep for a long time through the course of the day for energy conservation.
A sloth eats, mates and even gives birth while hanging from the trees. This is the safest place for it because it is a very slow mover on the ground. What about in water though, how do they move in water? Watch this weeks video for more great fun facts about the two-toed sloth. Visit our website for more information about visiting our park today! This 4th of July Veterans will receive a free admission when you show your military ID. Thank you for your service and we’ll talk with you all next week. Cheers!
Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. Summer is kickin’ I can feel the air thicken. Things are heating up in Timbavati Wildlife Park this summer. From presentations to pigs-a-racin there’s always something to do. For instance, one really fun thing that almost all of our guests experience when they visit us is feeding camels.
I’ve fed a lot of animals in my time, one of the most fun animals to feed is absolutely a camel. They love to eat and can really put it away. Camels require 22-44 pounds of fresh food daily. If they are working daily that can be as high as 100 pounds of food per day. When you step up to feed the camels they will definitely display their appetites.
A camel will walk almost 2 miles a day to find food. Camels also belong to an animal group called ruminants. Like a cow camels eat their food, regurgitate it chew it and swallow it again. With four stomachs there are things that have to happen.
Camels Have A Pretty Robust Diet
Camels like vegetation and aren’t very picky about food. They like twigs, stems and green shoots. They also like willows and poplar leaves. Camels have a pretty robust diet and as a person who loves food I can appreciate their appetites.
There’s always a lot of fun to have and facts to learn when you visit Timbavati Wildlife Park. We have Season Passes, VIP Behind The Scenes Tours and Group Rates for larger events. Visit our website and follow us online to receive more great animal fun facts. Cheers and we will see you all in the park.
Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. We are almost done with school around these parts and if your kids start school in August they’re already singing the “I’m bored “ blues. For those of you who visit the Wisconsin Dells often we have a seasonal pass. See our website for more details. This week we are celebrating our pigs getting a new house.
Now of course they have had houses made out of straw and sticks but this house is different. It comes with its own racing oval and pit crew. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, the pig races have been relocated. If you recall, up until this year we’ve held pig races on a race track in the interaction area. This year we have a brand new track laid just out back.
The new track is located in the Woodlands Area. If you’re in the Woodlands Area just go past the Camel Rides. Go past the Tortoise Encounter, then keep going past the mob of kangaroos. Once you see the White Emu Encounter you’re almost there.
The track in the back is filled with pork and talking smack yeah. Our World Famous Swine Time Pig Races are always a great time. It’s a family friendly presentation packed with more one liners than amateur night at a comedy club. Don’t just take my word for it, check out this week’s video.
This Sunday is also Father’s Day. Dad will receive a free General Admission when you bring the family to the park. That’s free admission for dear old dad this Sunday only. Cheers and we’ll see you in the park.
Greetings friends and welcome to the month of June! June always makes me think of the end of school and the start of the summer vacation season. It’s nice because it looks like most of the rain is behind us (of course this can change) and we have some nice temperatures in our forecast. That said, this week we’re talking about a new look in one of our petting areas. The Pygmy Goat Encounter.
Friends of Timbavati Wildlife Park have came from far and wide to encounter our pygmy goats. We have multiple petting areas set around the park. The interaction area has a lot of opportunities to encounter animals. In 2018 we introduced a winding staircase and bridge for our pygmy goats to use when traversing from the petting area to area. This year our pygmy goats got an upgrade to their digs.
Yes that’s right ladies and gentlemen, they are ready for MTV Cribs. This is where the magic happens. I am kidding but this is pretty sweet isn’t it? It’s a pygmy goat house with a winding staircase. I want a staircase like that lol. It’s pretty sweet. What I am seeing with it is that people are spending a lot more time at the Pygmy Goat Encounter because you can now visit with them inside and outside. It has very nice seating areas also.
Timbavati Wildlife Park Wildlife Park is always growing. Daily, weekly, monthly, we are working to grow and expand. We thank you for your visits and encouragement. It’s been a lot of work but the smiles are a great part of the reward. Visit our website for more information about planning your visit. We also have VIP Behind The Scenes Tours available for those of you who would like an even more exclusive experience. This week’s video gives you an exclusive look at the Pygmy Goat Encounter. Talk with you all next week. Cheers!
Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. We hope you all enjoyed your holiday weekend! Again we'd like to thank our veterans that have served and give thanks in remembrance for those who have paid the ultimate price in defense of these great United States of America! That said, let’s jump into the Grasslands Area and visit with our new little big buddy Naasaha the White Rhinoceros.
Naasaha is a male rhinoceros and he is 3 years old. White rhinos come from the grassy plains of Africa. White rhinos are the second largest land mammals on the planet. They weigh over 2 tons and stand around 6 feet tall. Please do not mistake this animals size for having a lack of agility. A rhinoceros can run at speeds of 31 miles an hour. They are also adept at making sharp turns during a full charge. So just for a quick review its 2 tons and can motor at 31mph for around a mile. A United States Army tank moves at 25mph off road, yeah fast like that.
The white rhinoceros has a square jaw and walks with its head low to the ground. It makes sense then that its diet is primarily based upon grasses and brush. The black rhinoceros walks around with it’s head up and has a pointed lip. It eats trees and bushes and that happens to be one of the most visible distinctions between the two.
There used to be 30 different species of rhinoceros on this planet, unfortunately due to humans there are only five species of rhinoceros left. The female rhinoceros only gives birth every two and a half to five years so growing and maintaining their numbers will take time and diligence. Understanding how dire their numbers actually are gives us a glimpse into just how much they need our help. There are about 20,000 white rhinoceros left in the world.
Keeper talks, tours and everyday interactions in Timbavati Wildlife Park are generally filled with educational experiences. We not only teach animal facts but we encourage, teach and engage in conservation awareness and activities. There’s always more to learn. Thanks for reading and here are more fun facts about the rhinoceros in this week’s video.
Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. Looks like we have more days without rain than we do with rain coming up this week and that’s awesome. You know what else is awesome? Our “Combo Ticket!” Now until Friday atTimbavati Wildlife Park you can ride the Safari Train and receive a general admission for one great price! One really cool stop on the train ride is our kangaroo encounter.
You can see the kangaroo encounter from the train. Our mob of roos are always bopping around doing roo stuff. Did you know that there are 4 different kinds of kangaroos. There are reds, eastern greys, western greys and antilopine kangaroos.
Kangaroos are very social creatures. They live in a hierarchy that is governed by one dominant male. This alpha male decides the course that the mob will take as they forage through the outback. The females in a mob will have very close connections with each other. If one mother dies, female kangaroos have been known to adopt an orphaned joey.
Kangaroos eat grasses, flowers, leaves, ferns, moss sometimes they have the occasional insect, you know roo food groups. Like a cow does, kangaroos also regurgitate their food to chew more than once before it fully gets digested. Did you know that kangaroos regularly have molars fall out due to all of the grinding that they do with vegetation? Unlike us though, a kangaroo can regrow its molars. I’m glad humans don’t have that feature I would eat candy daily then LOL.
Interesting Kangaroo Fact
Kangaroos can’t walk backwards but they can rear back on their tails. When they do that, they can kick claw and box you with all four arms and legs. For the most part roos are pretty chill so if you have one taking that kind of posture with you, you might want to go the other way because that roo isn’t very happy with you.
There are tons of other cool facts about kangaroos and many other animals that you can learn from visiting our park. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard someone observing an animal and saying, “I didn’t know they could do that.” We have daily Wildlife Presentations that are entertaining and informative. Visit our website for more information and we will see you in the park.
Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog. Spring is warming up and it’s time to rest those winter coats. We naturally spend more time outside when the weather is nice and honestly Timbavati Wildlife Park is an excellent place to come and stretch your legs. If you haven’t been here before, here’s what you’re missing. Ok that said here’s a quick recap of the areas in the park.
When you walk through the front gate at Timbavati Wildlife Park and pass the ticket booth you land right in the middle of the Waterfalls Area. This area is home to a lot of fowl. From our lesser flamingos to our peach faced lovebirds we know feathers. There are also a lot of really cool small mammals.
Any way you walk out of the Waterfalls Area you can see our beloved Safari Snack Shack with some of the most delicious food this side of the Mississippi. The prices are really reasonable and the drinks are cold. After you’ve stopped for a snack you can hang a left and visit with our spider monkeys or you can take right and visit with our pride of lions and other big felines in our Large Cat Encounter.
Just beyond the Safari Snack Shack we have our brand new mini amphitheater where we have Wildlife Presentations. Continue past that just a bit and you come to our brand new building that we have for our pygmy goats. That building happens to sit in the Interaction Area where we have our two awesome nurseries.
The nurseries are teeming with all manners of new additions. From baby kangaroos to small reptiles, nursery one has a lot of really cool little critters to see. Nursery two has a lot of little mammals to check out also. Our fennec foxes, owl monkeys and cotton top tamarins are just a little taste of the kinds of critters in the nursery area. The Interaction Area is just starting to heat up also. We have our renowned Parakeet Encounter and a bunch of petting areas for people of all ages to feed and hang out with.
Now some of you good people might not enter through the main gate and instead choose to take a trip on our Safari Train Ride. Ths takes you through exclusive pastures where you can see ostrich, aoudad, antelope and other animals with names that start with vowels. The train traverses the Grasslands Area of Timbavati Wildlife Park. This area is home to our newest addition which happens to be the second largest land mammal, the rhinoceros.
The Safari Train Ride takes you right up to and stops at our Giraffe and Camel Feeding Encounter. You will deboard the train and be front and center with the tallest mammal in the world the giraffe. Here you can feed them and the camels.
For those who only purchased a Safari Train Ride you’ll reboard the train and pass the large cat house and a couple of other cool encounters on your way back to the gift shop. Right now we have an awesome Combo Ticket which allows you to purchase both a Safari Train Ride and a General Admission for one great price.
Those of you who purchased a combo ticket (limited time offer) will deboard the Safari Train Ride at the Giraffe and Camel feeding encounter. This places you right in front of the Woodlands Area. The Woodlands Area is home to our Camel Ride Encounter. You can take a trip on one of these desert ships during the summer months, weather permitting.
The Woodlands Area is home to our white emu, kudu, crowned crane, spur-thigh tortoise, Swine Time Pig Racing… Look I could go on and on but you shouldn’t just take my word for it. Check out this week’s video to see more of what we have to offer. See our website for tickets and times and we’ll talk to you all next week.
Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. May is now in full swing and the flowers are starting to bloom. We’re open every day all day and we even have a spring special for you. Right now we have a Safari Train Ride / General Admission ticket available on our website. That’s a killer price for a fabulous time. Speaking of fabulous, we have some very fabulous crowned cranes.
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 invertebrates. 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.
Don’t just take my word about how cool the crowned cranes are to cavort with, come and check them out personally. We’re open seven days a week for you to come and hang out with them. Don’t forget that this Sunday mothers get in free when you bring your family. That’s all for this week’s blog. We will see you all in the park this week.
Greetings friends today is Opening Day 2019! We Will definitely be open, unfortunately WINTER is also planning to be open for business. Due to this fact all of the animals won’t be out on display.
Greetings my friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. Today’s topic is one of my all-time favorite topics. Opening Day! That’s right Timbavati Wildlife Park’s opening day for General Admission is this week Saturday! Yep you heard me correctly General Admissions begin this weekend.
During the winter months we have our Encounter Tours which you still have through Friday to experience those if you haven’t. Our Encounter Tours are guided interactions with multiple park species. Tour times are 11am and 1pm. The tours start in the Gift Shop. Our website has more information about that. Here’s a reminder though, the last day for Encounter Tours is this Friday April 26th. We will NOT have Encounter Tours after that. They’re really entertaining and educational so if you have a chance, come and catch one.
Opening day also means that it’s time to fire up our Safari Train ride for the year. That’s right, Old Fort Dells Engine Number 9 is on the Timbavati Line, this train never goes off the track so you wont need your money back. Yeahhh woooo and with that line you are now it! So what does being “It” mean? “It” means it’s your turn to bring the kids to ride the Safari Train ride yeahhh! (Like how I did that one?)
Random determinations of whose turn it is aside, Opening Day means so much more to us than just a changing of the turnstiles and entrances. It’s a time where we watch new flowers grow, trees bud and bloom, birds laying eggs and our nurseries begin to teem with new arrivals. Oh yeah, spring brings way more than just May flowers, we have a boatload of new babies to care for and share with you. All you have to do is pop down to our interaction area and see who’s hanging out.
The Waterfalls Area is also way cool to me year after year as well. You see we have huge stone structures there with water flowing over some of the rocks into our ponds. The plant growth in and around the stones create a stunning green outline around the waterfalls area and they’re growing year after year. Think about the kinds of moss and kelp you’d expect to see grow around a waterfall in the islands and that’s what actually progressing year after year in the Waterfalls area.
Then there are the special FREE amenities that we offer during our General Admission season like our Pig Races and Wildlife Presentations. We also offer camel rides and some photo opportunities as well. Please see our website for times and availability as all of these amenities will be kicking off later this spring.
Opening Day is a reset, it’s the start of a fresh season and one that we hope to spend a lot of with you. There’s a ton of value in buying season passes as well as combo ticket passes when we have them available so join our mailing lists, like and follow our pages to keep up on the hot offers. Check out this week’s video for a look at some of the offerings that we have in our 2019 season. Cheers!
Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog. It’s the middle of April but it’s been looking a lot like January with all of the snow that we’ve had this past week. April snow makes a May rose I guess ha ha ha. We’re just 12 days away from the Opening Day of our General Admission Season, that’s right April 27th is the big day. In our past few blogs we have been looking at the different areas of Timbavati Wildlife Park and this week we are looking at The Woodlands Area.
The Woodlands Area like every other area in the park is set in its own unique backdrop. The foliage in the Woodlands area is as green as they come lined with trees and beautiful pastures. You can get to this area by Safari Train Ride, strolling through the Grasslands Area or taking the bridge adjacent to the Big Cat Encounter.
Animals in the Woodlands Area are always subject to change, that’s how we keep things interesting for our returning guests. Family favorites that are usually hanging around in the Woodlands Area are animals like the African spur-thigh tortoise. It’s the third largest species of tortoise on the planet. This area is also home to our kangaroos, large flightless birds like our while emu and rheas. We also have a really healthy portion of antelope and alpaca to pal around with then you’re in this part of the park.
Finally, from Memorial Day to Labor Day we offer camel rides weather permitting. When you get a chance to soak up the scenery hang out with a few animals that you’ll rarely see anywhere else. The Woodlands area offers adventure and a family friendly escape from the hustle and bustle of city living.
It’s still spring break for a lot of schools and you don’t have to wait for our General Admission season to start for you and your family to have an adventure at Timbavati Wildlife Park. All you have to do is catch one of our Encounter Tours. We have two tours that kick off at 11am and 1pm daily. Visit our website or the gift shop during those hours for more information! Cheers and we will talk with you all next week.
Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog post. Spring is in full swing and it’s almost time for our opening day for general admission. The last couple of weeks we have been covering different areas of Timbavati Wildlife Park. Today we’re taking a look at the Waterfalls Area.
The Waterfalls Area has its name because guess what, it’s filled with waterfalls. I mean this is the water park capital of the world right? So this part of the park is filled with them as the falls and rock work form the background of one of the most unique personal experiences that you can find in the Wisconsin Dells.
The Waterfalls Area is the first place you visit when you enter through the main gate or the Gift Shop. The Waterfalls Area really shines with our water fowl. Our Penguin encounter is an up close and personal look at our pair of South African penguins. Then we have animals like flamingos, mallard ducks, koi fish and red breasted Siberian geese. That would be a lot if those were all of the animals you could visit within the Waterfalls Area but wait… there’s more!
Our Waterfalls Area is also home to a lot of really cool small animals. You can see small mammals like our foxes and porcupines. We also have a lot of larger birds of prey from king fishers to eagles. There are lots of birds to see from all corners of the world and from season to season the Waterfalls Area changes the cast or birds and small mammals that we have. So if you were here last season the line up does change often. It’s nice, day to day as the animals are tended to they move locations throughout the park so there’s always something new to see.
The Waterfalls Area is also home to our Spider Monkey Encounter. That’s a lot of monkeying around that you can come and do in just one area of our park. Now you don’t have to wait until our General Admission season kicks off at the end of the month. We currently have two Encounter Tours that take off daily at 11am and 1pm. Visit our Website and we will see you all in the park! Talk with you all next week, cheers.
