Timbavati Wildlife Park - Rhinoceros

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.

TWP - Kangaroo

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 at Timbavati 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.

Welcome To Timbavati Wildlife 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.

TWP - A Look At The Crowned Crane

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.