Safari Wilderness in Lakeland, FL

Decadancin

Moderatoris Americanus
Staff member
So I have been meaning to post this for a while but my computer had the flu...

I spent part of the day at a cool working ranch in Central Florida a little while back. I had seen a few pictures and some visitor reviews, but never actually got to go. Finally it worked into our plans to visit, and I was definitely happy we did! There are a few options for tours, but they all seem cool. We did the safari ride, but before going we got to take a tour of the facility and met a bunch of the animals including the camels that you can take a tour on :geek:. They have guinea pigs, budgies, lemurs, pigs and tons of herd animals. It is a 260 acre ranch that is just a bit off the beaten path surrounded by 870 miles of the Green Swamp.

You can get to hand feed lama and water buffalo while on your journey and see many amazing critters. I generally do not like animal encounters as part of an attraction because it can lead to the wrong message for conservation and also the treatment of animals in captivity, but this place seemed to do it right. There were even some rarely seen herd animals (darned if I can remember the name :mad:) that do poorly in captivity but due to the size of the area they are in they are thriving. They just happened to be right out in the open the day we went. (Anyone know their name???)
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The Safari ride is bumpy, but the vehicle is covered so you are not baking in the sun.
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Up next, the highlight of it all for me...
 
Very nice! Thanks for posting pictures. How many large herbivores were on the ranch?

Best Regards
Jeremy A. Rich

I know they told us, but I think I was suffering from "10 feet from lemurs syndrome" which makes it very difficult to pay attention to details :rolleyes:. There were quite a few varieties including some heirloom cattle and they are also in multiple breeding programs from what I understand.
 
Wonderful photos! Oh the lemurs are so sweet, such beautiful creatures, sounds like a fascinating place.
So adorable all sitting on their perch!
Love at Aurochs too.
Looks a stunning place to visit and the animals look wonderful.
I can’t see from the photo but are the mystery bovines Forest / Congo Buffalo. Couldn’t see them well enough.
Thanks for sharing such a great experience and photos.
 
I know they told us, but I think I was suffering from "10 feet from lemurs syndrome" which makes it very difficult to pay attention to details :rolleyes:. There were quite a few varieties including some heirloom cattle and they are also in multiple breeding programs from what I understand.

Thanks from the response. We have a couple ranchers out here in my area of California that keep exotic and less commonly seen breeds of livestock and domesticated wild ungulates (Zebra's, Bison, and etc..). This is neat to have a look at another ranchers collection. Thanks for posting.

Best Regards
Jeremy A. Rich
 
Oh excellent, it was either that or Anoa but they didn’t look dark enough. Interesting to hear about them and see them.
Thanks.
 
They even use bachelor male llamas for security around the facility. There is a perimeter fence that divides the area from neighboring lands and with gators and other wildlife abundant in the Green Swamp they provide both an alarm system (they make quite a ruckus when annoyed :)) as well as protection. The gators can actually scale a fence if they want. Also with panthers and bobcats and even humans the llamas are quite the deterrent.
 
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