Saturday, July 26 ~The Wilds~

Sara, Matt and Evie came up for the weekend and we finally made it to the Wilds.  It has changed a bit since I was there last.  We arrived around 11:30 after a late breakfast at Bob Evan's in Zanesville.  Our Open Air Tour wasn't scheduled to leave until 12:30 so we signed up for the Animal Encounters Program.  We saw an Eastern Screech Owl, an Opossum, a tortoise and a 2-toed sloth.  Evie really enjoyed it and even touched the opossum before we left.

Eastern Screech Owl

Virginia Oppusum

Cerval

Tortoise

Two-toed sloth

We boarded our bus at 12:30 and for the next 2 1/2 hours we rode through the pastures viewing some of the most critically endangered species on the planet and a few that have come back from the brink of near extinction.  It was getting rather warm towards the end of our tour so some of the animals were laying down but we had good views of most of the animals and a few even came up and stuck their noses in the bus.  If you haven't been to The Wilds it is certainly worth the hour and a half drive to Zanesville for a most unique experience.  They also offer horseback riding and ziplines.  You can find out more at their website www.thewilds.org

This is one of the closed air-conditioned buses, we did the open-air bus seen later in this post

Pe're David's deer at the swimming hole

Bactrian camels posing in the middle of the road

Bactrian camels have two humps like the letter B.  Dromedary camels like the ones at the zoo for camel rides are one-humped dromedary camels, think letter D

Persian Onager donkeys, native to Iraq and Iran

Sichuan Takins are probably my favorite animals at the Wilds. They can be found in the same dense bamboo forests as the Giant Panda. (Western China)  I believe they are in the goat family.

Another Pe're David's deer with itchy antlers

Prezwalski's Wild Horses

Fringe-earredOryx

another Fringe-earred Oryx

Grevy's Zebra

Banteng

Giraffe

one of two baby giraffes in the field

Southern White Rhino

Simitar Horned Oryx

Indochina Sika Deer

The Yurts on Nomad Ridge

Greater One-horned Asian Rhino