Curtis Thanksgiving 2011--The Movie

The Wilds--One Way Ohio is Managing Large Non-Native Animals Well

 




My daughter Sam and I in the Open-Air Safari Vehicle

  Located in the southeast-central part of Ohio is a wonderful place called the Wilds, where Ohio is doing some important work related to large non-native animals. And, not only does the Wilds do important conservation work and work related to large animal medicine, study and repopulation, it also is a very cool place to visit. (They even have winter tours.) I won’t say I will never go on an actual African safari—who knows what wild and crazy thing I might want to do now that I am an empty nester.  But, if I never get to Africa, at least, I have had the chance to see very large, very beautiful animals in a pretty decent replication of at least some of their natural habitats.



My husband, my daughter, my brother-in-law, sister-in-law. . . well, you get it, the whole family converged on the Wilds on an August afternoon. We took the 2.5 hour trip across the 10,000 acres of reclaimed strip-mined land that makes up the Wilds, aboard an Open-Air Safari vehicle. We got to see animals like rhinos, giraffes, leopards, camels, different varieties of buffalo, Przewalski horses, and so many more.  

The Wilds participates in some pretty significant international projects. Check out this list on their web site.