Last weekend we drove to Winston to visit Wildlife Safari. We went with our grandson Collin, who lives in Eugene (about 20 miles from where we're staying at the Lake). Just 80 freeway miles from Eugene, it was a great day trip. We like places like this a lot, but it was even more fun with a ten-year old.
The 600-acre Safari opened in 1972 with the goal of helping to save rare and endangered animals from around the world. It is most well-known for its successful cheetah breeding. The highly endangered species is very difficult to breed in captivity but at Winston they have a lot of room to roam naturally, so breeding has been successful. We learned that Cheetahs have very little genetic variability, so extreme care must be taken with pairings. The Safari works with the International Species Survival Plan to create long-term genetic health.
In Africa, Anatolian Shepherd dogs are being used to save wild cheetahs. They are given to farmers to protect the cattle herds. Cheetahs are very shy and just the bark of the dog will scare them off of the herd. One of these dogs lives at Wildlife Safari. Her name is Ellie and she is a companion to Sanurra, a cheetah who was rejected by her mother. The dog and cheetah grew up together. They live next door to each other and are given supervised play dates.
All three of us really enjoyed learning about the Cheetahs. The young ranger in the Village had us entranced with his stories and information about this beautiful animal. One cheetah, also a single birth who was rejected, is kept here at the Village and is an ambassador for the Safari. She is leash trained and goes out to community events and schools. We watched the ranger feed her.
The drive-through portion of the Safari has four areas: Asia, Africa, Wetlands, and The Americas. You can drive through twice. We had visited the Safari several times back when we lived in Oregon. In those early years it stayed open until after dusk and evening was a great time to view the animals. Because of budget constraints, it now closes at Five p.m. But the second drive-through (just before closing) was still worthwhile.
Click right here to see the Safari's Website.
Here are pictures of a few more of the animals we saw. Collin took some of the pictures, but I don't remember which ones. I think the bears were our most favorite. We saw lots of other animals. We spied lions and tigers and cheetahs in their wide-open areas, but because it was a sunny day, they were mostly sleeping and not giving us real good photo-ops. The rock in the picture right below surprised us when it moved. It turned out to be a hippopotamus. But it still looks like a rock.
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