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Safari park

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Giraffes at the Safaripark Beekse Bergen.

A safari park, sometimes known as a wildlife park, is a zoo-like commercial tourist attraction where visitors can drive in their own vehicles or ride in vehicles provided by the facility to observe freely roaming animals. The main attractions are frequently large animals from Sub-Saharan Africa such as giraffes, lions, rhinoceros, elephants, zebras, and antelope.

A safari park, while larger than a zoo, is usually a very small area compared to game reserves in Africa. For example, African Lion Safari near Cambridge, Ontario, Canada is 750 acres (3.0 km2). For comparison, Lake Nakuru in the Great Rift Valley, Kenya, is 168 square kilometres (65 sq mi), and a typical large game reserve is Tsavo East, also in Kenya, which encompasses 11,747 square kilometres (4,536 sq mi).

Safari parks often have other associated tourist attractions: golf courses, carnival rides, cafes/restaurants, miniature trains, and gift shops.

History

Giraffes being fed by visitors in the West Midland Safari Park

The predecessor of safari parks is Africa U.S.A. Park (1953–1961) in Florida.[1]

The first lion drive-through opened in 1963 in Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo. In double-glazed buses, visitors made a tour through a one-hectare enclosure with twelve lions.

The first drive-through safari park outside of Africa opened in 1966 at Longleat in Wiltshire, England.[2][3] Longleat, Windsor, Woburn and arguably the whole concept of safari parks were the brainchild of Jimmy Chipperfield (1912–1990), former co-director of Chipperfield's Circus.[4] Longleat's Marquess of Bath agreed Chiperfield's proposition to fence off 40 hectares (99 acres) of his vast Wiltshire estate to house 50 lions. Knowsley, the Earl of Derby's estate outside Liverpool, and the Duke of Bedford's Woburn estate in Bedfordshire both established their own safari parks with Chiperfield's partnership. Another circus family, the Smart Brothers, joined the safari park business by opening a park at Windsor for visitors from London. The former Windsor Safari Park was in Berkshire, England, but closed in 1992 and has since been made into a Legoland. There is also Chipperfield's "Scotland Safari Park" established on Baronet Sir John Muir's estate at Blair Drummond near Stirling, and the American-run "West Midland Safari and Leisure Park" near Birmingham. One park along with Jimmy Chipperfield at Lambton Castle in the North East England has closed.

Between 1967 and 1974, Lion Country Safari, Inc. opened 6 animal parks, one near each of the following American cities: West Palm Beach, Florida; Los Angeles, California; Dallas, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Richmond, Virginia. The first park, in South Florida, is the only Lion Country Safari still in operation.

Burgers' Zoo at Arnhem, Netherlands, opened a "safari park" in 1968 within a traditional zoo. In 1995, Burgers' Safari modified this to a walking safari with a 250-metre (820 ft) board walk. Another safari park in the Netherlands is Safaripark Beekse Bergen.

Most safari parks were established in a short period of ten years, between 1966 and 1975.

  • Americas
    • United States
      • Florida : Loxahatchee (Lion Country Safari, 1967)
      • California : Escondido (San Diego Zoo Safari Park, formely San Diego Wild Animal Park, 1972)
      • Louisiana : Epps (High Delta Safari Park)
      • Maryland : Largo (The Largo Wildlife Preserve, 1973–1978, now the site of Six Flags America)
      • Nebraska : Ashland (Lee G. Simmons Conservation Park and Wildlife Safari)
      • New Jersey: Jackson (Great Adventure, 1974, now the site of Six Flags Great Adventure & Wild Safari)
      • New Jersey: West Milford ("Warner Brothers Jungle Habitat", 1972-1976)
      • Texas : Grand Prairie (Lion Country Safari, 1971–1992), San Antonio (Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, 1984), Glen Rose (Fossil Rim Wildlife Ranch, 1984)
      • Oregon : Winston (Wildlife Safari, 1973)
      • Ohio : Port Clinton (African Safari Wildlife Park, 1973), Mason (Lion Country Safari at Kings Island, 1974–1993)
      • Virginia : Doswell (Lion Country Safari at Kings Dominion, 1974–1993), Shenandoah Valley (Virginia Safari Park, 2000)
      • Georgia : Pine Mountain (Wild Animal Safari, 1991)
    • Canada
      • Ontario : Rockton (African Lion Safari, 1969)
      • Quebec : Hemmingford (Parc Safari Africain, 1972)
    • Mexico : Puebla (Africam Safari, 1972)
    • Chile : Rancagua (Safari Park Rancagua, 2009)
  • Africa

See also

  • SimSafari: a computer game simulating the management of a safari park

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Safari Park.
  1. ^ Life, Vol.49, No.5, August 1, 1960, pp.1,30.
  2. ^ The lions and loins of Longleat The Sunday Times Retrieved February 18, 2011
  3. ^ New Scientist 2 Dec 1982 Retrieved 18 February 2011
  4. ^ Great dynasties of the world: The Chipperfields The Guardian Retrieved February 18, 2011
  • Jimmy CHIPPERFIELD, My Wild Life. Macmillan, London (1975). 219 p. ISBN 0333180445
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