Wildlife Safari Part 2
Southern Oregon’s Wild Animal Park
One of our most favorite places to visit in Southern Oregon is Wildlife Safari. We absolutely LOVE every time we go, and have enjoyed different animal encounters each time. This last weekend we did the Cheetah Encounter, met baby Kelley the giraffe, and the Bear Encounter! Click HERE to see our Giraffe Feeding Encounter and Elephant Feeding Encounter.
Our first Encounter was Meet a Cheetah Encounter.
Wildlife Safari is home to a world-renowned cheetah breeding program. Since 1972, 178 cheetahs have been born at the park! These statistics place Wildlife Safari as one of the top breeders of cheetahs in the U.S. and the western hemisphere.
We were so excited to meet Wildlife Safari’s newest member of the Giraffe family, baby Kelley!
On our bus drive to the encounter, we stopped outside the gate and had a little visit from one of their other young giraffes before hopping off the bus. My kids were in awe – and as you can hear in the video, one of them is constantly humming 
It was fascinating to hear baby Kelley’s birth story from the keepers. The birth is completely natural with absolutely no outside help from anyone. The mother delivered and took care of baby Kelley all on her own. She helped him to walk (at birth he was over 6 feet tall!), nursed him, and has continued to shelter and take care of him.
It was really adorable watching Kelley try and hide behind one little pole in the barn. Reminded me of a shy little kid. At one month old, Kelley is already 8 ft. tall. You can read more of baby Kelley’s birth, and more pictures HERE at Wildlife Safari’s blog.
The picture below is Kelley’s father, Mate, roaming the roads.
In between the cheetah and the giraffe encounters, we drove through the park, ate lunch, and visited the Safari Village.
We always look forward to feeding the deer. It’s seasonal, so be sure to check beforehand! We love visiting Wildlife Safari in the fall when the pumpkin patch is open, but feeding the deer is closed during that time, so we were happy to see it open this time around!
This is the first time we’ve ever seen the hippos this active! There is also a Hippo Encounter you can check out too.
One our favorite sections of the Safari Village is the bird aviary. When we went last weekend, there was a torrential downpour in the morning that lasted about 30 minutes that cut our visit to the bird aviary short. Here is a picture of when I recently stopped on my way from Portland back to Medford earlier this month. The Safari Village is ALWAYS free, so it was a great place to stop, stretch our legs, and wear the kids out for the last 2 hours of the drive home!
Thanks to the 100 degree weather… we had the place to ourselves… and had our own private bird encounter thanks to the great staff!
Our next Encounter was the Big Bear Feed Encounter!
“Who’s excited to see bears??”
These guys were awesome! We loved getting up close to the bears, and watch the carnivore keepers show us what bears can do! Glad we were behind bars Feeding them was great. We threw apples and treats to them, and they would catch the food in their mouths. This was a little more up my three year old’s alley… throwing food at animals… not hand feeding them (like the giraffes).
A few snapshots throughout the day
We love Wildlife Safari, as you can tell! It is definitely a must do when driving through Southern Oregon. We continue to bring family and friends here every time we get visitors! Be sure to check out their facebook page for up-to-date events they have all throughout the year! You can also check on my events calendar.
