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They’ve even reintroduced species back into the wild, like the scimitar-horned oryx in Chad in 2016. While Fossil Rim offers an almost unending list of educational activities for its guests, the center’s main focus is on conservation of species in peril. It takes a couple hours to drive through the park, but there’s so much more on offer here, including 14 different tours (a bike tour, a Murder Mystery tour), photo workshops, tasty burgers at the Overlook Café, and even cool accommodations like the lodge, cabins, and bunkhouses. This 1,800-acre ranch is an oasis for 1,100 animals from almost 50 different species, but it also happens to have the largest cheetah breeding facility in the world, raising 18 to 20 cubs each year. Owner Marilyn Bacque says that at any given time there could be 30 to 40 animals surrounding the tram, “begging for tidbits.” After your tour, check out the park’s two petting zoos, or stay the night in one of the ranch’s eight cabins and enjoy evening campfires and the catch-and-release fishing pond.Ģ299 County Road 2008, Glen Rose | 8:30 a.m. The animals are friendly, especially when you’re armed with a $6 feed bucket. to 5 p.m | $16.95 $13.95 for kidsĬars aren’t allowed to drive through this 127-acre ranch, but take a tour on one of its five trams to learn about the 500 animals and 40 species here-blackbucks, ostriches and Gomar, the kissing camel.
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You can also bring your grill and have a cookout in the safari’s picnic area.Ģ35 Zoo Trail, Johnson City | 9 a.m. Bring your binoculars, get a cup of feed (free with admission), and try to identify the 38 species in the park and petting zoo: zebras, emus, axis deer and yaks among them. Since 2005, she’s run the 59-acre Grapeland Safari, halfway between Crockett and Palestine. Nona Herring has been in the drive-thru safari business since the 1980s, when her family used to own a safari park outside of Tyler. You can go on a private tour of the park, but manager Sharon Ivey says most people’s favorite part is the Baby Room, where guests can play with some of the park’s exotic babies, such as lemurs and coatimundi, for an extra $20.ġ3440 Us Highway 287 N, Grapeland | 9 a.m. Get a feed bucket for $5, or make friends with the monkeys with a $2 cup of peanuts.
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There’s also a 10-acre walking section where you might spot kangaroos, anteaters camels, or Natalia, a baby giraffe.
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Watch for more than 50 different animal species on the mile-long drive. This 100-acre park is home to 500-plus animals. Animals peer in to your vehicle as you hold in hand food meant for them alone to eat.Īt these safaris, you can learn about animals from all over the world as they roam freely like they would in the wild-but, you know, all from the comfort of your own car and only a couple hours from home.įranklin | 9 a.m. Well, at our state’s many drive-through safaris, the roles are reversed. REMEMBER GOING TO THE ZOO AS A KID, wandering past exotic creatures that you’d only ever seen in movies like The Lion King? All the magic and joy in the air, as you stand just outside enclosures of zebras, monkeys, and wildebeest, peering inside, ice cream cone in hand?
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