Lake Tobias Wildlife Park is tucked away in rural central Pennsylvania, a considerable drive from either of the state's two major zoos. It was founded by a former marine and lifelong animal lover and collector, J. R. Tobias. The zoo is located at Tobias's former childhood home, and is still owned and operated by his family. Like many safari-park style facilities, the grounds are divided into two parts. One is a traditional zoo with enclosures of a variety of animals, which visitors see on foot. The other is a safari ride, which takes visitors out among field habitats of ungulates and ratites. Visitors to the park are given the option as to whether they would like to purchase entry for either the walk-around portion only, or to both sections.
I've visited many facilities like this, and my gut plan was to save myself some time and a few bucks and only go for the walk-around portion. From my experience, safari rides don't offer much to excite zoo enthusiasts - they all tend to have the same animals, and I've never been too interested in feeding grain to begging bison. Still, it was my first time here so I decided to get the full experience. I paid for admission on the ride, though I did not get any feed.
The ride was actually one of the better ones that I've been on in every aspect. The vehicle was comfortable and not over-crowded, the enclosure was spacious and attractive, and the animals reasonably diverse. Above all, the tour guide was good. He was equipped with lots of good facts and able to answer questions well - too often I feel like these guides have scripts that they've memorized and are as incapable of deviating from them as a train is from its tracks.
The species selection that you see on rides like this is always pretty limited, and while Lake Tobias at least had some diversity, there were no surprises on it. There were American bison, Asian water buffalo, eland, wapiti (American elk), and fallow deer, along with emus and greater rheas. For those who enjoy color morphs, several of the bison here are white (or whitish, at least). There were a few breeds of domestic cattle - the two giant-horned breeds that are beloved of safari park owners, the Watusi and the longhorn, as well as brahman and Scottish highland cattle. Domestics were further represented by llamas and domestic yaks. So, not too exciting, but then again, the ride wasn't for me, it was for the people who haven't had an experience like this many times and for whom any large animal, domestic or wild, is exciting and different for them. I did approve of the fact that, unlike some other parks I've been to, visits to this area were by guided, staff-driven tour only, which dramatically lessens the possibility of risky behavior or inappropriate contact between animals and visitors.
A herd of aoudad - a North African wild mountain sheep - were housed in an adjacent enclosure that we drove past, but didn't really stop at. That was my biggest disappointment of the ride, as that's a species that used to be very common in zoos and is now considerably less so, and their enclosure (from the brief glimpse I got) looked very nice. I would have liked to have stopped and watched them for longer, and maybe seen them run through the gullies and hills of their yard.
Another side enclosure held the largest animals in the park, the giraffes. This was just a fleeting view, as the main location for seeing the giraffes is in the walking portion of the zoo, where you can find the inevitable deck for feeding the tall mammals. The giraffe feeding station was packed when I walked by, with the three animals hardly able to keep up with the crowds of feeders. The exhibit didn't really dazzle me, but neither did it make a bad impression. Like most giraffe exhibits, even in the most famous of zoos, it's basically a flat paddock with a barn on one end. It always amazes me that such impressive, unique animals that are so universally-beloved by zoo visitors always have such dull habitats... but I guess giraffes don't ask us for a lot, and many zoos are reluctant to tamper with a formula which has worked so well for so long. Honestly, I was more impressed by the habitats for Cape porcupines and grey-crowned cranes on the path leading up to the giraffes. There were actually the first habitats that I saw upon entering the Park, and they made a decent first impression on me.
Tomorrow, we'll continue the review of Lake Tobias Wildlife Park, focusing on the walking portion of the facility.
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