Trying to not go Wild at the Wilds

 

Since I can’t talk Hubby into making that arduous plane ride to Kenya to go on an African safari, I found one a single long car ride from our home. The Wilds sits in eastern Ohio, 75 miles from Columbus. After a long drive on a Monday in June, we arrived early the next morning for the two-hour long safari and really enjoyed it. 

The Greater One-Horned Rhino has a native range in Bhutan, India, and Nepal. In the early 20th century, there were fewer than 200 living in the wild. Thanks to conservation efforts and protection, there are now close to 3,500. This rhino is known for folds of skin which look like armor.

The Southern White Rhino is found in Southern Africa and is much larger than the Asian Rhinos. This rhino sub-species is doing okay in the wild, with possibly as many as 20,000 living in the wild. Tragically, his nearest relative, the Northern White Rhino, is basically extinct with only two surviving females living under armored guard at a preserve in Kenya.

Persian Onager is one of the species of Asiatic asses. There are only around 600 to 700 Persian onagers surviving in the wild in two protected regions in Iran. The herd at the Wilds is the largest breeding herd of onagers in North America.

Looking like a crazy mix of a moose, a bison, and a goat, the Sichuan Takin is related to other cloven-hoofed mammals in the bovid family, including sheep and antelope. They are native to Tibet and several provinces of China.

Cheetah. What can I say? I’ve seen many cheetahs over the years on my trips to Kenya. They are magnificent creatures, and they even purr.

The African Painted Dog is from Africa (what a surprise), mostly in southern and eastern countries. They are covered in beautiful markings, and each coat is as unique as a fingerprint. Though they can live in large packs, they are elusive and not commonly seen in the wild.

The Dhole is also called the Asiatic Wild Dog or red dog. Though they are native to Southeast Asia and India, they are closely related genetically to the Painted Dog.

Wild Bactrian Camels are critically endangered due to breeding with domesticated camels, hunting, and habitat loss. They are native to Mongolia and China.

The Przewalski's Wild Horse is native to southern Russia and Mongolia. They became extinct in the wild in the 1960s, but have been reintroduced back into the wild due to conservation efforts. Sometimes shortened to the P Horse, the P and the R are actually silent in pronunciation.  

Did you see the baby in laying down in the first picture? We circled around and the herd moved so that we came right up beside them. Isn’t he or she adorable? And very new to this world.

Eland are the largest species of antelope in the world. They are native to southern and eastern Africa, and I have seen them in the wild in Kenya. The boys are huge.

The Scimitar-horned Oryx, from northern Africa, went extinct in the wild in the 1980s. Thanks to the work at The Wilds, some of them were sent to Chad to breed with animals there.

The Bactrian deer is one of the largest deer species (but smaller than the American Elk). They come from Central Asia and the Middle East.

Pére David's Deer were once extinct in the wild, but now there are an estimated 600 deer living totally in the wild in China. The largest breeding herd in any zoo in North America at the Wilds. 

This buck was pretty into this mud puddle and making sure he was covered in mud.

The 10,000 acres where the Wilds now sits was once a surface coal-mining operation. The remarkable story of how this land was resurrected to become one of the largest conservation centers in North America is on their website. Click on this link to learn about it.