Lion Country Safari

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Lion County Safari


Date opened	1967
Location	Loxahatchee, Florida, USA
Accreditations/ Memberships	AZA
Website

Lion Country Safari is a drive-through safari park located in Loxahatchee (near Wellington), in Palm Beach County, Florida. Founded in 1967, it claims to have been the first 'cageless zoo' in the United States.

1 Background
2 Exhibits
3 Cultural References
4 Other Parks bearing the Lion Country Safari name
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Background

Lion Country Safari was founded in 1967 by a group of South African and British entrepreneurs who wished to provide a safari experience for families who would not normally be able to experience it. The park originally exhibited only lions.

The first park in South Florida is the only Lion Country Safari still in operation. At one time there were parks in California, Texas, Stockbridge, Georgia and Ohio.

[edit] Exhibits

The original park in Florida consists of over 1,000 animals, kept in large fenced areas with approximately 5 miles of paved roadway running throughout.

Visitors who purchase a ticket enter the park in their own vehicle, driving slowly at their own pace, and view the animals while listening to a recorded narration on audiotape or CD. Some animals, such as giraffe, rhinoceros, and zebra are allowed to roam freely, even crossing the road in front of vehicles. Others, such as African elephants or lions are segregated behind fences or water barriers.

Visitors are warned to drive slowly and carefully, to avoid stopping too close to animals, and not to open their car doors or windows. The lions, whose ability to roam freely with cars was one of the parks original attractions, were separated from visitors by a fence around the road in 2005, due to many visitors ignoring warnings and opening their car doors.

A unique aspect of Lion Country Safari is the chimpanzee exhibit. The chimps live on an island system where they move to a different island every day, replicating their natural nomadic lifestyle. The chimps live in complex social groups, as they would in the wild. Because of this, Lion Country Safari has been useful to those interested in behavioral studies of chimps. As of 2006, chimpanzees living at Lion Country Safari include "Little Mama", one of the oldest chimpanzees in captivity, born in 1938. Lion Country Safari also serves as a retirement facility for chimpanzees who were once used in research laboratories and entertainment.

After visitors have driven through the park, they can visit Safari World, a theme park with some zoo exhibits, and amusement park fare such as a ferris wheel, a petting zoo and a small water park. There is also a giraffe-feeding exhibit.

A partial list of animals exhibited at Lion Country Safari in 2006 include:

[edit] Cultural References

Lion Country Safari plays a major role in Frederick Buechner's novel Lion Country.
The park was referenced in a Simpsons episode when the family takes a trip to Discount Lion Safari.

[edit] Other Parks bearing the Lion Country Safari name

Irvine, CA

Another drive-through zoo known as Lion Country Safari existed in Irvine, California until 1984. The park's entertainment area was converted into the current theme park Wild Rivers in 1986-87. The remaining portion of the park was converted to a Day Camp for children named Camp Frasier (currently Camp James), owned by Lion Country's parent company United Leisure. (The drive through reserve was used for horseback riding, archery, ATC, ATV riding and hiking.) U.L. was headed up by CEO Harry Schuster, a South African founder of Lion Country. The park was originally in the city limits of Laguna Hills and opened in June of 1970. It was the second Lion Country Safari (after Florida). An amazing event occurred at Lion Country Safari, when an aging circus lion from Mexico, who was ill, was given to the Irvine facility, where one day, he had sired a litter of lion cubs, being the result of having several lionesses, who had hunted and ate for the lazy lion. His name was Frazier, the senseless lion, who became the rage, drawing huge visitors at the site. T-shirts, watches, and other souvenirs were sold, featuring Frazier all over, until 1972, when he died, and was buried on the grounds of the Safari. Atendences went down, and negative incidents occurred at the Safari Park. An escaped elephant killed a motorist on the 405 freeway, and had to be euthanized. A hippo named Bubbles, was trapped underwater, and had to be shot, not knowing that it was pregnant. Also, several lions had killed the hoofed animals, and had to be quantied from the rest of the animals, in a walled section of the park. These brought down the reputation that the Safari was getting with negative publicity. However in 1982 a long bitter battle began between Schuster and the Irvine Company where the Irvine Company decided to renegotiate the 28 year lease on the land (which began in 1968) and try to take back control when property values increased. Harry Schuster then became involved in a bitter and excruciating legal battle until 1997 when they finally reached a compromise. During this ongoing legal battle Schuster threatened to 'tear it all down' -- including Irvine Meadows (built on a sublease agreement with U.L., now Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre), Wild Rivers, and the day camp. His reasoning was, "I built all this on a firm contract, why should the Irvine Company be allowed to take it from me just because they want it back?". As of May 2006, the Irvine Company still hasn't done anything with the land except re-grade what was once the Drive-Through Reserve and sublet portions for nurseries to store plants. Harry Schuster also founded the 'Loves' restaurant chain.

An amusement park in Richmond, Virginia called Kings Dominion opened in 1975 with a similar attraction called Lion Country Safari.