Joel Farthing, of Boone, North Carolina, joked about the similarities he saw between his children and the spider monkeys they were watching on a recent Wednesday afternoon. “Adults love them just as much as the kids do.” “Most people stop and watch the monkeys while they are here,” Friedel said. “I’m asking for one for Christmas.”įriedel said the park’s spider monkey habitat also is a popular stop in the walk-through area. Lillian May, 8, said she wanted to take one of the birds back to her home in Roanoke. “They love the budgies landing on them and perching. “We get a lot of school groups and this is the biggest hit with the kids,” she said. Friedel said the birds - which guests can feed with special “budgie sticks ” - are among the most popular attractions with children. In addition to the drive-through safari, the park also has a 10-acre walk-through area that includes a petting zoo with pygmy goats and baby llamas habitats housing African penguins, anteaters, Bengal tigers, wolves, kangaroos and a variety of snakes and lizards and a free-flight aviary that houses more than 600 budgies from Australia. “We have to know which of them kick, bite or spit,” she said. “We have to know each of them and count them every day to make sure everyone is doing OK and are accounted for.”įriedel said familiarity with the animals also comes in handy when staff have to vaccinate the park’s 2,000 inhabitants. “All of our animals have names except for the deer because there are so many of them,” Friedel said. “They know who works here and who is visiting the park.” Friedel said the park’s 50 employees know the individual animals as well as the animals know them. “When they see our work trucks, they ignore us,” Friedel said. They can do whatever they want, and that’s the cool thing about driving through here and seeing these animals because they have no rules, just like in the wild.”įriedel said the animals that do opt for additional food have learned which vehicles to approach. “A lot of them will just watch people drive by or sunbathe in the middle of the road and block traffic. “They get plenty of food every day from park staff and the food they get from visitors is more like dessert for them,” she said. Still, Friedel said many of the animals choose to watch visitors to their habitat from a distance. “Most of them come up to the front gate the day we reopen for the season each March because they have missed all of the people coming through giving them treats and they get excited.” “They know when the park is opening and usually a crowd is at the front gate waiting for people to start driving through,” she said. Friedel said many of the animals even stake out their favorite spots along the gravel roads and wait for vehicles to drive by.
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