At The Wilds

The Wilds is a fourteen square mile zoological park in Central Ohio. For about fourty years, this land was strip mined for its coal. Once complete, the American Electric Company donated the land so that a conservation site could be established.

It is a very large place. A variety of tours are offered–we took an open-air bus, similar to the one pictured above. The tour takes about two-and-a-half hours, with two stops.

One of the first new-to-me animals was the Persian Onager. They are donkey-like creatures native to Iran and Iraq. This one seems to think I owe him money or something.

They foal in August. This one was born either the night before or the day we were there.

This one the day before we visited.

And this one was a bit early–a few weeks old.

A similar animal was Przewalski’s Wild Horse, native to Asia. These have the most impressive manes.

They, too, had babies.

Three different subspecies of giraffe were represented. There was the Reticulated Giraffe.

The Rothschild Giraffe.

And my personal favorite, the Masi Giraffe

Though I’ve seen plenty of emu, I don’t think I’ve seen ostriches that often in person.

Who are you calling birdbrain?

I feel the need to pull out a bar code scanner…

The Wilds is dedicated to conservation. Our guide told us of efforts to save ospreys and butterflies, all very successful. Currently, there is a study with bees.

You can sort of see a bee near the second hold from the right, bottom row (green and white box).

There were many species of antelope, including the fringe-eared oryx.

The banteng is a wild cow, native to China. The Wilds has one of the few pure herds in the world–they have been mostly cross-bred with more domesticated subspecies.

Rhinos use a common latrine, which is also a marking technique. We drove by one.

Which led to their herd of Southern white rhinos.

They had a baby rhino, which was cute…for a rhino.

One of the stops was the Mid-Sized Carnivore Conservation Center, which was more appropriately the Mid-Sized Carnivore Lounge Center, as these African wild dogs demonstrate.

The Dhole is a dog-like Asian animal that I had never heard of before. It preys on bantengs, and has a very bush tail.

CHEESE!

Of course there were cats! Specifically cheetahs. In one enclosure was a mom and two eight-month-old cubs.

Mom enjoyed rolling on her back.

The cubs demonstrated camouflage. See them?

How ’bout now?

In the next enclosure was Steve, a handsome, two-year-old cheetah.

‘Sup, ladies?

All-in-all, we had a great time. It is an amazing facility which is committed to conservation, both through action and education.