America's Safari parks: for those in search of African-style adventure, here's something to roar about!

Travel America, Nov-Dec, 2001 by Randy Mink

The horizons may not be thick with thundering herds, but it's still a jungle out there. At southern Florida's Lion Country Safari, where wild animals roam as freely as they do on the plains of East Africa, there's nothing between you and them but a car window.

Safari-goers are advised that "convertibles must be exchanged for air-conditioned rental cars before driving through the preserves." Another rule of the road: Animals have the right of way. Lion Country Safari, located 15 miles west of West Palm Beach, opened in 1967 as the nation's first cageless zoo.

It remains one of the leading drive-through wildlife sanctuaries, a refuge where exotic creatures mingle in habitats much like their homelands--vast enclosures measured in acres rather than feet.

Some of these U.S. safari lands, besides offering tourists a simulated trip to Africa, have research and breeding facilities designed to protect endangered species. The blend of amusement and education, spiced with spontaneity, creates an ideal environment for family vacationers.

Unlike walking through a traditional zoo, there's a true sense of adventure as you drive slowly past a pride of lions, brake for a rhinoceros lumbering across the road, or say good morning to an ostrich staring through the window. In states as diverse as California, Ohio, and New Jersey, animal-watchers can experience the thrill of an overseas safari without jetting to Kenya, Tanzania, or Botswana. And you can skip the malaria pills and yellow fever vaccinations.

Deep in the heart of Texas, an hour southwest of Fort Worth, Fossil Rim_ Wildlife Center is home to more than 1,100 animals who live on 1,500 acres of savanna-like pastures and wooded hillsides. Along the 9.5-mile Scenic Drive, you may see a herd of shy wildebeests grazing peacefully as ostriches amble among them. Gentle giraffes browse in the treetops while keeping a watchful eye on their young resting in the tall grass. Dotting green fields like huge gray boulders, rhinos doze in the sun. Coexisting with non-native species are white-tailed deer, roadrunners, jackrabbits, armadillos, and other examples of Texas wildlife.

Fossil Rim provides visitors with cups of alfalfa pellets to drop on the ground when friendly animals approach. The ostriches have devised a game plan for getting their fill of alfalfa. One of them will block the road, effectively stopping a car, while the others come around from all sides. It's not unusual for them to stick their beaks into open windows, searching for pellets.

A brochure and audio cassette describe the characteristics of most species seen from the road. The Overlook, halfway point on the drive, is a good place to take a hike, have a picnic, pick up a souvenir or more film, or soak in panoramas from the cafe.

On two-hour tours in open-air vehicles, naturalists lead game drives into the "bush" and offer a peek at the rhino and other breeding facilities.

The great thing about Fossil Rim is that you can stay overnight. Foothills Safari Camp has seven cabins, in the guise of African safari tents, with central heat and air, ceiling fans, and private bath with shower. Fossil Rim also operates a stone-and-cedar lodge; some of the five bedrooms have a fireplace and/or Jacuzzi. Both types of accommodation include breakfast. Nearby are the historic towns of Glen Rose and Granbury.

At Florida's Lion Country Safari, travelers can spend the night in a tent, cabin, or RV at Lion Country KOA, a full-service campground with a heated swimming pool. The sounds of trumpeting elephants, roaring lions, and whooping gibbons pierce the night air.

Lion Country guests can drive through the 500-acre park (divided into seven large preserves) as many times as they like, snapping away at giraffes, zebras, elephants, rare white rhinos, and other creatures from "out of Africa." After the safari, they can take a jungle cruise past islands of monkeys and exotic birds, feed baby animals at the petting zoo, ride a carousel, or play a round of miniature golf. Exhibits in this walkthrough area feature everything from alligators to pythons.

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, the African-flavored theme park in west-central Florida, was a pioneer in showcasing big game for the family market and now contains one of the nation's largest zoos, not to mention a galaxy of thrill rides. In 1965 its 65-acre Serengeti Plain became the country's first free-range habitat for herds of African animals, with a monorail affording aerial views. Visitors today capture the majesty from the Serengeti Express Railway or feed giraffes apples and carrots from a Serengeti Safari flatbed truck on a reservations-only, 30-minute tour of the newly landscaped savanna.

In 1997 Busch Gardens enhanced its reputation in the zoological community with the opening of Edge of Africa, a self-guided walking safari offering close-up looks at lions, hyenas, crocodiles, and baboons in African villages and remote wilds adjacent to the Serengeti Plain. The plain's newest attraction is Rhino Rally, an off-road Land Rover adventure blending animal encounters with a raging river ride.