Early in the year a friend from church sent out a link suggesting that we might enjoy a visit to a place called the Conservator’s Center in a nearby town. It looked interesting, so when a groupon showed up in my inbox a few weeks later I bought passes for a school “field trip.” Yesterday was the day.
I don’t think the little kids were very excited when I told them we were going to go see some wild animals that had been rescued. I don’t think they were very excited that it was an hour away.
By the end, though, we were all thrilled with our experience…
I thought the whole experience was lovely, including the drive. The Conservator’s Center turns out to be out in the boonies, west and north of us. Google Maps suggested that I drive all the way to Roxboro where there is a good east-west highway to drive on, but I (of course) spurned their suggestion in favor of good old country roads. True, those on my path were more often not a straight shot to my destination, but I pieced together a route that worked well. I love driving on country roads in North Carolina anytime, and the spring sights were a delight.
The Center is a wild animal rescue program. We loved hearing the stories about how many of the animals ended up there. The three red foxes (the center never meant to rescue foxes) who had been raised in captivity from birth, and were part of a deal for the center to get another lemur so that their first lemur would stop demanding that the center staff spend all of their time with him. The serval who was a family pet until it “sprayed” in all of the air-conditioning vents. The four tigers who were rescued from a breeding facility in another state (with terrible living conditions for the animals) –along with 10 lions the center didn’t mean to adopt. And the binturongs. We had no idea what those were. And we still don’t. But we have seen one now!
We left in such a hurry that I forgot my camera, if you can believe it. (I still can’t. Except that life has been so stressful that I kind of can.) At a certain point I had to try to take pictures with my phone because what we were seeing was just so incredible. If we were staying here I would probably try to recruit a group of photography loving friends to sign up for a photo taking tour, where you get to stand up close to the enclosures and take your pictures through small camera openings in the chain link. That would be cool. Since we were not on a camera tour, all of my pictures include the fencing.
Here is one of the servals, basking in the sun in it’s hammock made of fire hoses.
An enclosure full of white wolves, which would normally have made Rachel’s day.
Unfortunately for the wolves, they were competing with a pair of beautiful leopards (sorry, no decent pictures) and with these guys.
Now remember—that picture was taken with a camera phone with NO zoom capability. That’s how close we were! It was amazing.
We got to see one of the lions chase a cinnamon spiked ball, and come back with it stuck on her canine tooth.
The most exciting moment (besides when the male lion sprayed in our direction) was when the tour guide was able to get the lions to all calling to each other. Before we would have thought this was growling, but she explained that this was a way the lions keep track of where everyone is. Regardless of it’s purpose, it was something else to hear lions calling all around us. I wish I had been able to capture the sound on video, but it turns out that my cell phone does take video, but without any sound.
Our favorite animal that we “met” was Arthur Tiger. Arthur is a white tiger with very few stripes, and he is just beautiful. The girls were excited to hear that Arthur has his own facebook page, and they friended him as soon as we got home.
So there you have it—don’t you love it when you try something new and it’s just fabulous? That’s what I felt like yesterday, and I think we may try to go back before we leave so that Josh can experience the Conservators Center too. You can read all about each animal’s story on their website and see beautiful (chain link-less) pictures of them as well if you want to know more.
Posts
That looks incredible. And I'm with you about the country roads all the way. Also, we must talk about facebook. I haven't had any requests from my kids, but I gather they'll be starting before too long....so I want to hear what boundaries you set, etc.!
ReplyDelete