A banner year for wild-animal babies: Lion Country Safari says 31 births show its formula is working

LOXAHATCHEE — Lion County Safari witnessed a baby boom in 2022, welcoming 31 offspring, including three rare rhinos, two zebras and two giraffes.

Its staff called the births a win for the animal park, which since 1967 has cared for wild animals with minimal human intervention. They say seeing the animals reproduce on their own indicates they are thriving in the habitat, about 20 miles west of downtown West Palm Beach.

“Any time you have a new birth, no matter what the species is, it represents the future,” said David Backus, the park’s lead keeper. “It represents preserving the species and the diversity of our planet.”

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Lion Country Safari allows visitors to drive through trails and see exotic animals roaming freely, such as chimpanzees, gemsboks and even its namesake lions, who watch visitors majestically, a hint of their raw power in their eyes. The 600-acre park is home to 810 reptiles, birds and mammals from six different continents, including critically endangered species.

The youngest animals in the safari are Kandoro and Kianga, giraffe calves born during the last week of December 2022. The oldest is Lancelot, a 95-year-old tortoise that arrived at the park in 1969.

Haley McCann, a spokesperson for the park, said the births are crucial to ensure the park will continue to protect and sustain endangered populations to prevent them from going extinct.

“We are acting as a lifeboat for the species,” McCann said.

Lion Country Safari's plan: Let the animals roam, and limit the human interactions

Lion County Safari opened its trails 56 years ago, becoming the first cageless zoo in the United States. Back then, it only had lions. Now it is home to 89 species. Visitors can see ones as diverse as boa constrictors, white-bearded wildebeests and even a zebu, a horned cattle species with a hump and drooping ears.

McCann said the park still operates with the same mission from its beginnings: to have animals roaming freely, living with their herd, while visitors can watch them engage in natural social interactions.

During a typical visit, guests can stare at ostriches pecking at their car windows, watch monkeys swing from one tree to another and see giraffes rip leaves off trees. Members of each herd usually stick together and people can watch striped zebras trotting and eating, bucks submerged in lakes to cool down with only their black noses sticking out and lions rubbing their heads together.

Some guests, McCann says, park and stare at the animals interact with each other for hours.

Last year, the park saw a continuation of a rising number of annual births, including squirrel monkeys, scimitar-horned oryxs and impalas. It also welcomed Ruby, its 39th baby white rhino.

Backus, who has worked as a keeper on the safari for 12 years, said every birth was an exciting event that he celebrated with his staff.

Unlike caged zoos, Backus said, at Lion County Safari animals are left to live on their own with minimal staff intervention. For that reason, when they reproduce, it means the keepers have successfully created an environment that imitates their natural habitat and makes them feel safe.

Backus says the births help visitors connect even more with the animals and the safari's purpose to preserve the species for future generations.

"Even just see them in their car and you get the smile on their faces,“ he said. "We care about what we love, and we love what we know.”

The steady stream of births has made the park home to herds of 16 rhinos, 18 giraffes and 60 zebras, which is the largest in the United States, and a blackbuck family of 150.

Chimps, rhinos, zebras, giraffes: Park is home to endangered species

McCann said Lion County Safari participates in 35 species survival programs. They focus on long-term conservation and breeding to ensure there is a viable population under human care should they go extinct in nature. Some of its endangered animals include chimpanzees, rhinos, zebras and giraffes.

The park also supports the conservation of the species abroad.

Every couple of years Lion Country Safari sends its keepers to Africa. Backus flew to Namibia in 2019 and worked with the Giraffe Conservation Foundation to count and survey the Giraffe population for three weeks.

The foundation "has done great work in reintroducing giraffes into areas they haven't had them in many years, due to either habitat loss or civil war," he said. "Eventually, if (giraffes) don't have any areas left, they go extinct."

He said the trip was the best three weeks of his life because he got to help the wild counterparts of the animals that he cares for every day. For him, every guest who comes to Lion Country Safari represents an opportunity to create a sense of appreciation for the species and inspire future zookeepers.

"It's a different way to see animals," Backus said. "It's not a whole lot of places that you drive through and you can have a giraffe walk straight up to your car."

Lion Country Safari drive-through zoo park

Location: 2003 Lion Country Safari Rd, Loxahatchee

Hours: Open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (last car admitted at 4:30 p.m.)

Tickets: Ages 10 and older are $45, plus tax; children ages 3 to 9 are $34, plus tax; children under 3 are free.

More information: Visit Lion Country Safari's website.

Valentina Palm covers Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Loxahatchee and other western communities in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@pbpost.com and follow her on Twitter at @ValenPalmB. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Lion Country Safari saw baby boom in 2022 with 31 births at the park