Florida's Lion Country Safari named one of nation's Top 5 safari parks

Eddie Ritz, Palm Beach Post
·3 min read
The park that invites Santa to bring wrapped gifts for the chimps has secured a top-5 finish in a USA Today poll rating safari parks.
The park that invites Santa to bring wrapped gifts for the chimps has secured a top-5 finish in a USA Today poll rating safari parks.

LOXHATCHEE — Providing an up-close look at exotic animals since 1967, and believed to be the first cage-less zoo in the United States, Lion Country Safari was named the fifth best safari park in the country in USA Today's "10 Best" Readers' Choice 2022 poll.

The ranking was announced Friday .

A panel of zoo and travel experts along with several 10 Best editors came up with the initial top 20 list. The final 10 were chosen by popular vote.

A No. 5 finish is a step up for Lion Country Safari, which placed eighth in the poll last year, according to the park's public relations and social media manager, Haley McCann-Gonzalez.

One of the primate gift recipients at the 37th Annual Christmas with the Chimps celebration at Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee in December.
One of the primate gift recipients at the 37th Annual Christmas with the Chimps celebration at Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee in December.

The top spot in the poll was secured by a park in Nebraska, the Lee G. Simmons Wildlife Safari in Ashland. The top 5 lineup:

  1. Lee G. Simmons Wildlife Safari in Ashland, Neb.

  2. The Wilds in Cumberland, Ohio

  3. Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center in Divide, Colo.

  4. Bearizona Wildlife Park in Williams, Ariz.

  5. Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee.

Lion Country Safari was a pioneer in the zoo world when it opened more than 50 years ago, introducing a new concept in zoology and tourism. It offered families a chance to experience an African safari at a fraction of the cost and time.

Photos: Christmas for the chimps at Lion Country Safari

More park residents: See photos of the second rare rhino born this year at Lion Country Safari

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Lion Country Safari drive-through park has the largest zebra population in the country

From those humble beginnings, the park now features more than 1,000 wild animals from six continents, including lions, wildebeest, giraffes, zebras, ostriches, chimpanzees, rhinoceroses, impalas, greater kudus, Asian water buffalo and white-handed gibbons, on nearly 600 acres.

Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee has the largest zebra herd in the United States. A new male was born to the population May 6.
Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee has the largest zebra herd in the United States. A new male was born to the population May 6.

Roaming free, the park's zebra population is the largest in the country. On May 6, it added one more member to the herd with the birth of a male plains zebra.

Though maybe not number-one in the country, the park's herd of giraffes is recognized as one of the largest.

Josh, a rare Southern white rhinoceros, stands alongside his mother, Bloom, at Lion Country Safari. The new rhino was born Nov. 17.
Josh, a rare Southern white rhinoceros, stands alongside his mother, Bloom, at Lion Country Safari. The new rhino was born Nov. 17.

The park is known around the world, all the way to the North Pole. On his global December jaunt, Santa Claus makes a regular stop at Lion Country Safari to deliver gifts to the chimpanzees — an event guests can witness annually.

In addition to allowing guests an up-close look at these animals in a natural setting, the park also participates in many conservation initiatives and roughly 35 breeding programs (called species survival plans) for threatened species including the rhinoceros, zebra, oryx and siamang.

Lion Country Safari's giraffe population is one of the largest in the country.
Lion Country Safari's giraffe population is one of the largest in the country.

These programs help to ensure the survival of a healthy, sustainable population of threatened species in human care and help facilities like Lion Country Safari to act as lifeboats or figurative arks as wild populations decline and face extinction.

African lions sit outside at Lion Country Safari as motorists drive by.
African lions sit outside at Lion Country Safari as motorists drive by.

The park's employees have been on hand for scores of births from wild donkeys to wildebeests. They have also assisted in one unprecedented surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from a rhino's horn.

Eddie Ritz is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at eritz@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Best safari parks in US: Florida's Lion Country Safari makes the list