Wildlife safari park in Aiken County has American-born exotic animals
May 2—The creatures at Eudora Wildlife Safari Park are exotic, but their place of birth is not.
"A lot of the animals were born on our farm — like all the zebras and camels, and a lot of the Watusi cattle," said Mark Nisbet, who spoke to the Rotary Club of Aiken on Monday at Newberry Hall about his business, which also is known as Eudora Farms.
"Many people think they were brought from Africa or from Asia or somewhere like that, and they're not," he continued. "The giraffes that we have ... it's been documented that they are 10-generation American-born. All of our animals were born in the United States."
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Eudora primarily offered interactive educational animal exhibits at fairs in the South and the Northeast.
The creatures also appeared in living nativity scenes, and there were field trips for schoolchildren to the Eudora Farms property.
Nisbet wanted to one day open a drive-thru safari park, but it happened earlier than he had planned because of the novel coronavirus, which forced the cancellation of many events.
The Eudora Farms safari park made its debut in May 2020, and it quickly became a popular destination.
"We've put in some permanent structures now, and we're also getting ready to do a few projects with our giraffe enclosure, our observation deck and a few other things," Nisbet said. "And down the road, one of our dreams is to eventually have a couple of tree houses that people could rent and stay in overnight."
The safari park is at 219 Salem Lane in the Perry/Salley area.
For more information, visit eudorafarms.net or the Eudora Wildlife Safari Park page on Facebook.
The Eudora phone number is 803-606-6325.
