Birds Do It, Wildebeests Do It: An Adult Safari
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Birds do It, bees do It…we all do It, that’s why we are We.
We (my wife and I) found Valentines Day appropriate to celebrate just how It is done by other species in the animal kingdom. We visited Safari West, Africa reinvisioned in Northern California, for their annual Adults Only Safari Tour For Grownups.
Safari West is not a theme park — no flying Dumbos — but a 400-acre wildlife preserve near Santa Rosa, California that is home to giraffes, rhinos, cape buffalo, wildebeests, cheetahs, zebras, hyenas, primates and birds. While we caught none of them in the act, we enjoyed a luncheon, appropriately with an oyster bar, enhanced with wine and bubbly, and an illustrated lecture detailing the mating habits of creatures from cuttlefish to koalas. We tittered like elementary school children while our guide described the location of the octopus’ penis, which is on its third arm (I wonder if octopusses tell slimy jokes). Or how koalas have three vaginas. Or how burrowing barnacles have an exceptionally long reach.
As a souvenir gift, we each got condom imprinted with a message advocating wildlife conservation.
Wined and fed, we boarded covered jeeps, the same used in African safaris, and rattled through miles of terrain, stopping to eye the beasts and take pictures as well as learning about them.
We saw dazzle of zebras and a confusion of wildebeests, not to mention a conspiracy of lemurs. We were warned not to get too close to the ostriches so as to avoid a bone-shattering kick.
We saw how cute baby rhinos are, even when they are pooping. Young and old poop in the same place. We were told that it is their form of social media, and I might add, content creation.
Few animals are confined to enclosed settings: cheetahs for obvious reasons. The place is unobtrusively fenced. Fires threatened in 2017, but the animals were kept safe inside as owners and founders, Nancy and Peter Lange, personally fought the blazes. Not a single animal was harmed. Dr. Nancy Lang is a field biologist and Safari West is involved in numerous conservation and educational programs. It has recently filed to become a non-profit with that in mind.
Lions are noticeably absent. This is a peaceable kingdom with few threats and plenty of food and water. You will not witness a Great Migration to the suburbs of Santa Rosa.
We didn’t stay overnight this time, to glamp in a cabin or a luxury tent and lie awake to the sounds of the Serengeti while trying to guess just what was really going on out there.
Another time. We will return.
Safari West
3115 Porter Creek Road
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
