Going on winter safari

[GAcoaster]

From the Asbury Park Press (click to view photos and other info in the full story):

 

Going on winter safari

Cold weather brings special challenges for the keepers of Great Adventure's Wild Safari animals

By FRAIDY REISS

TOMS RIVER BUREAU

 

Some will steal your stuff and shove it down a drain. One will poke you in the butt to gain attention. Still another shows his affection for women by puffing fish breath in their faces.

 

These are the some of the 1,200 animals of Six Flags Wild Safari, the attraction that Six Flags officials call the largest drive-through safari outside of Africa. While the safari attraction is open from April through October, the animals live — and cause mischief — here year-round.

 

"Every day is an adventure," said Bill "Doc" Rives, 43, the veterinarian who is director of the safari.

 

The winter months are particularly adventurous for safari staffers. During the summer, the animals spend most of their time outdoors, grazing on pastures, eating from large feeders, and drinking from ponds.

 

On cold winter days, however, the animals that cannot weather the low temperatures are confined to heated buildings and rely on employees for their necessities, Rives said. Workers must visit each of the safari's 35 buildings every day to bring food and water and to clean up. Just the task of delivering water takes about five hours, he said, and each building takes about two hours to clean.

 

Of course, that does not account for the extra hours spent struggling with frozen locks and sliding on icy paths.

 

"The biggest enemy is always ice," Rives said.

 

After a snowstorm, 360 acres of roadways and walkways must be plowed quickly enough to ensure that no animal goes hungry.

 

"We're kind of like the postal service: No matter what, we have to get to every building," Rives said.

 

Winter is not all hard work at Wild Safari. Rives and the other employees also get to watch 2,000-pound bison frolicking in the snow like children. They get to see elegant white swans sneak over to their neighbors, the kangaroos, and snatch the marsupials' food.

 

Some of them get to swim with a 500-pound California sea lion named Trapjaw, a shameless flirt who prefers female trainers and who appears to have no idea that his breath stinks like week-old fish.

 

"The wardens really get attached to the animals, and it's good," Rives said. "That's why we're here."

 

Animal warden Ned Mansbach, who has worked here for 18 years, took a break from his work on a bitterly cold day last week to chuckle over Petrovich, a funny-looking marabou stork who earned his name pacing along the fence like a Russian border guard.

 

"He delivers the ugly babies," Mansbach quipped.

 

In another heated building in the safari, a 5,000-pound white rhinoceros named Squeak lumbered over to the front of his cage when Rives walked in to check on him. Squeak poked his enormous head through the bars and tilted his neck so the vet could scratch him.

 

"He's handsome, isn't he," Rives cooed, as the rhino stood quietly, loving every moment of the scratch session.

 

Squeak's roommates, the safari's seven elephants, will perform almost any trick in exchange for a monkey biscuit. Jason Holloway, the elephant supervisor, takes advantage of that when he teaches the elephants to spread their ears for a medical exam or to present the bottom of their feet.

 

"They're spoiled rotten," Holloway said last week, standing with his back toward the elephants' cage — even after Barbara, an 8,000-pound female, stuck out her trunk and poked Holloway in the rear end to get him to turn around and play with her.

 

Caring for Wild Safari's 104 baboons is never a dull job. Lately, the mischievous primates have taken to snatching workers' tools and dumping them down the drain, said Rives.

 

"Like little teenagers," he said.

 

Through all the laughter, though, safari employees remember that the animals in their care can be dangerous, Rives said. Even gentle animals like the sweet-natured giraffes can hurt people by accident.

 

Employees also remember that the animals depend on them for their well-being, summer or winter, he said.

 

"The animals here, they don't want for anything," Rives said. "We spoil them, but that's our responsibility."

 

Click for the photo slideshow!

[29yrswithaGApass]

Reading this article and viewing the accompanying photos reminded me of what a great experience the Wild Safari VIP Tour was last October.

 

If anyone wants to gain a whole new (or renewed) appreciation of Great Adventure's least talked about park, I highly recommend it. You will go away with a bunch of great and unique memories not to mention some incredible photos.