Texas Safari

Yesterday I took my family into the wilds of the Texas hill country. Near New Braunfels is Natural Bridge Caverns and its accompanying Wildlife Park. They try and set it up like a safari, where you stay in your car and drive around and view various animals in their habitat. I guess a little more humane than a zoo, since they are free roaming and have a lot more space. They have giraffes, and giraffes are my daughter's favorite animal (although her favorite ocean animal, she is quick to point out, are whales). Since our local zoo currently has no giraffe (the one they had died a year ago, and they still have not replaced it), I thought we could go out to the Wildife Park to see some giraffes. This place turned out to be much more than I thought it would be. My wife, oldest daughter, infant daughter, my niece and I packed into the car to go on safari. All pictures are ones I took from our car.

You can buy food to feed the creatures from your car window. The only rule, really, is don't get out of the car.

The giraffes are kept at the entrance, and the look of absolute wonder and excitement on my daughter's face at seeing a giraffe up close and in person was worth the drive and cost of admission. The rest would be gravy. But it turned out to be a hell of a lot of gravy.

These animals are obviously used to being fed from car windows, as they are not afraid at all. I got some pretty remarkable photos...

ABOVE: Here I am posing with a rather creepy looking ram-like creature. He was cool, though. I gave him some snacks for posing.

ABOVE: This emu had no fear. As you can see, his head is in my car. I was feeding it, and it grabbed the food and then a few fingers. Fortunately, there are no sharp things in its beak. They have long necks, so he reached quite far into the car looking for more food. My wife was screaming as if we were in a slasher film, although my daughter and my niece were thrilled beyond belief.

ABOVE: You can see my hand outstretched offering this large horned something-or-other some food. He was actually quite relaxed and calm. I guess when you look like that, you don't have to put on a show to gain respect. He ate out of my hand. Cue more wife hysterics and accusations that I am putting my infant daughter's life in danger.

ABOVE: When we got to the area for the zebras, there was a sign that stated that zebras are aggressive and can bite. As you can see, this guy means business. He walked up and stared at me for a long time. I admit, here I was a bit nervous and I did roll up the window. My daughter wanted to get out and pet them, so my niece's job was to keep her in the car and make sure she did not touch anything that was alive.

ABOVE: The ostriches were probably the most aggressive of all. I love that top picture of the gang of ostriches charging us. They are the largest bird in the world, and are several feet taller than our car. For some reason it reminds me of some Mad Max postapocalyptic wasteland where the humans have lost dominance over the planet. We also had the windows rolled up for the ostriches. The one you see in close-up started to peck at the car. My daughter also loved the ostriches. My wife asked me to drive faster.

This place was awesome. As a former lawyer, I cannot imagine the liability, but that's Texas for you. And so what, that is what makes life fun. I cannot recommend the place enough. Go if you are ever in the area, here is their website: Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch.