Marie T.
Yelp
We visited here yesterday and absolutely loved it!!! There were so many different kinds of animals , and a few we had no idea what they were. We never envisioned ourselves nose to nose with a massive bull, ostrich, llama, alpaca, camel, or deer, but that is just what happened! Whether the feed bucket was being held out the windows or sitting in our laps, some beautiful creature was eating out of it.
We fed, I can't ever count how many, ostriches, deer, and alpacas. There were numerous babies to be seen, and in some cases fed as well. A bull snatched my boyfriend's bucket shortly after we began the safari drive-through part, but luckily a man on a four-wheeler was selling additional buckets of feed halfway through. Then a camel snatched his second bucket! A herd of deer took my son's second bucket as well.
The drive-through part has numerous places to pull over in the grass for a longer 'photo session' if you don't want to hold up the people behind you. Plus, expect to have to stop numerous times to let some adventurous cutie cross in front of you. Once, while we were going through, an ostrich came racing over just to practically tip-toe across in front of us! We also had a llama follow alongside our vehicle eating out of a bucket I held out the window.
After we finished the drive-through part, we went through the walk-through part where we saw all kinds of monkeys, birds, Pygmy goats, tortoises, white kangaroos, and a giraffe. You can buy carrot sticks in the gift shop to feed the giraffe, and you can buy birdseed/peanut butter mixtures on a popsicle stick to feed the parakeets. The Pygmy goats are in a pen where you can pet them. In one of the buildings, they had baby monkeys and ostriches to view. Different colors of peacocks strolled all over the place, along with pigeons. They also had a small children's play area near the giraffe.
They had mist sprayers going to help beat the heat, a food truck-type restaurant, and clean restrooms. The prices in the gift shop were affordable, without being outrageous like most tourist attractions.
I have a few tips for your trip here. First off, they ONLY take CASH, no cards, checks, IOUs, etc. CASH ONLY!! Secondly, no outside animals are allowed inside the park under any circumstances, no exceptions! And third, make sure to keep your fingers out of the feed buckets! They tell you when you go in to hold the buckets from the bottom... However, in the commotion of all the fun we were having, I forgot that important tip, and low and behold... Well, I can check being bitten by an ostrich off my bucket list. Once it had bitten my finger, the (same ostrich) began pecking the side mirror trying to get food from it. We simply rolled up our windows until that particular angry, feathered monstrosity hurried over to someone else's vehicle. After that, my kids nicknamed the ostriches 'murder chickens'.
Besides a rare encounter with a hostile 'murder chicken', this tops any zoo we have ever been to!!! We (as animal-lovers) absolutely loved it here!! It is a great place for people of all ages from three to a-hundred-and-three!! If you live in or around West Tennessee, you should without a doubt visit this place!! You will in no way be disappointed! Actually, wherever you live, this is well worth the trip. We drove three hours to get here, spent the night before and the night of in a hotel, and drove home today. For an idea of a good hotel, I recommend Marriot by Courtyard in Jackson, less than a twenty-minute drive from the safari park. (Check out my review of it.) Also, if you stay in Jackson while visiting the safari park, you should check out Rusty's TV and Car Museum. You can see my review of it on here as well.