The 'Animal Park at the Conservators Center is an 18-hectare (45-acre) zoological park located in Burlington and Caswell County, North Carolina, United States. [1] Reservations are needed to visit. Founded in 1999, the Center opened its doors to visitors in 2007 and attracts approximately 16,000 visitors per year.
The Animal Park at the Conservators Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The Park does not receive taxpayer funding for operating services, and relies on funding through their tour services, memberships, donations, grants, events, and corporate contributions. Their core mission is to "educate people, care for animals, and advocate for species." They offer a variety of adventure and family-friendly tours and even special seasonal tours and events.
The Animal Park at the Conservators Center was founded in 1999 by skilled exotic animal professionals, Mindy Stinner and Douglas Evans. Beginning as a smaller facility, managing around 25 small exotic species and 3 tigers, they expanded when an Ohio facility was closed in 2004. The government reached out to the Center and other facilities to help take on a large group of confiscated animals, including big cats. The Center agreed to take 3, and another facility agreed to take on 11. However, the other facility was unable to provide those 11 cats a new home within a timely manner, and therefore all 14 became new residents of the Conservators Center. This was a huge turning point for this small facility in North Carolina. The 14 large cats arrived, and 4 females were pregnant. Within a few months of arrival, 15 new tiger and lion cubs were born.
The Center opened their doors to visitors in 2007 to help generate support for the increased animal population. Guided educational tours began in September 2007, and most of the original tour guides are still working and volunteering at the facility as of 2020.
In October 2019 the Conservators Center was rebranded as The Animal Park at the Conservators Center.
On December 30, 2018, a lion killed a college intern who was working there. The Center issued statements in response to press inquiries. There have been no other serious incidents reported since they opened in 1999.
The San Diego Zoo Safari Park is a zoo and safari park in San Diego, California, located in San Pasqual Valley. The park houses over 3,000 animals representing more than 300 species. It houses a large array of wild and endangered animals from every continent except Antarctica. The park also includes a botanical garden with over one million plants. In 2022, the park attracted over 1.6 million visitors.
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Woburn Safari Park is a safari park located in Woburn, Bedfordshire, England. Visitors to the park can drive through exhibits, which contain species such as southern white rhino, elephants, tigers and black bears. It is part of the estates of the Duke of Bedford that also includes Woburn Abbey and its 3,000-acre (1,200 ha) deer park. The Safari Park itself covers 360 acres (150 ha).
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Carolina Tiger Rescue is a nonprofit wildcat sanctuary in Pittsboro, North Carolina, that offers public tours and field trips and is home to rescued tigers, lions, cougars, leopards, caracals, servals, bobcats and other wild animals. Over 20,000 visitors come to the sanctuary each year for guided tours, field trips, summer camps, volunteering and corporate work groups. Their mission is saving and protecting wild cats in captivity and in the wild. They work toward a day when wild cats are living in their native habitat and are not exploited by humans. Carolina Tiger Rescue is Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS) and USDA accredited. The Executive Director is Kris Marino.
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Shambala Animal Kingdom was a 53 hectares zoological park outside Kuranda, Queensland, Australia. The park was privately owned. It was formerly known as "Cairns Wildlife Safari Reserve", "Mareeba Wild Animal Park" and "Out of Africa Reserve". After being purchased by a Sydney lawyer, the zoo was renamed "Shambala Animal Kingdom". The zoo was closed in April 2013 citing financial reasons.
Orana Wildlife Park is New Zealand's only open-range zoo, sitting on 80 hectares of land, located on the outskirts of Christchurch. It opened in 1976, and is owned and operated by the Orana Wildlife Trust, a registered charity. The aims of the Trust are to provide quality recreational opportunities for local people and visitors to Christchurch; conserve endangered native and exotic wildlife; educate visitors about environmental and conservation issues; and support research relating to endangered animals.
The Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, alternatively known as the G.W. Zoo, Tiger King Park and formerly the Garold Wayne Exotic Animal Memorial Park, was an animal park displaying predominantly tigers and other big cats in Wynnewood, Oklahoma, United States. The park garnered substantial public attention due to the 2020 Netflix documentary series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, which focused on park founder and owner Joe Exotic.
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The Karlsruhe Zoo is a city garden with a zoo in the southwest of Karlsruhe, Germany. It also encompasses the outer area; Tierpark Oberwald in the southeast of the city. The main area totals 22 hectares, and the Oberwald Zoo has an area of 16 hectares. A total of around 3000 animals of over 240 species live at the Zoologische Stadtgarten Karlsruhe. The city garden is located north of the Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof and south of the Karlsruhe Congress between the Karlsruhe districts of Südstadt and Südweststadt. The zoo was opened in 1865, making it one of the oldest zoos in Germany. The city garden and zoo form a common, enclosed area and cannot be visited separately.
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