Eudora Safari Park

On Thursday, June 6, Allie and the boys drove over from Charleston, accompanied by my sister Mary Beth and her husband Mike. They had driven down to Charleston from New Hampshire to spend a week with their grand kids. We met at the Eudora Safari Park. Whitney had done some art work and signs for them, so she was able to arrange a private tour of the park. Here are some of the directional signs that Whitney designed, had made and helped install. And that is our guide Eloise checking the oil in the Jeep before we set off.

Before we set out, most of us made a stop at the restrooms – these too have artwork designed and executed by Whitney.

Getting situated in the jeep.

Then we were off to feeding the animals – that’s an eland (from Africa) and a nilgai (from India.) And then there are some young eland and some Aoudad or Barbary sheep – from Africa, they are neither sheep or goat but share characteristics of both.

These emus were fighting pretty vigorously, as one was protecting its chicks – if you look closely you can see some chicks at their feet and a chick peeking out behind the pole in the second picture.

Soon we had llamas coming right to and into the jeep to get their share of the food.

Here comes a camel – this one is a dromedary – has one hump – starts with a D. (The bactrian camels have two humps – starts with a B. Get it?) We were going pretty slow, so this guy just walked up behind us and stuck his head in for a treat – Allie supplied it.

Oops – Mary Beth and Trish being photo bombed, and maybe having an ear sniffed

Here are some shots of an Oryx, from Northern Africa. They call the one with the horn damaged in a fight when it was young Unicorn. And those are some long shots of the trailers carrying some of the 3 bus loads of kids that were visiting from a summer camp – you can see how the animals crowd around the visitors. Many of the animals are hand fed when they are young, so they are quite used to being around humans.

That’s Larry the ostrich – Whitney said he was mean and Eloise told us that he built his nest in a gully that flooded in the heavy rains – so many of the eggs that Mrs Larry laid washed away.

You wouldn’t see this guy on a safari anywhere, it is a Scottish highlander, which is the oldest registered breed of cattle in the world.

Look at the horns on these guys – they are African Watusi. The horns can weigh 900 to 1,600 pounds and Whitney said they are warm to the touch as they have lots of blood vessels running near the surface – this helps to cool the cattle down

There are several other types of cattle – including some Texas longhorns.

There are also bison that come along asking to be fed. We first saw this baby bison, who are born with a reddish coat that they keep until they are about a year old. These are also mostly domesticated – unlike the ones we saw last fall in Yellowstone and other places. So it wasn’t terrifying when this one stuck it’s head in the jeep – although Blake did apologize to it for pushing it away.

There were zebras – which they said might bite, so we just threw them some food. And this is Bucky the alpaca.

Mary Beth was sitting in the front seat, so she could roll up the window to keep the animals out, but Eloise had brought some long carrots along, and MB was okay with that. Eloise is one of the people that hand fed the babies, so she knew all their names and they would come running when she called.

These wildebeest were having a great time chasing each other. And that is Mary Beth with her new best friend Eloise after the safari ride.

Ben and Blake in the llama and alpaca that Whitney painted. And Trish feeding the goats in the petting zoo.

Everyone posing with and then feeding the hungry animals.

More feeding and baby goats slipping down ramp – it’s easy going up, not so easy going down.

Walking through the park, we saw tortoises and some white peacocks.

There were ring-tailed lemurs and black-and-white ruffed lemurs. Whitney got them talking to us by playing a recording of other lemurs talking – it was quite funny.

They also have kangaroos and wallabies.

Our last adventure at Eudora was watching Whitney and Allie feed the giraffe, and then we followed another of Whitney’s signs. to head out.

After stopping for some BBQ, the Strout’s and Williams’ came by Whitney’s house – they had never visited before and were very impressed with all the landscaping and other work that Whitney has done. But mostly they enjoyed playing with the puppies. That’s MB and Mike with Kousa, Butter, and Mowgli; Blake and Allie with Butter; Allie giving Mowgli and Kousa pets, and Mowgli giving kisses.