Out of Africa

For the impatient: Pictures

I had gone to this place when it was still within Phoenix city limits. Since they've moved up North, they've grown, and the experience is unbelievable.

Out of Africa is a large zoo focussing on large African animals. They have many, many large predators -- lions, tigers, bears (oh, my), white tigers, leopards, hyenas, and wolves. They are so, so close to you that I feel I could reach out and touch them! This makes 'Predator Feed' quite and experience as well. Three times a week, the keepers of this zoo feed the predators by rolling a large truck full of giant pieces of meat down the path. The animals smell this and begin salivating in a very real and scary way. At each enclosure, they throw few chunks of meat over the fence and the you get to see the animals have their feast. Discovery channel HD has nothing on seeing this live.

From Out of Africa

By far the most unique was the male lion. While most of these guys go straight to chowing down, when the male lion gets his piece, his first concern is to eliminate all threats to his meat. In this case, it means making big scary faces at the visitors and jumping on the fence if even the keeper gets too close. The keeper said that this behavior, in the wild, sometimes results in the lion losing his meal if somebody is sufficiently brave and sneaky and Mr. Lion is distractedly scaring away a decoy. We learned about his behavior at the second male lion's enclosure. This made me realize that the reason the first male lion had stopped eating to 'pose' for my photoshoot was that he was threatening to eat me!

The largest cats, los tigres, were definitely the most fun. In an installment called 'Tiger Splash', otherwise sane and rational humans play with tigers around a swimming pool; much like one would play with a cat -- by dangling its toys around until it pounces. Concluding this experience is the opportunity to feed these, rather impatient, tigers. The whole affair makes you realize that they really are just 800 pound kitties, but I can't imagine what it takes to become friends with these hulking beasts.

From Out of Africa

Unlike most of the carnivores, the vegetarians all hung out in the same area. Well, except for a few. The keepers told us really funny stories about why each exile was sequestered. For example, Humphrey the camel took to biting Kibo the giraffe's butt. As a result, Humphrey is in timeout. They also thanked the female ostriches for coming to the rescue of the keepers when the sable antelope get too aggressive. These are the same antelopes that forced the keepers to create a DMZ between their's and the lion's enclosure. The sable antelope would tease the lions into sticking their paws through the fence and then attack with their horns. Nature is brutal.

As far as zoos go, this one had, by far, the most active and lively animals. They seemed much more comfortable and sometimes engaged with the patrons. In my experience, large animals at most zoos try to hide from the patrons and sleep. I didn't get that same feeling of pity for these animals -- though, of course, it is still a zoo.

Should you decide to visit, make sure you check the calendar, as Predator Feed and Tiger Splash are must see events!