Parakeet Budgie Encounter: Wildwood's Newest Attraction Is A Hit With Our Guests! Opens May 30th

These cute and popular birds are instantly recognizable as parakeets or budgies. Their formal name is the Budgerigar or Shell Parakeet. Whatever you call them, we know them as one of the park's many popular residents.

These small, long-tailed parrots are seed eaters. Wild parakeets are found living throughout the drier parts of Australia and are noticeably smaller than those found in captivity. Naturally green and yellow with black, scalloped markings on the nape, back and wings, breeders have created a rainbow of blues, whites, violets and yellows, grays and even some with small crests. Budgies are popular pets around the world due to their small size, playful nature and their ability to learn to whistle tunes, mimic human speech and learn to do tricks.

Budgies are closely related to the lories and fig parrots but here in America, we call them parakeets; a term that refers to any number of small parrots with long, flat tails.

Budgies are intelligent and very social animals; they enjoy playing with toys and interacting with humans as well as other parakeets.

It is usually easy to tell the difference between a male and a female budgie that is over six months old, mainly by the color of the area containing the nostrils called the cere. Behavior and head shape will also help you tell the difference.

A mature males' cere is usually light to dark blue but can be purplish to pink in some birds. Males generally have a rounder head and are very vocal.

Females' ceres are pink as immature birds; becoming beige to white when they are not in the breeding season, brown during mating season. Typically female parakeets have a flattened back of the head, right above the region of the nape.

You won't want to miss our newest popular attraction, The  Parakeet Budgie Encounter, a walk-through aviary where you can experience up close and personal, the beauty of over 500 parakeets. You can buy a “bird feed stick” for $1 and have parakeets eating right out of your hand.

Visitors agree, the Parakeet Budgie Encounter is one of their new favorite experiences at the zoo!

White-tail Fawn Wildwood's Newest Park Addition

One of the park's most photographed residents are white-tail fawns. 


This buck-fawn arrived at the park on May 12th, the photograph was taken when he was less than one day old.


The white-tail deer, also known as the Virginia deer, is a medium-size deer native to the United States with the exception of Nevada, Utah, California, Hawaii and Alaska. They are also found in Canada, Mexico, Central America and in South America as far as Peru.


White-tail deer eat a wide variety of food including leaves, legumes, cacti, and grasses. They also eat acorns, fruit, hay, corn and other food found in neighborhoods and farm yards. Their special four-chambered stomach allows them to eat things such as mushrooms that are poisonous to humans and Red Sumac.


White-tail deer communicate in many different ways using sounds, scent, body language and marking. All white-tail deer are able to communicate by producing audible sounds that are unique to each animal. Fawns make an a high-pitched squeal, known as a bleat, to call out to their mothers. The mother deer, or doe, makes maternal grunting sounds when searching for her bedded fawns. Another way that white-tail deer communicate is by raising their white tail, sending an alarm to other deer in the area that can see it.

Black Leopard One Of The New Babies At The Park

We are pleased to announce the arrival of black leopard, Teeah, born on April 20th.


While she may not look like one of the 'big cats' everyone loves to visit, it won't be long before she'll be following in her parents paw-prints and will grown up to be a graceful animal.




Leopards are closely related to lions, tigers, and jaguars. They live in sub-Saharan Africa, northeast Africa, Central Asia, India and China. However, many of their populations are endangered, especially outside of Africa.


The leopard is so strong and comfortable in trees that it often hauls its kill into tree branches. By keeping it aloft, the leopard hopes to keep their meal safe from scavengers such as hyenas. Leopards often hunt from trees where their spotted coats allow them to blend into their surroundings.


Leopards are strong swimmers and are very much at home in the water. They are oftentimes seen eating fish or crabs.


Most leopards are light colored with distinctive dark spots that are called rosettes because they resemble the shape of a rose. Black leopards, which appear to be almost solid in color because their spots are hard to distinguish, are sometimes called black panthers.

Teeah's proud mother is Tenzin

and her father is Toby.

New Arrival: Red-Handed Tamarins

Wildwood Wildlife Park is pleased to welcome our newest residents, red‐handed tamarins.

Also known as the golden‐handed tamarin,  the red‐handed tamarin is a New World monkey named for contrasting reddish-orange hair on their feet and hands. They are native to wooded areas north of the Amazon River in Brazil, Guyana, French Guiana, Suriname, and Venezuela. 

They live in cooperative groups of 4 to 15 members with little competition among a group even between breeding males. A female will typically give birth to two offspring.

Young tamarins are cared for primarily by the father and turned over to the mother only to

nurse; however the entire group helps with the care of the young.

The red‐handed tamarin is an exceptional climber and spends most of its time among the vines and branches of the trees. They are quick and agile and superb jumpers know to jump distances of over 60 feet from a tree to the ground with no sign of injury.

The red‐handed tamarins body measures 12 ‐17 inches including the tail and they

weigh .88 ‐1.2 pounds. The tamarin's diet consists of fruit, flowers, insects, frogs, spiders, lizards, and nectar.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-handed_tamarin

Summer Internships: No Vacancies for 2011

Thank you to everyone who has contacted Wildwood Wildlife Park concerning summer internships for 2001. We have filled all the internship positions for this year and regretfully will not be able to accept any new applications.


We will, however, we accepting applications beginning in September for the 2012 season.


Thank you to everyone who has inquired about our internship program and we look forward to receiving your application in September.

2011 Membership Rates (Click To Enlarge)

Nigerian Dwarf Goats

Nigerian Dwarf goats are a miniature dairy breed of goats that originated in West Africa. While small in stature, these animals can produce a surprising amount of milk: their production ranges from one to 8 pounds of milk per day! The high butterfat content of their milk makes goat milk excellent for cheese and production of soap.

Nigerian goats are gentle and easily trainable. They are very friendly and can be easily trained to walk on a leash - some goats enjoy coming into the house with their owners. While they are very friendly, they are, by nature, a 'herd animal,' and thrive in the companionship of other goats.

Nigerian goats come in many colors which is another reason why they are so popular. The goats can be white, black, red. cream, black, gold and chocolate. They can also be pinto-patterned, tri-colored or Dalmatian-spotted.

Some goats have china-blue eyes but most of them have chocolate brown eye color.

There is no truth to the myth that goats have such a strong stomach that they can eat a tin can. Like all animals, Nigerian Dwarf goats can live a long life if care is taken with their health and that does not include eating tin cans.

They need exercise and fresh air and love to play and climb on anything which is why we provide an entire environment that keeps our goat herd happy and healthy.

Our goat area is one of the many highlights of the park and one we know you will enjoy and remember on your next visit to Wildwood Wildlife Park.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Dwarf_(goat)

www.americangoatsociety.com