Wildwood Wildlife Park Says Thank You To Our Zoo Keepers: Zoo Keeper Appreciation Week July 21-27

National Zoo Keepers Appreciation Week July 21-27th

On behalf of the entire staff we would like to say thank you to the dedicated Zoo Keepers at Wildwood Wildlife Park for the incredible work they do keeping our animals healthy and happy. 

Our Zoo Keepers devote their lives taking care of our diverse collection of animals. Everyday is a unique learning experience - when you spend your day with animals, no day is ever the same.  

Zoo Keepers do so much more than just feeding, clean up after and care for the animals. They are advocates for the animals they care for and they strive to make the public aware of issues facing animals in the wild. Today's Zoo Keepers interact with the animals in their care which includes training and enrichment to ensure the animals act more like their wild selves. Zoo Keepers keep close watch over the animals in order to detect the slightest change that could be an indication of an illness; animals instinctively hide because in the wild, an illness is a sign of weakness.

If you visit the park this week, please say hello to the Keepers and thank them for the hard work they perform every day to care for our animal residents. We appreciate everything they do to help make Wildwood Wildlife Park a destination for conservation, education and FUN! 

Teeke and Twiga: Wildwood Wildlife Park Two Newest Residents

Wildwood Wildlife Park is proud to announce the arrival of two new animals to our Zoo family: a ten-month old male giraffe named "Teeke" and a seven-month old female giraffe named "Twiga."

We've been getting ready for the arrival for the past few years and recently finished construction on their new home. So many of our friends have been asking when to expect the giraffes arrival and we appreciate your patience and understanding that their arrival was dependent upon Twiga being totally weaned and independent.

Teeke and Twiga arrived at Wildwood Wildlife Park on Tuesday, June 18, 2013, from the Tanganyika Wildlife Park in a specially designed trailer built to hold giraffes. Because they are young, the trip from Goddard, Kansas, to Minocqua was made easier than if they were full-grown adults.

Teeke and Twiga are settling into their new home in the zoo's African Serengeti exhibit. The African Serengeti project has been in the works for past two years with the giraffe barn and giraffe yard completion in May 2013.

We would like to thank our proud sponsors of the African Serengeti Project for helping helping our dreams come true:

County Materials Corporation
King Quarry LLC
Quality Heating Inc
Stratford Building Supply Inc
Hartman Well Drilling Inc
Ritchie Lakeland Oil & Propane
Northern Pines Greenery Inc
Friends of the Zoo

During the time when Teeke and Twiga are acclimating to their new home they will be indoors: our guests will be able to view the giraffes through the glass viewing area.

Wildwood Wildlife Park is home to over 1,000 animals so in addition to visiting the giraffes, there is so much to see and do!

Check out the largest interactive animal encounter in Wisconsin where guests can feed goats, sheep, pigs, cuddle a bunny, hug a tortoise, pet a porcupine, stroke a skunk and much more.

Experience hand-feeding Whitetail deer, camel and aoudads or feed our black bears Buddy, Candy and Honey their favorite treat, "Bear Juice."

Everyone in your family will enjoy the Budgie Encounter which is a Free Flight Aviary where the parakeets land on you and enjoy a seed stick which you can purchase.

Families have been visiting our zoo for over 50 years - generations of families have made a visit to our zoo part of their family tradition. Helping you make family memories is part of our mission.

Wildwood Wildlife Park is located two miles west of U.S. 51 on U.S. 70 in Minocqua, Wisconsin. We are open 7-days a week, 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Giraffe Update

If you have made a trip to the zoo this year, you've no doubt seen the new Serengeti exhibit that is being constructed. This is one of our most ambitious projects and certainly one of our soon to be highlights for 2013. But if you have not been to the zoo you may have missed our exciting news:

Wildwood Wildlife Park will soon be home to two giraffes.

While we are all very excited and looking forward to their arrival - the giraffes have not arrived as yet.

The zoo where the giraffes are currently residing will not release them to our care until the little female is completely weaned from her mother.

As you can imagine, this is an uncontrolled circumstance and like all soon to be "new parents," we are having to wait until the baby is ready to make the trip to her new home.

We are projecting the timeline to be around the middle of June but please bear in mind that this is all subject to what is in the best interest of the animals.

We will post updates and new of the giraffes on our Facebook page and Twitter account.

Please Note: The photograph is a stock image of a giraffe and is not "our" giraffe. The photo of the crane sculpture is part of the new Serengeti exhibit at Wildwood Wildlife Park.

Marmoset Monkey: Our Newest Baby In The Wildwood Nursery

Say hello to our baby Marmoset - one of the new baby animals to arrive at Wildwood Wildlife Park. Marmosets are highly active monkeys, living in the upper canopy of forest trees, feeding on insects, fruit and leaves. 

Marmosets have distinctive large white ear tufts and their tail is striped, with alternate wide dark and narrow pale bands. Their coat is grey, black, brown and white with streaks of orange. Their claw-like nails allow them to cling to trees - and they weigh less than a can of baked beans!

In the wild, Marmosets live in family groups of three to fifteen, consisting of one or two breeding females, an unrelated male, their offspring and occasionally extended family members and unrelated individuals. Marmosets are characterized by a high degree of cooperative care of the young - adult males, females other than the mother, and older, and older offspring, participate in carrying infants.

The favorite food of marmosets is tree sap, which they reach by gnawing holes in trunks. 

Announcing Our First New Arrival!

Please join us in welcoming one of the newest residents of Wildwood Wildlife Park! She is a beautiful Aoudad (African Sheep) that we've named Annabelle.

The weather conditions were much different when we welcomed the Easter time arrival of Aoudad's lats year! We wrote extensively about Aoudad's in last year's post; you might enjoy revisiting the page and learning about these animals that are the only wild sheep indigenous to Africa.

You can see from the recent photographs that our dog Leah has all ready taken a liking to Annabell ... or should we say, she's taking a "licking" to her!

Spring Raking Clean-Up Has Been Rescheduled for April 27, 2013

As you can imagine, we are just about at our wits end with this snow and cold weather ... but we are rescheduling our annual raking weekend with a lot of faith and hope that spring will arrive to welcome our friends for this much anticipated event at Wildwood Wildlife Park.

Please click on the image and share this with your friends and family.

Thank you.

Opening Day Announcement!!

We hope you will share the news with your friends and family our opening day has been pushed back to Saturday, May 4th. Thank you for your understanding!