The Wilds – Part 1

On my mental summer list, the Wilds was one of the places I wanted to visit.

Then I got an email from the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium about a teacher workshop.  One day was going to be at the Zoo and the other day was going to be at the Wilds.

What is the Wilds?

So what is the Wilds?  It’s a safari park and conservation center located on reclaimed land that was once used for mining.  It’s located in the middle of no where.  It’s located in Cumberland, Ohio. The closest towns/ cities are Cambridge, New Concord, and Zanesville.

There are Open-Air tours and Wildside tours plus other types of tours.  You could  also take a zipline tour.

If you would to know more about the Wilds, follow this link.  Wilds

My Visit to the Wilds

After leaving the Garland Hotel, I drove the 20 minute drive in the country.  Winding and curvy roads – At one point the road was not only curvy, it was also not completely paved.  Instead of driving the speed limit of 50 mph, I drove around 35 to 40 mph since I was unfamiliar with the roads.

Once I got to the Wilds, I met up with my workshop group.  We rode the in one of the open tour buses to the education building.  While we were there, we had a our workshop for an hour or so.

Then we headed over one of the creeks to do a creek study.

What is a creek study?  We looked at the abiotic factors to see if the creek is healthy or not.  Afterwards we checked out the microorganisms.  We tallied up the number of different microorganisms.

A few of the workshop participants, found a juvenile black snake with a fish in it’s mouth.  I was unable to get over to where the snake was located so I don’t have a photo of the snake.

After we were done with the creek study, we traveled to the Carnivore Center for lunch and for us to scientific sketch some of the animals.

Before we left the Carnivore Center, we had a keeper talk at the painted dog exhibit.  So cool and informative.

The Wilds has almost 20 painted dogs in the exhibit.  They’ve had two litters in the last 2 years so they are on hiatus this coming year.  No litters.

While she was having the keeper talk, she was throwing raw meat to them.  So I was got some action shots of the dogs.

Also what was interesting was the fact the elder dogs allowed the younger dogs to have the food first.  In the wild, it’s usually the elder dogs getting the food first.

Join me next time for the photos of our pasture tour.

Have a magical day,