Safari West

Safari West is a 400-acre private wildlife preserve located in Sonoma County, California.

The park, one of six accredited private zoos in the United States, combines wild animal care with vacation lodging.cite news|publisher=New York Times|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/10/realestate/greathomes/10safari.html|title=Where Cheetahs Roam in Deepest California |author=Patricia Leigh Brown|date=2006-02-10] The establishment was started in the early 1970s on a cattle ranch in Beverly Hills, California by Peter Lang (son of Otto Lang, a film director who worked on The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Sea Hunt, Flipper, and Daktari). The younger Lang, inspired by his father's interest in animals, began to keep wild animals on the ranch.cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/04/06/CM263683.DTL|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|title=The Green Hills of Sonoma:Mingling with wildlife just outside the 'burbs at Safari West|author=Jack Boulware|date=2003-04-06]

After selling the Beverly Hills property for use as a park, Lang moved the operation to a larger ranch near Calistoga, California in 1978, and then in 1989 to its present location on a former sheep ranch near Santa Rosa, California. In 1993 he opened it to childrens' tours, and later added overnight loding, safari tours, and a restaurant. It functions as a private zoo with breeding programs, and 350 animals of approximately 50 animal species.cite news|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2004/03/14/AR2005041501863.html|publisher=Washington post|title=A Wild Time in California Wine Country|date=2004-03-14]

Comparable establishments include Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, Texas, and the Vision Quest Safari bed-and-breakfast in Salinas, California

References

External links

* [http://www.safariwest.com/ safariwest.com] - official website