It was about 2am, and we had driven from Indianapolis all the way to Macon, Georgia, where we had just arrived for the night in a hotel, and our kids were asleep. The next day we were supposed to drive to Jacksonville to see the zoo on our way to Orlando – but that plan was too far-fetched. Desperate, we googled and found the Chehaw Park Zoo in Albany, Georgia, about a 90-minute drive from our hotel.
Finding the Chehaw Park Zoo was the highlight of our trip! This zoo offered us multiple “firsts” in our animal feeding excursions. Friendly staff and numerous animal interactions filled our day with smiles, as we easily spent about 5 hours here.
Highlights:
- Rhino Feeding – We had the chance to feed Sam the rhino. The keepers there were very friendly, and allowed us to get right up next to him, give him a pet and establish a brief relationship, and then feed him some leaves.
- Camel feeding – Later on in the day, those same keepers assisted us in feeding feed pellets to Bogart the camel.
- Alligator feeding – The best feeding of the day was down at the swamp, where we tossed food into the water for the alligators. Just like you might see at a fish hatchery, the alligators swarmed all over each other to grab the food. This feeding was memorable because not only was it the first time we had walked down a boardwalk into a completely swampy atmosphere to view alligators, but we had never dreamed of feeding them. The staff was again super friendly, giving us facts about how long a single pellet could last the alligators, while also pointing out to us their oldest (and largest) alligator, Charlie.
- Meerkat maze – a fun way to incorporate meerkats into the zoo with both a maze and climbing tower
- African sveldt ride – they take you to the back part of the zoo in an open range among wildebeests, zebra, and kudu
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