Monday, June 17, 2013

N is for Noah's Ark Animal Sanctuary

Another Georgia field trip!  We love animals and nature study, so this was a fun one.  We spent an afternoon at Noah's Ark Animal Sanctuary, walking the trails and viewing the animals.  The facility takes in domestic and exotic animals that are in need of rehabilitation or a caring home.  Although they are a non-profit organization and admission is free, it costs approximately $33,000/month (!) to feed and care for the animals, so donations are welcome!

We've been a couple times over the last several years now, and as long as you don't get caught up in a school/group trip it's fairly quiet and easy to see the animals as long as they are out in their habitat.

Across from the Visitors Center is a bridge where you can walk out and (hopefully) see the alligators, but the bridge was closed for maintenance, so Emory did not get a close look at the one animal he was looking forward to seeing!  Since he couldn't get close to the alligators, I think the ducks and ducklings were his consolation favorite, since they were also in water!

A lot of the animals were free roaming.  We saw non-venomous snakes, ducks, peacocks, roosters, chickens and this little white rabbit - who entertained guests who was all over (and on top of) the exotic bird exhibit.

There were plenty of birds to "talk" and entertain as well.

They have wolves and wolf hybrids on site.  The male wolf was nervous, so they had to separate him, and if you look closely, you can see him pacing in the background.

This bear was walking around shaking the whole time, almost as if it were dancing.  There wasn't a volunteer around at the time, and I didn't notice a "story" sign, but my stepmom pointed out that it looked like his (her?) eyes were closed tight the whole time, as if he might have been blind.  S/he also had messy fur, and Elliott still talks about the wild hair bear.

One of my favorite exhibits is the Lion, Tiger and Bear, Oh My!  The volunteer said they were brought in through the DNR after their owner was imprisoned.  I couldn't see them well enough for pictures this time, but Baloo the bear is HUGE!

There are several tigers on site.  There were three tigers in this exhibit. (They were all female "M" names, but I can only remember Melissa!)

Tigers are, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful animals.  Emory must have thought so too, because he tried to climb up one of the fences to get a better look!

The tiger above is Doc.  He came from an overcrowded breeding facility.  The volunteer had a lot of information about his background and circumstances too.  He looks so majestic, yet so sad.

Although Noah's Ark has all the major animals you'd expect to see at a zoo, it is definitely a different experience.  While these animals are still confined, I know that Noah's Ark is a non-profit, no-kill animal rehabilitation center, trying to provide a safe haven for these animals.  This makes for a great nature study/observational field trip to study animals or to just enjoy the nature trails.  I wished I would have brought our nature journals to sketch some of the animals, but maybe next time!

What's your favorite place to to study animals?  If you've blogged about it, feel free to leave me a link in the comments so I can steal glean some ideas!

This post marks off #27 on our summer bucket list, and is also part of Blogging through the Alphabet, so click on over to get some ideas and read some great posts!

Blogging Through the AlphabetChestnut Grove Academy Field Trip Friday Blog Hop



  1. What a neat place! We love going to the zoo,and have used different activities to increase our learning while there. Thanks for linking up to FTf!

  2. Oh fun! I've pinned your adventure to our Wildlife Wednesday board for Master Books - thanks for sharing! Feel free to link up as many of your nature posts as you'd like & I will get them pinned to the group board :)