Visit African Safari and Wildlife Park Port Clinton Ohio

My family and I recently went to the African Safari and Wildlife Park thanks to Lake Erie Shores & Islands.

An African Safari

Have you ever been to the African Safari and Wildlife Park in Port Clinton Ohio?

This was something we had never done before and I thought the kids would enjoy.  We had a lot of fun.  I never laughed so hard in my life driving through.

When you enter, you pay to get in and can stop and explore the walk-thru Safari.  There they have wart hogs,  tortoise, red river hogs, white alligator and white handed gibbons.  We opted to go directly to the drive-thru safari.

What you do is drive your vehicle through the grounds.  The animals do the rest.  We left with lots of slobber on our van.  One even licked the door handle. Another licked the window because they wanted food and wanted us to roll the window down.

Feeding the Animals

Before you enter, you have the opportunity to get supplies (food) for the animals.  We got the 1-2 person pack and it worked for us. It came with carrots and pellets.

Once safely inside the park, we were allowed to roll our windows down.  We watched at the alpacas, deer and guanoco swarmed the vehicle in front of us.  You could hear children screaming in delight in the vehicles nearby.

My husband put his window down and we were surrounded by various hungry and friendly animals.  There are different groups of animals to see as you move through the safari.  There are some pretty big animals (like Elk, Ankole, Scottish Highlander, White Bison).  They have horns. Give them what they want.

The animals seem to know that when a window is down on a vehicle, they will get food.

I was intently photographing all the animals my husband and kids were feeding. Several times I would turn back to my window (that was up) and find myself face to face with an animal looking for food.  Once an alpaca was so close it was steaming up my window.  I screamed and laughed so hard.

My husband was feeding one of the animals and it’s long tongue went into the cup and jerked back his hand.  It was not done eating and wanted more.  We had pellets all over in the car and laughed!

If you run into problems, you can honk your horn and someone will come to help you.  We didn’t experience or see anyone do this.  Just lots of screams of glee from our kids and the other vehicles.  It does move a little slow as you are in a line of cars going around.  We would feed a few animals and move on. There is room to move around if you need, but with all the animals, it’s pretty impossible, so you need patience.

Moving Around

Near the end of the tour, you will come up to a location where you can buy lettuce.  This is just before the last leg of the safari.  You will see giraffe’s on your left and then up ahead or Zebras on your right.

We had went later in the day so the giraffe’s were not super hungry.  It could have been that we had no lettuce from them as well.

When you leave the drive thru park, there is a place to return the plastic cups the pellets come in and any trash you have.  You can also park, shop and enjoy the other activities on the grouds.

Tips to know before you go:

• go earlier in the day so the animals are hungry (some are always hungry)
• have hand sanitize with you to wash your hands at the end
• keep windows rolled up unless you are feeding from that window
  • or don’t and see what happens
• save some carrots for the end with the giraffe’s and zebras
• to get animals away from your car, throw food away from your vehicle
• watch for animals crossing in front of your vehicle
• take turns feeding and taking pictures

Additional Things To Do

If your family gets hungry, you can purchase food onsite.  There is an ice cream shop, grill and snack shop.

You can also purchase an opportunity to feed giraffes and take camel rides (additional fee, check schedule).  Gem mining is also available for an additional charge.

Your family may also enjoy the rabbit exhibit.  There is also a schedule for feeding kangaroos.

There is so much to see and do, you can definitely spend a day here enjoying the African Safari in Ohio.

Which event will your family enjoy the most?