One Man’s Perspective; Tiger World Zoo

We have a great granddaughter, MILA. She is 5 years old and lives in Orlando, Fl. They came to visit us over Thanksgiving. Now you know that we try to do something special for the family after they had driven over 9 hours to visit. This year was a Zoo. Did you know that there is a Zoo 15 minutes north of the Charlotte Speedway? It is called Tiger World, and it was established in 2008 for “Conservation through Education”. They specialize and I quote, “Experience endangered species up close and personal”. This is a nonprofit charity that receives no government funding. They do charge admission, and the various prices can be found on their website [email protected].

We got our first taste when we entered the parking lot, no pavement. And the fences seemed to be in disrepair. But they got their job done. As we entered the Zoo, we were amazed by the number of peacocks running around. Some were brightly colored, and others were pure white. They were beautiful and obviously well fed and happy with their surroundings. They were everywhere except inside the ticket office.

As we moved outside, we couldn’t believe the number of lions they had. Some were individually caged and others were together. We never saw any female lions. What we saw was the lions playing with pumpkins. We later learned they fill the pumpkins with ice cream. They know the way to a lion’s heart.

We saw many birds and monkeys as we traveled to the tigers. On the way we noticed a white swan was following us along the bridge we were on. Suddenly, a black swan emerged, extended its neck, and emitted a loud sound. I guess he told the white swan to back off.

As we approached the next lot, a tiger ran as fast as he could up to the fence. He was successful in scaring all of us. The fence held together and was built very high. Tigers can jump 12 feet above the ground. This tiger was big and looked very mean. He didn’t stop growling until we moved away from his territory.

They had a sign that showed you the size of the different varieties of bears. It gave us the opportunity to compare ourselves to bears. We didn’t see any bears because they were hibernating inside a building. It was too cold for them.

There was the sloth hanging upside in the reptile building. He was fully grown and loved his carrots. We each, including MILA, would give him a piece of a carrot and then pet him. It was fun and he was cooperative. It was obvious that he enjoyed the experience as much as we did,

As they say in their brochure, we enjoyed the experience of endangered species up close and personal. This is truly worth a visit.

Post Views: 63

Charlie Schuler

Charlie is an Air Force Veteran who joined the Bell System telecommunications company after his honorable discharge. He was an installer/repairman, engineer, technical writer, and a manager. He had 33 years’ service with New York Telephone, Western Electric, AT&T General Departments and Lucent Technologies. He and his wife, Marianne, retired before they were 55 so that they could pursue their dream of sailing. They have sailed over 20,000 miles and at one time lived on a 42’ sailboat for four years. Some of Charlie's other accomplishments include, being a leader and teacher in the United States Power Squadron, aka, America's Boating Club for over 30 years; Started a new squadron in 2000, which is still in full operation; Was a leader and teacher in the church for 30 plus years; a leader and teacher in the “Walk to Emmaus” for over twenty five years; And they moved to the Lake Norman area from Little River, SC after living there for 30 years. They are adventurers and love sharing their stories. You can find his articles in LKN Magazine under ‘One Man's Perspective’.

View More Articles