West Palm Beach, FL –Lion Country Safari will re-open its gates to the public on Friday, November 4, 2005 after being closed due to the effects of Hurricane Wilma. The drive through preserve and the walk through amusement park will both be open, but with limited facilities. Discounted admission of $10 plus tax per person will be offered through November 11, 2005 while clean up efforts continue.

Lion Country Safari lost one animal, an elderly male greater kudu (antelope), after Wilma passed. Park officials believe the death to be stress-related. The remainder of the animals survived the strong and relentless efforts of Hurricane Wilma. Hundreds of trees are down, animal shade shelters are ruined and fencing was damaged in the drive-through preserve. Wildlife Director, Terry Wolf, was at Lion Country Safari during the storm said “last year’s storms (Francis and Jeanne) combined didn’t compare to the power of this one.”

Lion Country Safari employees and outside crews have been working diligently to get animal habitats back to normal and to get Lion Country Safari cleaned up of debris and of the hundreds of fallen trees.

Lion Country Safari is home to almost one-thousand animals in a drive-through preserve and a walk-through amusement park in western West Palm Beach. Lion Country Safari is normally open 365 days a year. This is the longest closing in the safari park’s 38 year history.

West Palm Beach, FL – On Sunday, October 30th at 3:30pm as recovery efforts from Hurricane Wilma continued, Lion Country Safari welcomed a 69-inch baby giraffe to the preserve. The 122-pound female giraffe calf was born in the Hwange National Park area of Lion Country Safari. The calf, named Faraja (meaning relief in Swahili), was the third born to her mother, Nukta, and the nineteenth born to her father, Henry.

Attentive mother Nukta, an 8-year-old native to Lion Country Safari, carried her baby for 467 days before dropping her 6-feet to the ground during the dramatic, yet common delivery. After a lengthy four hour effort to stand, wildlife staff intervened to assist Faraja to her feet. Once standing, the baby was fine. Female giraffe reproduce year round beginning at about 4 years of age. Their conception peak is usually during the rainy season and their gestation lasts approximately 15 months. Life expectancy of a giraffe is 25 years.

This healthy new addition will join nearly 1,000 resident animals at Lion Country Safari, America’s first cageless zoo. Faraja is segregated from the herd to allow bonding time with her mother in the maternity pen, but, she and mom are visible in the drive-through preserve (section 7, Hwange National Park ) of Lion Country Safari.

Lion Country Safari will re-open its gates to the public on Friday, November 4, 2005 after being closed due to the effects of Hurricane Wilma. The drive through preserve and the walk through amusement park will both be open, but with limited facilities. Discounted admission of $10 plus tax per person will be offered through November 11, 2005 while clean up efforts continue.