lion country safari chimpanzee

Lion Country Safari welcomes 2nd rare chimpanzee

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Lion Country Safari announced Friday that they welcomed a new baby chimpanzee on Jan. 28.

Workers at the wildlife preserve said this is the second chimp baby born at the facility in a little over a year.

According to a news release, the baby, named Lili, is making her debut on the island habitats in the preserve, and guests driving through the safari may see her clinging to mom.

Officials said due to the status of chimpanzees in the wild and the low number of births in the population, this birth is especially rare and significant for the conservation of the species.

Chimpanzees are listed as endangered and critically endangered in some regions by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, with populations decreasing due to habitat loss, poaching and disease.

Lili joins a family of two females and three males, including 1-year-old Tonk.

Lion Country Safari, located west of Loxahatchee Groves, is now home to 17 chimpanzees.

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Lion Country Safari welcomes second rare baby chimpanzee

By CBS Miami Team

February 17, 2023 / 11:13 AM EST / CBS Miami

PALM BEACH - It's a girl! Lion Country Safari welcomed an adorable baby chimpanzee last month.

Lili was born on January 28th at the West Palm Beach safari park.

Her name honors the Tonkolili Chimpanzee Project, a conservation initiative in Sierra Leone.

Lili joins a family of two females and three males, including one-year-old Tonk. Staff members said Lili's mom, Juniper, has been proudly showing off her baby, who can be seen clinging to her mom inside their habitat.

Lili's birth is rare and significant due to the declining number of chimpanzees in the wild and the low number of births in the population.

Chimpanzees are listed as endangered and critically endangered in some regions by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with populations decreasing due to habitat loss, poaching, and disease.

Lion Country Safari is home to 17 chimpanzees and is a proud participant in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Chimpanzee Species Survival Plan and the Chimpanzee Saving Animals From Extinction (SAFE) Program.

The CBS Miami team is a group of experienced journalists who bring you the content on CBSMiami.com.

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Lion country safari welcomes baby chimpanzee to the world.

Courtesy Lion Country Safari

WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - A safari in South Florida welcomed a baby chimpanzee to the world.

Lion Country Safari said the chimpanzee, Lili, was born on Jan. 28, and is the second chimp baby born at the facility in a little over a year, the safari said in a news release.

The baby is making her debut on the island habitats in the preserve, and guests driving through the safari might catch a glimpse of her clinging to her mom.

Lili joins a family of two females and three males, including one-year-old Tonk. The chimp’s mother, Juniper, who is “usually shy and reserved in front of people, has surprised her care team by making a point to show off her baby to them.”

Chimpanzees are listed as endangered and critically endangered in some regions by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, with populations decreasing due to habitat loss, poaching and disease.

“Due to the status of chimpanzees in the wild and the low number of births in the population, this birth is especially rare and significant for the conservation of the species, the safari said in a news release. “Her birth contributes to the Chimpanzee Species Survival Plan, a national collaboration to save them from extinction.”

Chimpanzees are typically pregnant for approximately eight months. At birth, chimpanzees weigh approximately 4 pounds. Infants cling to their mothers off and on for the first few years, but will stay closely attached for the first four months before becoming more independent.

Lili was named in honor of the Tonkolili Chimpanzee Project, a conservation initiative in Sierra Leone.

Lion Country Safari is home to 17 chimpanzees.

Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Lion Country Safari welcomes 2nd rare chimpanzee

Lion Country Safari announced Friday that they welcomed a new baby chimpanzee on Jan. 28.

Workers at the wildlife preserve said this is the second chimp baby born at the facility in a little over a year.

According to a news release, the baby, named Lili, is making her debut on the island habitats in the preserve, and guests driving through the safari may see her clinging to mom.

Officials said due to the status of chimpanzees in the wild and the low number of births in the population, this birth is especially rare and significant for the conservation of the species.

Chimpanzees are listed as endangered and critically endangered in some regions by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, with populations decreasing due to habitat loss, poaching and disease.

Lili joins a family of two females and three males, including 1-year-old Tonk.

Lion Country Safari, located west of Loxahatchee Groves, is now home to 17 chimpanzees.

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Lion Country Safari at 50: See the world’s oldest chimp, lions and 93-year-old tortoise

Brian Dowling watches from his van as lions wander slowly into their morning paddock at  Lion Country Safari, moving like the senior citizens they’ve become.

“We have five of the 10 oldest lions on record, who are 20,” says Dowling, the park’s wildlife curator.

Tsavo, 17, the group’s alpha male, and Hiro, also 17 and nicknamed “Zoolander” for the perfection of his Fabio-like mane, watch as Dowling angles his SUV close.

RELATED: Reader memories of 50 years of Lion Country Safari

He calls out to Tsavo, who responds by looking at him exactly as a domestic cat looks at its owner: with epic feline indifference.

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Pulling closer, Dowling points out the network of scars around the big cat’s face and ears.

“Believe it or not, those are from the ladies,” he said of Tsavo’s reign as the pride’s Romeo.

Big ideas often seem preposterous at the start, like building a zoo where the animals roam free and people are in cages, or cars, anyway.

Fifty years ago, the concept of a drive-through animal park was a wild dream by a group of South African and British businessmen who created a 600-acre safari-like setting in rural Loxahatchee to display African animals, particularly lions. Lion Country Safari opened with 100 lions on Aug. 29, 1967.

While celebrating its history, the park is also preparing for its biggest change if a  scheduled sale  next month goes through.

RELATED: Photos: Lion Country Safari through the years

The novel prospect of driving through a park where a snoozing lion pride might block the road or an family of elephants sometimes held up traffic attracted 800,000 visitors that first pre-Disney year.

At the time, laws governing human and wild animal contact were so lax that park rangers would place raw meat on people’s cars to bring lions closer. Local residents recall feeding and playing with lion cubs, in the park’s attempt to domesticate them for a petting zoo.

Today, the park’s 13 lions are separated from cars by a 16-foot fence, because humans turned out to be the animals most difficult to control. Despite strong warnings against the practice, visitors sometimes opened their windows or even car doors to take photos.

On this morning, the pride arranges itself in lazy-looking groups, but all of them face the enclosures where a group of young lions can occasionally be heard chuffing and rumbling. Their postures are relaxed until you notice the intensity of their stare.

“They are always on alert, ” says Dowling.

If one of those 3- or 4-year-old lions were to enter the pride’s territory, “They’d kill it, even as old as they are. They’re not as good as they once were but they’re as good once as they ever were.”

Over the years, Lion Country Safari (LCS) has reinvented itself several times, reducing its number of lions to add more species of animals and operating under conservation guidelines. The park added a KOA campground, rides and waterslides, a popular giraffe feeding station and a petting area, which help to hold annual visitor numbers to about 500,000, say park officials.

In 2006, the park’s elephants were shipped to zoos and sanctuaries with more space than LCS could provide.

LCS has gained coveted accreditation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, a milestone that places the park in the elite company of the world’s best-run zoos.

Next month could bring the biggest change in LCS’s long history, when conservationist Marcella Leone is expected to finalize her purchase of the park.

RELATED: Lion Country Safari sold to new owner

Leone, the founder and director of the nonprofit Leo Zoological Conservation Center in Greenwich, Conn., who also has ties to Wellington’s equestrian community, has mentioned she’d like to add cheetahs, orangutans and even African rock penguins, a species which tolerates hot temperatures.

It’s exciting news to Dowling, who’s spent 20 years caring for the park’s more than 1,000 animals.

“We expect to be able to enhance our conservation efforts and start some new beautification projects,” said Dowling.

Driving around the park with Dowling is like touring a middle school with its most popular teacher.

Many of the park’s animals recognize Dowling and even respond to their names.

He pulls up to a huge steel enclosure and yells for Buck.

Incredibly, a massive rhinoceros comes galumphing toward us as rapidly as something that weighs more than two tons and resembles a tank on four legs can move. In other words, a slow galumph.

At 50, Buck is the oldest male Southern white rhino on record.

RELATED: Lion Country rhino is now cancer-free

Once he’s secured inside his feeding area, Dowling gives him a mixture of grain and arthritis medicine. He demonstrates how Buck likes being scratched vigorously around the base of the two horns on his shovel-like head.

His thick hide feels like warm, bristly rubber.

“He can’t roll in the mud anymore, so the game keepers rub him down with mud regularly which keeps him cool and conditions his skin. They also spray him with Avon’s Skin So Soft,” said Dowling.

For years, the park’s 13 rhinos have been part of a successful rhino breeding program, as rhinos in the wild slowly go extinct due to poaching.

Occasionally, game keepers have to become animal psychologists to persuade nature to take its course. When an older male rhino named Ronnie seemed to lack the means and motivation to get the job done, Dowling placed a 4-year-old male nearby to drum up a little competition.

“On that first day, Ronnie was chasing girls again,” said Dowling.

He pauses at a pond where water buffalo lie submerged up to their nostrils. Their sharp curved horns rise out of the water like the stems of strange aquatic plants.

The public has rarely been injured, although animals have sent game wardens to the hospital several times. In 1974, the park’s sole fatality was the result of a worker being trampled, then gored by a water buffalo.

RELATED: Lion Country’s history: When animals attacked visitors, staff

As we pull up to the tortoise compound, Dowling starts calling for Lance.

At 93, Lancelot is the park’s oldest resident. On this morning, he’s also a cantankerous codger who doesn’t want to meet visitors.

His breakfast banana still dribbling down his chin, he turns to go back to his pen until he spots Dowling.

Incredibly, his rear half suddenly rises as if on hydraulics, then his bowed front legs slowly straighten, eventually lifting 670 pounds of Aldabra giant tortoise two feet in the air to greet Dowling, who rubs the top of Lance’s beak.

“Man, Lance is so chill,” says Dowling, while the tortoise seems to lean against Dowling’s hand, like a dog wanting to be petted.

Driving through the park’s zebra herd — with 65 members, it’s the largest in the world outside of Africa — Dowling points out that zebras aren’t black-and-white, they’re shades of brown and cream, each with a distinct pattern of stripes.

Because they can be bad-tempered and aggressive, Dowling says they’re the only members of the horse family to never have been successfully domesticated.

We pull up at the park’s famous chimpanzee islands, whose residents have been studied since 1972 by none other than famous chimp expert  Jane Goodall . In 1984, LCS became one of the founding members of Goodall’s ChimpanZoo program, which studies chimps in captivity.

“The chimps are the most dangerous animals we have,” Dowling cautions, because they’re strong and quick and often aggressively territorial.

Spotting Dowling, they immediately start gathering on the shore. After he ducks into a nearby building and emerges with a huge pile of ripe plantains, they begin jumping up and down and whooping.

It’s snack time.

A male named Tonic pounds his hands together like a baseball catcher, before Dowling wings a plantain across the water. Tonic snags it like a pop fly.

Dowling is calling “Mama, Mama,” as the tiniest adult chimp on the island descends creakily from her treehouse, pausing to sling a stuffed doll over her shoulders like a shawl.

“Little Mama” is the oldest chimp ever recorded. She’s a favorite of Goodall, who inspected her teeth years ago to determine her age. Goodall declared she was probably born just before World War II. But, since she was born in the African jungle, it’s just a estimate, if a highly-educated one.

RELATED: The story of Little Mama, the world’s oldest chimp

If true, it would make bald, gray-bearded Little Mama, who once performed in the Ice Capades, nearly 80. Chimps in the wild rarely survive past 50.

After other chimps grab the first few plantains Dowling throws to Mama, she positions herself closer to the water so she can quickly grab two he lands at her feet.

Little Mama hasn’t survived all these years without a few tricks up her hairy sleeve.

While Dowling clearly loves the animals he care for, he also hopes visitors, especially children, understand the importance of preserving them.

As a cautionary tale, he shows off the park’s herd of 30  scimitar-horned oryx, an antelope from North Africa with gracefully curved, rapier sharp horns, now extinct in the wild.

“Places like this are now the only way to see them,” he says. “The only way to save others is to be sure there’s a next generation of conservation-minded people.”

Newborn scimitar-horned oryx joins herd at Lion Country Safari

by Skyler Shepard

LOXAHATCHEE, Fla. (CBS12) — Lion Country Safari welcomes a scimitar-horned oryx calf to the herd!

Known for their majestic, curved horns that can grow up to several feet long, Scimitar-horned oryxes are desert-adapted antelopes. While this little one's horns won't be reaching those impressive lengths for a while, its arrival is a major step in conservation efforts.

For now, the mother and daughter are taking some much-needed rest in a special maternity area, away from the public eye. Lion Country Safari prioritizes the well-being of both mother and calf during this crucial bonding period.

See also: Déjà Zoo: Another animal possibly taken from Palm Beach Zoo, where's Catherine the bird?

Sadly, the scimitar-horned oryx is extinct in the wild. Human activity, including overhunting, habitat loss due to drought, and competition from livestock grazing, have driven them to extinction in their natural habitat, according to the Smithsonian's National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute.

However, there is hope! Conservation scientists are working tirelessly on reintroduction programs in Tunisia, Chad, and Niger, aiming to bring these magnificent creatures back to their native lands.

The park looks forward to sharing updates on the calf's development as it joins the herd in the future. In the meantime, this new arrival serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of conservation and the beauty of these remarkable animals.

I’ve Worked in Safari Travel for More Than 20 Years — These Are the 4 National Parks in Tanzania I Send Travelers To

A-List travel advisor Samantha Gordon recommends where to stay and what to expect.

For many first-timers to Tanzania, the game-filled plains of the Serengeti ecosystem and the sheer wonder of the Ngorongoro Crater are undoubtedly must-see destinations. But while these northern parks attract the most attention, travelers in the know are heading off the beaten track — to the remote corners of southern and western Tanzania. This is where you’ll find the country's two largest parks (Nyerere National Park and Ruaha National Park), as well as the rarely visited Katavi National Park and the stunning Mahale Mountains National Park, which is home to an extraordinary troop of chimpanzees and only accessible by boat.

As a safari expert, I'm sharing my recommendations for each of these secluded, wild places. Here's an overview of Tanzania's best under-the-radar national parks.

Nyerere National Park

Nyerere National Park is a 11,583-square-mile landmass in the larger Selous Game Reserve, affording a high degree of protection for its prodigious wildlife population. Only a handful of lodges exist here (for the time being), so game drives are blissfully peaceful. For those keen to get out of a 4WD vehicle, afternoons can be spent boating and fishing on the Rufiji River, observing birds and hippos, or taking a nature walk with a qualified safari guide. My favorite place to stay is  Sand Rivers camp, with its private rooms perched on the high banks overlooking the Rufiji. For a proper safari adventure , you can also spend the night in Sand Rivers' gorgeous fly camp and eat dinner next to a campfire before retiring to your simple tent under a blanket of stars.

Ruaha National Park

Ruaha is possibly Tanzania’s best kept secret. Covering an area larger than Maryland, it's home to just 10 lodges — and a tenth of the world’s lion population, plus a whopping 450 different bird species. The best way to experience its sheer beauty, size, and emptiness is via a hot-air balloon ride. You have to wake up at dawn, yes, but then you're rewarded with a stunning sunrise followed by a calm flight over the pristine landscape, without a vehicle in sight. I recommend returning to the luxurious surroundings of  Jabali Ridge  camp to relax by the pool before your afternoon game drive. 

Katavi National Park

Due to rains and flooding, this remote park is accessible only five months of the year — and that means everything feels just a little bit wilder. Located in Tanzania's far west, Katavi National Park is much less visited than other national parks in the country. The local wildlife includes large herds of buffalos, zebras, giraffes, and elephants, and there are plenty of hippos and crocodiles. Predators such as cheetahs, leopards, lions, and hyenas can be found here, too, but don’t expect lots of cat sightings. The real draw of Katavi is its remoteness — there are so few other visitors that you'll feel like you have the park to yourself.

Mahale Mountains National Park

Mahale, the most beautiful of Tanzania’s national parks, lies on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika (the second-largest lake in the world by depth and volume, after Lake Baikal in Russia). The lush rain forest that rises steeply from the water’s edge is one of only two protected areas for chimpanzees in the country (the other is the nearby Gombe Stream National Park, made famous by Jane Goodall ), plus it's home to the largest known population of eastern chimpanzees in the world. There are no roads or infrastructure within the park boundary, so the only access is by boat. The trekking can be tough (straight up and hot!), but is incredibly rewarding. I never thought I would match the experience of tracking gorillas in Rwanda and Uganda, but spending time in Mahale with chimpanzees came extremely close. I experienced the best guiding I have had in more than 20 years of African explorations. The head guide, Butati (pronounced to rhyme with Bugatti), was born in this park. He knows not only the names of all the 70-something chimps, but also their relationships, families, and characters quirks.

What's a day like at Mahale? Guests have an early breakfast and then get ready to trek, awaiting the radio call of rangers who alert the camp of the day’s first sighting. Then, they head straight out on foot in search of chimps. After the morning’s exertions (and, ideally, incredible wildlife sightings), there's nothing more inviting than a boat trip out onto Lake Tanganyika — I recommend diving into the crystal-clear waters as the best way to cool off.

Samantha Gordon is a member of Travel + Leisure's A-List and specializes in custom east and southern Africa trips. The experiences mentioned above can be arranged as part of a tailor-made itinerary by contacting her at sgordon@red​savannah.com . 

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