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Safari West
By Richard Paul Hinkle
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In the jungle, the mighty jungle the lion sleeps tonight. This is not an obvious business strategy. Who in their right business mind would have gambled on making a living by opening a wild animal sanctuary-theme-park in the middle of wine country? That it is not an obvious business decision is proven, perhaps, by the fact that it is the only one of its kind in this country. Yet, for Peter and Nancy Lang, it just seemed to work out that way. “I have always had a love of animals,” says Peter Lang in a hearty voice. “When I was a kid, I nursed a red-tailed hawk that had been shot back to health. My father was a producer-director, and one of the television shows he did was ‘Daktari,’ so I was around wild animals quite a lot as a kid.; I raised a lion cub for Jungleland for a couple of years and was hooked. My first job out of high school was working for two years fishing for tuna from San Pedro to Peru. Later I got into the development of rural land into large-lot housing. “That’s what I was planning to do when I came to Sonoma County in 1989. I have always had animals, and when I began to really see what this particular piece of land was, I decided not to develop it. When Nancy and I had our wedding reception here, in 1993, we drove our friends through the compound to show off our then-modest collection of African animals. The director of the San Francisco Zoo was utterly blown away, never having been able to ride right out into the midst of wild animals in a natural habitat—especially when a bongo walked up and kissed his hand. The notion of expanding the preserve, and opening it to the public, geminated from that point onward.” Safari West is laid out upon 400 acres of near-savannah grassland—studded with oak and madrone trees—about seven miles east of Highway 101, just past Mark Springs Lodge. Enclosed only by a six-foot fence, the sanctuary is home to more than 450 critters, running the gamut from antelope to zebra. But no lions. (Lions are not African.) “We have nineteen species of African antelope here,” says guide Leslie Thalman, tall tanned and blonde, a self-described “refugee from the phone company” who’s been at Safari West 13 years and loves the multiple challenges of doing PR, training guides and drivers, and working on the cheetah team. (Consider the last part of that job title: Working on the cheetah team. What a wonderful image. This is not your ordinary nine-to-five outfit.) This reminds me of my very first visit to the preserve, four years ago, when the cheetah sisters—Tula and Kajima—were mere cubs, and a member of the cheetah team (might have been Leslie) was in their enclosure tossing a Frisbee for them. The lithe pair were tearing off through the near-football-field long enclosure to grab the flying saucer before it hit the ground. Their stunning swiftness simply left my jaw slack, in utter awe of the raw beauty of it all. Present day: “Cheetahs can go from zero to seventy miles-per-hour in just five seconds,” explains Leslie. “But they can only sustain that speed for a hundred yards. However, if they keep it down to fifty, they can keep that speed up for a mile and a half. When they down their prey they usually have to hide it for at least a half an hour so that they can recoup their strength. They’ve given up so much energy to get their food that they’re too spent to eat and digest it properly. “The sisters here are now five years old, and their expected lifespan, in captivity, is about fourteen years. Which is much better than they could expect in the wild, where the stress of daily living really cuts into their lifeline. These two love to walk on a leash, and especially love riding around in a truck! They won’t chase the Frisbee any more, but they really love to play soccer with the staff.”
Near the village, the peaceful village, the lion sleeps tonight. The main tour, of about two hours, is conducted in 1950s vintage Dodge Powerwagons (Korean War surplus). The tour takes visitors through the fenced compounds, so that you are totally surrounded by myriad wild animals. (The half-hour walking tour that follows highlights the cheetahs, a porcupine pair, several foxes, and dozens of tropical birds.) When you learn that several of the many types of antelope can easily leap seven feet vertically—and Springboks can launch themselves ten feet, straight upwards—the first question that comes to mind is: Why are the exterior fences only six feet tall? “You’re right,” answers Leslie. “They could easily get out if they wanted to. What you have to remember is that these animals are living here wholly without predators, without stress . . . and the food comes regularly. They don’t have to forage for it; they don’t have to fight for it. This is Heaven for them, and they clearly know it.” It is clear, also, that they recognize their keepers. When “Captain Dave” Fink hops down to open the gate to one 100-acre compound, a monstrous ostrich named Earl hustles over to the gate and begins to fluff his shoulder feathers in a mating dance that appears to be both wondrous and frightful at the same time. “These are very powerful birds,” acknowledges Fink, who happened to have attended high school with Peter Lang. “They have been known to disembowel lions!” Moral: Don’t mess with Earl. In the small compound near the tent cabins, Leslie points to one female giraffe. “That’s Zena. She’s our first second generation giraffe born here at Safari West. She knows she’s a princess. We have two of the five African races of giraffe: the reticulated and the Masai. You can easily spot the reticulated giraffe for their sharply-defined spot pattern. The Masai giraffe has darker, more chocolate-colored spots, and the pattern is less sharply delineated. Notice their prehensile tongues, with which they can grab acacia leaves and wash their faces.”
Near the village, the quit village, the lion sleeps tonight. It’s probably because they do not advertise, but Safari West has, in large part, flown under the radar locally. When Peter Lang bought the property back in 1989 his initial focus was on becoming a small part of a worldwide network dedicated to the conservation of wild animals. “That’s still our focus,” says Peter Lang. “Our programs include education, propagation and research. We meet our educational objective by providing unique wildlife encounters that instill an understanding and appreciation for the need for conservation and an appreciation for the wonders of the animals with which we share our planet.” It might help to understand the facility as having dual functions: the for-profit-open-to-the-public African Tent Camp and the non-profit propagation, conservation, research and educational side. “The Tent Camp offers the interactive experience to the public,” explains Nancy Lang, who was once curator for the San Francisco Zoo. “We do require reservations. It would be impossible to provide the kind of service we do on a drop-in basis. We offer the tours every day, we have ‘tent’ cabins that are really quite elegant [hardwood floors, veranda, electric blankets for cool nights, full bathrooms], and our dining facilities are open to the public and for special events.” She points with pride to the sturdy wooden tables in the main dining room. “Peter made all of these in his woodshop. That’s his hobby, working with wood.” Delilah’s Deli—the more casual dining facility—is named for the flashy, bright Yellow Hornbill who rules the area around the deli as if it were her own. There may be, in fact, only one more brightly-colored critter strutting or flying the 400-acre compound, and that would be the Golden Pheasant, 50 yards away in the 15,000-square-foot walk-through aviary. This Chinese import makes paisley poor, almost dowdy in comparison.
Near the village, the quiet village, the lion sleeps tonight. (Indeed, one visitor, who had just returned from a trip to an African game preserve, said that the night’s wildlife sounds were actually louder and more intense here, in Sonoma County, than they had been over there.) Nancy recounts meeting Peter for the first time when she was working as curator at the San Francisco Zoo, conducting animal transactions with Peter, whose interest in animal conservation had begun in the early 1970s. “We quickly became great friends. Here at Safari West he is the visionary, while I take care of our administrative needs. And we’re both here—we live on the property—to mingle with our guests. It is essential that there is someone here to guide our guests, which is why we do insist on reservations. We are particularly proud of our educational programs, both our internships that bring local college kids here to see what it’s like to work with wild animals and our tour programs for local elementary and high school kids. We set aside funds to insure that schools that cannot afford our programs can also have access to our tours.”
Hush my darling, don’t fear my darling, the lion sleeps tonight. “History is filled with stories about how an individual can make a significant, positive impact on our society . . . simply because someone or some organization provided an experience that changed their life and pointed them in a whole new direction,” says Peter Lang in a muse moment. “Friends of Safari West is committed to giving students from the greater bay area just that sort of opportunity. We usually charge a reduced fee of ten dollars per student for these field trips, but we do make exceptions whereby our non-profit organization—Friends of Safari West—will pick up the tab. “Understand, the field trip here is not to be looked at as just another day away from school. Friends of Safari West wants students to participate in and learn from their experience, and to recognize that, in addition to discovering facts about the hundreds of birds and mammals that roam our four-hundred-acre preserve, there are many career opportunities within wildlife management. I believe that it is the uniqueness and the beauty of the animals we care for that sparks that interest in young people. After the guided tour, we give the kids a behind-the-scenes look at how the park is run, along with a question-and-answer period. This turns the discussion from the animals back to the kids themselves. We encourage students to envision the possibilities that exist outside of their own immediate environment, to see themselves achieving goals beyond what they may believe to be their limits.”
Hush my darling, don’t fear my darling, the lion sleeps tonight. Peter Lang, who loves to race in the Baja 500 in his spare time, is hesitant to quote numbers, but allows that the overall annual budget is in the neighborhood of $4 million. “We are really running five different businesses here and, while I can honestly say that it’s the toughest job I’ve ever had and that I didn’t go into to it with my eyes wide open, I truly love what I’m doing. Caring for the animals is, of course, job number one, and that one is pure cost. The other four—touring, hotel, restaurant and deli, and gift shop—those are the ones that have to balance the animal costs. If I was going to advise anyone else dim enough to try to run a business like this, I would strongly suggest that they make nice with the American Zoo Association. Our close ties with them have made our work much easier, especially in terms of dealing with California Fish & Game and all their regulations and restrictions.” Safari West welcomes more than 60,000 visitors per year these days. Bender, the white rhino, is the newest attraction. “As you can see, he loves it when our handlers turn the hose on to give him a little shower,” notes Captain Dave as we watch Bender trundle over to the handler so as not to miss a drop. (And, on a recent day, a troupe of DreamWorks animators dropped in to eyeball ideas for new characters for the sequel to “Madagascar,” due out in 2008.)
“By teaching conservation through education we create awareness,” counsels Peter Lang. “We share this planet with creatures great and small, and it’s important that we make a difference, in their survival and in our own. We see each one of our visitors as a potential ambassador to this notion of conservation. If you leave here with only one realization—that what we have on earth is perishable and we are what is making it perishable—that is good enough for me.” Safari West is located at the corner of Mark West Springs Road and Franz Valley Road, about seven miles east of Highway 101. They can be reached at (800) 616-2695 or on-line at www.safariwest.com. In addition to the guided tours—three times a day spring and summer, twice a day fall and winter—there are 13 miles of walking trails that meander through the 400-acre compound. SIDEBAR What could be more fun than looking eye-to-chest with a giraffe, who’s standing there, the ripe punch line for one of your favorite jokes? Sure enough, a likely couple strolled over. “You know what you do when you come up against a rhinoceros with three balls, don’t you?” They assessed me warily, and shook their heads in unison. “You walk him, and you pitch to the giraffe.” They broke out in obviously relieved grins. “Bigger strike zone.” They nodded their heads. “Obvious.” The author of eight wine books, Hinkle also handles a wide array of business writing, from brochures to newsletters, from portfolios to press kits. His work can be viewed at his brand new web site—designed by former Biz editor Laura Hagar—at www.RichardPaulHinkle.com.
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