By now you may have heard that North Georgia Wildlife Park is offering the Safari Drive Thru experience. You can view exotic animals from the comfort of your car, while practicing social distancing!

What you may not know is that you can add on other experiences to the Safari Drive, including the Sloth Meet-and-Greet, where you will meet Noelle, the Young Sloth. Noelle is only one and a half years old. She was acquired from another zoo, where she had  gotten off to a rough start because her mother had not produced enough milk for her. Fortunately, Hope Bennett, the co-owner/director of North Georgia Wildlife Park, has had years of experience with nursing baby animals to health. She teamed with the Windward Veterinary Hospital and together they were able to see Noelle not only survive but thrive. In fact, Noelle  may even be a little bit spoiled!

During the Meet-and-Greet, you will have the opportunity to not only meet Noelle, but also feed her, pet her, and take your photo with her. In addition, Hope Bennett will tell you all sorts of interesting info about sloths. Noelle is a delightful animal, and you will find your experience with her both enchanting and educational. You can reserve your Sloth Meet-and-Greet by clicking here.

  Being a teacher has never been easy, but with the arrival of COVID-19 it suddenly became much more difficult. The beginning of the school year has been filled with obstacles that our teaching community has never had to navigate before. There is still much uncertainty about what the future holds for this school year.

  At North Georgia Wildlife Park, we want our area schoolteachers and school staff to know that we love you and appreciate all you do! You are among the most essential of all our essential workers. So, we are hosting Teacher Appreciation Day here at the NGWP this Saturday, August 22, 10:00am – 5:00pm. All teachers and their families are invited to visit our Safari Drive Thru for free this Saturday! You’ll be able to view dozens of animals while social distancing from the comfort of your car. You can even purchase snacks to toss to the animals while you are driving past them.

  Simply present your school ID for free admission to the Safari Drive Thru. In order to limit the number of guests to a manageable size, this event is only for employees of public or private schools. We will hold a similar event in the near future for home school teachers.

We love our schools! Teachers, join us this Saturday as we celebrate you and all you do for our children!

Pigs make wonderful pets. They are extremely intelligent, and when properly trained they love to be petted and cuddled by their human friends. The key phrase here is “…when properly trained”. North Georgia Wildlife Park, home of Paradise Valley Farms, is here to help!

Not only can you purchase your new baby piggy from Paradise Valley Farms, we’ll teach you how to care for it and train it! We are offering two Piggy #101 classes during August. The first will be 8/15 at 5:30pm, and the second on 8/22 at 11:00am. The same content will be shared in each class, so you choose the date that works best for you.

Hope Bennett, co-owner of Paradise Valley Farm, has been breeding and training pigs for over 25 years. During the two-hour class you will:
•          Take of tour of the pigs raised at Paradise Valley Farm and learn about the different breeds.
•          Discover which breed of pig is right for you. You will be able to see parent pigs so that you will know how big your pig will grow to be.
•          Learn the essentials of pig ownership, such as what you need to know before bringing your pig home; tips for raising a healthy pig; training you pig; what to look for when purchasing a pig.
•          Participate in a Q and A time to address your specific questions and concerns.
We will also be taking extra COVID-19 precautions and limiting the class size to 12 to ensure your safety.

Piggy #101 is free for all those who purchase their piggy from Paradise Valley Farm. (Only one person per purchase.) For all others, the cost is $45/person, with a maximum of 12 people per class.

Private one-hour classes are also available at $275/person, and private two-hour classes are available at $375/person. Private classes are limited to six people.

You can make your reservations on our website https://www.minilivestock.com/pig-101-classes.html. Space is limited, so reserve your spot today!

A huge thank you to Habersham EMC for going above and beyond to help NGWP during a difficult time. It all started when a limb dropped on the electrical line running though the zoo compound and started smoking. Upon further investigation we discovered the tree was not only cracked and leaning, but also being held up by only a small secondary tree. This posed a threat not only to the power line but to several habitats including Mattie the Gibbon ape and her basset hound best friend. This was no ordinary tree drop, this tree had to be taken down limb by limb so as to not take out the exhibits or power line. The EMC could have cleared the limbs 15 ft from the electrical line and left the rest for us to deal with but they instead choose to help NGWP in our time of need and continued to clear the tree down to the trunk, this helped save the gibbon habitat, which would have needed to be completely rebuilt if that tree could not be removed. Thank you to Habersham EMC and the crew that came out.

Hope Bennett, co-owner/director of North Georgia Wildlife Park has long had a dream of opening a new Sloth House for the Park’s sloths, and now that dream has become a reality. Join us on August 1, 5:30pm – 6:30pm as we celebrate the grand opening of our new Sloth House.
Completing the sloth habitat was no easy task. Many friends became financial sponsors to help fund the project. The house had to meet specific guidelines to ensure the health and happiness of the new “homeowners”. It required extensive testing to make sure that our sloths will be healthy and happy in their new home.

The new sloth house is home to three sloths – Jolly, Jovial and Jubilee. All are two-toed sloths, native to the tropical rainforests of South America and Central America. Sloths spend most of their lives hanging upside down from tree limbs. They are perhaps best known for how slowly they move, which is VERY slowly. They are fascinating animals that most people find enchanting.

Guests will have the opportunity to see the new habitat and its inhabitants, as well as meet some of the people who love and take care of them. There will be light refreshments served at the event as well.

As a special treat, guests will also get to meet and interact with Noelle, our youngest sloth. Noelle is only one and a half years old. She was acquired from another zoo, where she had  gotten off to a rough start because her mother had not produced enough milk for her. Fortunately, Hope Bennett, the co-owner/director of North Georgia Wildlife Park, has had years of experience with nursing baby animals to health. She teamed with the Windward Veterinary Hospital and together they were able to see Noelle not only survive but thrive. In fact, Noelle  may even be a little bit spoiled!
To purchase a ticket to this event click here

  North Georgia Wildlife Park (formerly North Georgia Zoo) has announced the dates of the July Children’s Day Camps and the Creation Encounters Teen Overnight Camp. Children’s Day Camps will be offered Monday – Wednesday, July 6th-8th and July 20th-22nnd. Teen Overnight Camp will be offered Wednesday-Saturday, July 22nd-25th.

  The first two weeks of day camps were a huge success. Campers toured the zoo, interacted with all sorts of animals, did crafts, and made new friends. Gabe, one of the campers, said, “I’ve had fun! My favorite thing was meeting Matrix, the wolf puppy.” Izzy says, “My favorite thing was meeting and holding Coco, the baby goat.” Tenley enjoyed the llamas and kangaroos the most. Harper was a big fan of the baby goats and Anabell enjoyed interacting with the animals and making enrichment items for them.

  Day Camp is a STEAM-oriented experience (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math), led by Mary Ellen Powell, who has been a professional teacher for over 20 years. Day Camps are divided into two sessions each day. Children may attend for a half day, 9:00am – 12:pm or 1:00pm-4:00pm, or they may attend for the full day. Half days are $50/half day, and full days are $100/day.

  Children rising 1st through 6th grade are invited to Day Camp. Day camps are limited to 10 children, so make your reservations as soon as possible.  Teen Overnight Camp is for kids 12-16 years old. As the name suggests, campers will spend the night at the Wildlife Park on Wednesday – Friday and return home on Saturday. The goal of Teen Camp is to provide a Christ-centered hands-on learning experience through animal encounters and age-appropriate Bible Study. There will be plenty of hands-on experiences with all sorts of animals each day. Campers will grow physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually!

  The North Georgia Wildlife Park is following COVID-19 protocols in all its activities, including social distancing, enhanced cleaning practices, and multiple hand sanitizing stations. Each camper’s temperature is checked at the beginning of each day. No one displaying any symptoms of COVID-19 will be admitted.

For more info or to apply, click here.
North Georgia Wildlife Park is located at 2912 Paradise Valley Road, Cleveland, GA.

North Georgia Wildlife Park has a new experience for you -the Safari Sunset Experience! As the name suggests it’s a walking safari that takes place at sunset. Small groups of guests will be led on a tour of some of our most exotic animals, including camels, water buffalo, wildebeests, emus, ostrich, zebras, warthogs, and more. These tours will be led by the co-owner/director of North Georgia Wildlife Park, Hope Bennett.
 
Hope has well over twenty years of experience with animals, and she will teach you so many interesting facts. You will also be able to feed and even touch some of these animals! The safari is approximately .5 miles long on a gravel road, so wear your walking shoes. There will be light refreshments served as a part of this experience. Safari Sunset Experiences will be offered on Fridays and Saturdays, 7:30pm –9:00pm.
 Click here for more information

Wolves and otters and sloths, oh my! Those are just a few of the animals that you can see AND interact with at the North Georgia Wildlife Park and Zoo in Cleveland. The zoo is home to around 400 animals from over 80 species, ranging from recognizable farm animals to exotic animals from all over the world.

For the full article-Click here

During the COVID-19 outbreak, North Georgia Wildlife Park & Zoo worked hard to provide programming that was fun, interesting and still followed the guidelines set out by the CDC and the governor’s office. Now that those guidelines are loosening a bit, we are shifting back to more onsite experiences, including Wildlife Walks and Hands-On Animal Experiences. For this reason we will be discontinuing our weekly Wildlife Wonders at 1:00 virtual experiences. Thanks so much to all of you who have watched & commented on them every week. If you enjoyed them virtually, then imagine how much you will enjoy them by visiting the Wildlife Park and interacting with them in real life! So visit our website, www.ngwpark.com, and reserve your animal experience today. You can also catch up on past videos by visiting https://www.youtube.com/user/NorthGeorgiaZoo