Animal Adventure Park opens for the season

Animal Adventure Park (AAP) opened for the 2018 season on Wednesday, May 16. Last year, AAP won the Tourism Excellence Award from the New York State Tourism Industry Association and welcomed more than 200,000 visitors to the park. 

This year, guests will enjoy continued favorites like hands-on animal encounters and the world-famous giraffes, April, Oliver and Tajiri, in addition to a number of exciting new attractions, encounters and exhibits.

AAP, recently named the winner of the statewide I LOVE NY Family-Friendly Tourist Destination Contest, has added Discovery Station to the children’s zoo. At the center of the new area is the Safari Express Train and the area’s only gem and fossil mining sluice. 

Visitors will be hands on as they pan for gemstones and search the sediments for fossilized remains, learning more about minerals and the mining process.

The Discovery Station is the first of many new educational attractions planned for the growing park. The launch of the Discovery Station was made possible by Weis Markets. They have generously agreed to sponsor this new educational, family friendly area for the next three years.

Also new for the 2018 season is AAP’s African lion pride.  With only 20,000 remaining on Earth, African Lions are currently identified as vulnerable to extinction. 

Adding additional excitement to the project, the park’s male cub, Solomon, a rare Timbavati white lion, is extremely rare, with less than 20 Timbavati white lions in the wild, and less than a few hundred in the world.

To support AAP’s preservation efforts, Visions Federal Credit Union has pledged to sponsor the lion exhibit and white lion initiative for the next three years. 

Other additions this season include the critically endangered bongo antelope, reindeer, toucans, sacred ibis, aoudad, and endangered scimitar oryx. By July, the first phase of the Wilds of Asia expansion will open, welcoming binturong (bearcats), Asian clawed otters, and Eurasian eagle owls.  

For more information or to plan your visit to the park, visit theanimaladventurepark.com.