Safari West is a 400-acre (1.6 km2) private wildlife preserve located in Sonoma County, California.
The selection of wildlife places an emphasis on species native to Africa including Giraffe, Rhino, Cheetahs, and numerous species of birds. The park engages in breeding programs that, through exchanges with other zoos and parks, keep the gene pool healthy for the species that are involved in the program. The park is also home to species that are considered to be extinct in the wild, ensuring that the species can one day be re-introduced into the wild.
The park, one of six accredited private zoos in the United States,[1] combines wild animal care with vacation lodging.[2] The establishment was started in the early 1970s on a cattle ranch in Beverly Hills, California by Peter Lang (son of Otto Lang, a film director who worked on The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Sea Hunt, Flipper, and Daktari).[3] The younger Lang, inspired by his father's interest in animals, began to keep wild animals on the ranch.[1]
After selling the Beverly Hills property for use as a park, Lang moved the operation to a larger ranch near Calistoga, California in 1978, and then in 1989 to its present location on a former sheep ranch near Santa Rosa, California. In 1993 he opened it to children's tours, and later added overnight loding, safari tours, and a restaurant. It functions as a private zoo with breeding programs, and 350 animals of approximately 50 animal species.[2][3]
Comparable establishments include Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, Texas, and the Vision Quest Safari bed-and-breakfast in Salinas, California