Backyard Safaris

Zoos Let Visitors Get Up Close And Personal With Exotic Animals, More

BYBEE, Tenn. – Ron Nease dodged obstacles – including an ostrich – as he zipped past some zebras.
Taking off in a tiny truck, painted black-and-white to look like zebra stripes, Nease drove only a couple of miles from the pavement of Briar Thicket Road in Cocke County, Tenn.
But here? Well, going two miles with Nease, the owner of Briarwood Ranch, is like roaming thousands of miles to a distant continent.
On a tour, my 8-year-old daughter, Abigail, tossed out bread, and countless creatures came calling – the deer, the watusi, the emu and an 8-year-old buffalo called “Buffalo Bill.”
“We’re a reverse zoo,” Nease said. “You go to the zoo, and the animals are in a cage. You come here, and you’re in the cage, like an automobile or a wagon, and the animals are free-roaming.”
Visitors circle through the zoo of Tennessee’s Briarwood Ranch on dirt-and-gravel roads, driving their own cars while greeting 60 different species. The animals forage through a forest and eat leaves as high as they can reach – up to about 10 feet.
Nease likes to drive through this zoo with lots of stops and starts.
Just behind us, after each pause, the animals formed a herd and made chase – horns in the air.
It’s a jungle out there!
“There’s Dakota,” Nease said, pointing. “He’s a Rocky Mountain Bull Elk.”
In another field, we found a goat and a deer. The pair charged each other, playfully, butting heads.
“We have a Canadian goose and a pig that stay together,” Nease added. “There’s all kinds of strange relationships.”
PUFF AND CODY
At Virginia’s Fort Chiswell Animal Park, a similar drive-thru zoo, owner Jeff Archer stepped onto a school bus in a fenced-in field he calls “The Outback.”
A double-humped camel – named Puff – poked his fuzzy neck inside a window and comically showed his teeth.
“When he came here, he’d cover you up,” Archer, 48, said. “He’d puff on you – until you couldn’t see. Now, he found out that nobody was going to hurt him, so you can’t hardly get him to spit.”
Like Nease’s Briarwood Ranch, for Archer, Fort Chiswell Animal Park is a labor of love.
About five years ago, Archer created “The Outback” by converting his cattle farm in Wythe County into something out of Africa – with water buffalo and wildebeest.
Personal cars are not allowed to drive the dirt road at Fort Chiswell. Instead, all must board the tour bus and watch as the 40-odd animals crane their necks inside, begging for food.
“The feed on our bus is like the trash at Mardi Gras,” Archer said. “They monitor the fun at Mardi Gras by the trash that they clean up. So, when it takes these girls an hour to clean the feed up off the bus, then we know everybody had a good time.”
Along the way, everyone meets Cody, an American bison that holds his mouth open like a hippo, begging for food. “We raised him in house,” Archer said. “And he thinks he’s a person.”

‘SEEING THE PEOPLE’
For Nease, tourists at Briarwood can circle through the park either in their own cars or on a narrated wagon ride.
“About 90 percent coming in are drive-thrus,” Nease said. “And they can drive through as many times as they want to, on the same day.”
Visitors can also linger at Briarwood’s petting zoo and meet an eland, a miniature horse or an African Pygmy goat.
At Fort Chiswell Animal Park, meanwhile, a towering pen holds a couple of monkeys, named Cocoa and Cindy, climbing wire walls while making funny faces.
At either Briarwood or Fort Chiswell, nearly all animals roam, just as they would in their natural habitats of Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe and the Americas.
“People come here to watch the animals,” said Heidi Crosky, a zookeeper at Fort Chiswell Animal Park. “I like seeing the people. I like seeing them feed [the animals] and hearing the kids like, ‘I got to pet a zebra. I never did that before.’ ”

‘SLOBBERED ON’
At Briarwood, Nease stopped just beyond a curve and a clearing.
He spied a baby silk, a cross between a sika deer and an elk.
“Hey, baby! Hey, baby!” Nease called, motioning in the distance. “Isn’t that baby awesome? He’s so pretty. He’s just so pretty.”
For Nease, this love affair with the wild kingdom began when he traded a car for five elk – what became the beginning of the Briarwood Ranch. Open for two years, Briarwood is now home to about 500 animals roaming across 200 acres.
On our tour, my daughter took note of everything.
Still, her favorite must have been the zebra family – the mama, daddy and baby. All three came to the truck, begging for food.
And?
“Ooh,” Abigail squealed, playfully. “I got slobbered on.”
Nease laughed.
“Here, you’ll always see animals,” Nease promised. “You can have a personal relationship with them. And, to be able to touch a zebra and have a baby zebra come up to you? I think it’s extremely exciting.”

IF YOU GO: BACKYARD SAFARIS

BRIARWOOD RANCH
Where: Bybee, Tenn.
Admission: $12 for adults and $8 for children (for drive-thru); or $17 for adults, $14 for seniors and $12 for children (guided wagon rides). Group rates available.
Directions: From Bristol, follow I-81 south for about 65 miles to Tennessee Exit 12 at Morristown.
Turn left and go south for 5.2 miles on State Route 160. Then turn left on Briar Thicket Road and go a half mile to the Briarwood Ranch, on both sides of the road.
Travel time from Bristol: 1 hour and 15 minutes
Info: (865) 919-5072
Web: www.briarwoodranch.com

FORT CHISWELL ANIMAL PARK
Where: Fort Chiswell, Va.
Admission: $10 for adults and $8 for children for group bus tours
Directions: From Bristol, follow I-81 north for about 75 miles to Virginia Exit 80 at Fort Chiswell.
Turn right on U.S. 52 and go south for about 2.5 miles Then turn left on Red Hollow Road and go about one mile to the Fort Chiswell Animal Park, on the right.
Travel time from Bristol: 1 hour and 15 minutes
Info: (276) 637-6754
Web: www.fortchiswellanimalpark.com