February 27, 2022

NATURAL BRIDGE WILDLIFE RANCH

26515 Natural Bridge Caverns Rd, San Antonio, TX 78266

“Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch is an "African Safari, Texas-Style." The ranch is a Texas Land Heritage Property, recognized and certified by the State of Texas for being used for agriculture by the same family for over 100 years.” -  Wikipedia

When I saw this drive-thru wildlife ranch I decided I wanted to experience it.  I was impressed with Lion Country Safari in Florida so I wanted to see if this experience would be just as rewarding.  I will put some comparison thoughts at the end of this report.

The ranch boasts over 500 animals from 40 different species.  Most are ungulates, meaning they have hooves, which is pretty understandable.  The animals all looked healthy and relaxed; most didn’t seem to be bothered by the cars driving by.  Because several species share the same habitat at the ranch it is sometimes difficult differentiate some animals, for example telling a Gemsbok from an Oryx, but it was fun seeing all the different species even if I didn’t know exactly what I was looking at.  The approximate six-mile loop through the park gave ample opportunities for photographs, though the traffic sometimes made it slow-going through the ranch.  After driving the loop one can park and visit the “Walk-A-Bout” where you’ll find some monkeys, lemurs, and some other creatures.  I only did a brief tour of that area because I wanted to drive through the main ranch area again and it was getting close to closing time.

The biggest difference between the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch and Lion Country Safari was the ability to have your vehicle windows open here at the Ranch, which also allows the feeding the animals.  In my opinion this was both a blessing and a curse.  Windows open meant clearer photography shots (though I did have my window down a few times at Lion Country).  The curse, when animals get food from cars, they learn to crowd the road, sometimes blocking traffic begging for food.  This caused traffic jams (explaining the Ranch’s suggestion of 1.5 hours to drive through the Ranch), and made it difficult to get a good photo of an animal standing next to your vehicle.  The ranch sells food for the animals, hawking it as you pay your admission.  The attendant stressed that I was to feed the animals by throwing the food on the ground and not feeding them from my hand.  I found it sad the number of people I saw coaxing animals to their car windows trying to feed them out of their hand.  I audibly gasped when an ostrich chomped onto and shook a young boy’s hand who was hanging out the window of the car in front of me trying to give it food.  It is sad people can’t follow directions.

Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch is a good way to spend an afternoon looking at exotic animals.  However, if looking for diversity in the animals you might be better off going to a zoo. (Side Note: after visiting the San Antonio Zoo, the Wildlife Ranch is a great companion as only a few of the animal species are duplicated at the two parks.)