South Carolina's wild wonder land Special

Columbia - Tucked away on the southern side of Columbia South Carolina is Riverbanks Zoo and Garden. It stands just a few miles outside of the heart of Columbia.

You can almost see the state Capitol building from the front gates of the zoo and depending how you come and go you will almost certainly pass by domed building. Nestled just outside of downtown Columbia is the state of South Carolina's zoo called Riverbanks Zoo and Garden. It was named such because it sits on the Saluda River right before it merges with the Broad River. The Saluda River actually cuts through the middle separating the zoo on one side and the botanical garden on the other. Visitors to the zoo will find an easy to follow layout with well defined maps of the various animal locations. Most of the exhibits are outdoors so the animals appear in more of a natural habitat. There is a flamingo exhibit that will always ring true with this writer's family as my daughter's shoe was "pecked" by one of the birds, and not almost two years later she still claims to remember which bird was the culprit.

Michael Bearak

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What is really nice about this zoo is there is the chance to feed some animals, like the giraffe as well as other animals theater part of the "Riverbanks Farm." When you are ready to get out of the heat there is also a 3-D theater with animal related movies running at various times. Still there are more unique things to this zoo, besides the animals there are exhibits that all visitors to enter the environment of the animals. The most obvious is the kangaroo exhibit which is outdoors, with and attendant, but visitors stay on a path while the roos hop amongst us. The keepers are quick to point out that visitors are not to touch or feed the kangaroos as they still are wild animals, but as you walk along this 20 yard path the kangaroos will check out their visitors. The same can be said for the "Galapgos Tortoise" exhibit. While visitors can't walk amongst them, the only thing separating the visitors and the tortoises are wooden posts. Here too the tortoises walk right up to the people, not scared, or shy. At designated times visitors can even watch their feeding.

Michael Bearak

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Some of the activities that might be considered outside of the normal include a carousel, climbing wall, pony rides, train rides, and a play area with slides. While some of these extra activities do cost money, parents are allowed to ride the carousel for free as long as they are with a small child who pays $2. It shouldn't be forgotten too that there are the typical lions, hyenas, elephants, and tigers too. These animals outline the parameter of the park for visitors with elevated lookouts to see the various animals. With the gorillas, monkeys and "human like" animals you can view them from both the outside and inside. This allows visitors a chance to get different views of these animals in a natural like setting. When it comes time to go over to the gardens you can go one of three ways, you can drive around, take a tram or walk across a foot-bridge that spans across the Saluda River. There visitors will find an amphitheater, walled garden, a play garden, and a 2/10 mile woodlands walk. The woodlands walk is not accessible for either wheelchairs or strollers.

Michael Bearak

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The zoo and gardens span over 170 acres. While the zoo boasts to being home to over 2000 animals, they also represent more than 250 species from around the world. The gardens provide a home for more than 4,300 species of plants. It was also named one of America's top 20 botanical gardens by HGTV as well as one of the 10 gardens that inspire by Horticulture magazine. The zoo is open daily except for Thanksgiving day and Christmas day, which provides for some special events as well. They decorate for Christmas every year with an evening lights display called "Lights Before Christmas." They have summer camps for children called, "Wild Weeks." For the adults they offer an "Oktoberfestival" that highlights beers from around the world as well as wine tastings. All of this and more can be found on their website at [url=http://www.riverbanks.org]www.riverbanks.org. Also if you are a member of another zoo in many cases they will allow you to visit on that membership.