What Did the Giraffe Say?

A few weeks back I was working on one of my regular clients and, as I was cutting her hair, she was telling me about a zoo that she and her husband had visited. She was all excited showing me pictures and videos of her feeding giraffes, birds, and other animals. I was intrigued and had been looking for something different to do. So, I told Ash all about it and we drug our husbands to Kingwood, WV to Hovatter’s Wildlife Zoo.

On the way, we drove through a beautiful canopy of trees on some windy roads before we hit the small gravel road that took us to the zoo. It isn’t a large zoo like The Pittsburgh Zoo or zoos located in other big cities. It is very small, but has so much to see! It doesn’t take much time to walk from one exhibit to the next so, it was perfect for a hot summer day! It also isn’t crowded; it’s a more laid-back environment that allows you to get a close-up look at each and every animal and spend as much time at each as you’d like.

Upon arriving, we walked into this little shop where we paid our admission ($12 for adults) and bought our feed. I would recommend getting the variety bag of food so you can feed all the animals (it costs around $8.50 and it lasted us the entire trip). In our bag we got a variety of food for the different types of animals (carrots, granola bars, pellets, popcorn, etc.). While we were paying, I caught the eye of a baby miniature potbelly pig, and I was so excited because they allowed me to hold it. Sadly, I couldn’t convince Timmy to let me bring it home with us.

Walking out the door to go into the zoo, the very first thing you see are monkeys to the direct right. I ran up and gave them a treat while Ashley made a beeline to the giraffes! It didn’t take me long to catch up, as I could see giraffes taking carrots from peoples’ hands just a few yards in front of me. Along the way, we passed a few baby goats and lambs who “baa’d” for our attention. I finally made it to the giraffes and suddenly realized how small I am standing next to this beautiful and large creature. I pulled out a carrot, raised my hand above my head, and the next thing I knew, a tongue about a foot long was coming after me! Needless to say, Ash and I were full of smiles and laughs as the Brillo-pad-textured tongues wrapped around our carrots. The guys even enjoyed feeding them! So many small children were loving every minute of these gentle giants, too!

We then made our way to the other animals. My second favorite thing to do was hang out in the bird cage. Ash didn’t care so much for this one (she was a little scared lol), but I hung out there for a few minutes. In the feed bag we purchased there were sticks that were covered in birdseed; the birds perched on the sticks and pecked away at the seed. At one point, I was completely covered in birds. They were beautiful!

We continued walking the paths leading us to different animals. Timmy and Richie enjoyed feeding the emus popcorn (eating the popcorn is not recommended; Timmy learned that the hard way… haha!) We made our way to the llamas and we quickly made friends with them. They enjoyed eating the little nuggets that were in the food bag and would follow us up and down the fence line begging for more.

At the bottom of the hill, we got to meet a mountain goat who was particularly fond of us and a longhorn bull who almost whacked me in the head with his horns! We fed little goats and some elk! We got to see a gator and some weird type of deer! On our way around the corner we spotted a family of monkeys, you know the ones with the bare butts? The four of us stood there while Richie tossed a few nuggets their way. Ash and I were talking to them in the voices we usually use to talk to Stella and Charlie. The momma monkey didn’t like that at all. She started screaming and showing us her fangs! She even jumped on the side of the cage and started shaking the bars. The zookeeper came over and explained that she was extremely protective of her young. He was very educated about her and all of the other animals there.

We finished making our rounds and discovered we had a few more things left in our feed bag. We took a walk back up to where the big brown bear was and fed him some Nature Valley granola bar (another item in the food bag) and he loved it. We were told by another visitor if you wave your hand up and down that the bear will open his mouth for you! So we gave it a try; sure enough he had his mouth wide open waiting for his granola treat!

We decided we needed to go back to the giraffes just one more time to say our goodbyes, they were definitely our favorites.

They are always having awesome things like car shows and other activities at the Hovatter’s Wildlife Zoo. You can follow them on Facebook to see what they are all up to! This is a must-see if you have children. We learned so much and you can tell the animals are very well taken care of. I can’t wait to go back! A suggestion would be to visit on a cooler day; it was in the 70s the day we visited, so the animals were pretty active! If it’s too hot out, the animals don’t move around much. West Virginia is a quick drive for us. Where we are located in SWPA, we can get to WV in 15 minutes! This was about a 50-minute drive for us, but totally worth it! If you’re in the area, skip the Pittsburgh Zoo next time and check out this hidden little gem.<3