Animal Instincts
Don’t assume that the only way to get up-close and personal with wild animals in ever-moreurban Atlanta is to hunt down a group of Georgia Tech frat boys devouring late-night chili dogs at The Varsity drive-in. Some of the city’s newest attractions offer intimate experiences with wildlife that isn’t of the Animal House variety. At these attractions, you’ll have neither glass partitions nor large crowds — just pure, unadulterated contact with pandas, beluga whales and great horned owls. So make like a Southern Jack Hanna and enjoy some face time with Atlanta’s coolest creatures
Beluga and Friends
Sart your safari at the Georgia Aquarium (www.georgiaaquarium.org), where a new experience called Beluga and Friends ($225) lets you tiptoe to the edge of a million-gallon pool, better known as the “home” of four of the country’s 32 captive beluga whales. Hang onto your wet suit (on loan from the aquarium), because you’re about to get waist-deep in the 56-degree water — nice and balmy to belugas, but freaking cold to humans. It’s a good thing aquarium visitors can only see the massive white creatures swimming near the bottom and not teeny you all the way at the top of the pool, because otherwise they’d notice you squealing like a fifth-grader when a 1,700-pound beluga named Beethoven swims over. Once you’ve pulled yourself together, the trainer will show you how to howl until Beethoven begins to chirp out of his blowhole: you’ll then reward him with herring for “talking” to you. Now that you’ve won his heart, you can spin in a circle and he’ll spin in a circle, hug him and he’ll smile, splash him and he’ll spit in your face (hey, you got what was coming).
“People want to experience the life of a trainer,” says Billy Hurley, the aquarium’s chief zoological officer. “There’s a tremendous desire to get close to these animals.”
Not to be outdone by the meet-and-greet at the city’s new aquatic Shangri-La, long-time family fave Zoo Atlanta (www.zooatlanta.org) recently rolled out a new program called Wild Encounters, ($100) during which one cool Benjamin will take you where few zoo guests have gone before. Climb to the top of the giraffe exhibit and go eyeball-to-eyeball with those long-necked creatures. Feed a hunk of meat to a salivating lion with a pair of tongs (don’t worry, he’s used to them shaking). Go behind the ropes to meet the zoo’s giant pandas, the likes of which can only be found in three other zoos in the country.
“We let you get really, really close to [the pandas],” says zookeeper Jen Webb.
How close, you ask? Picture this — you’re inside the building that serves as the pandas’ den, which none of the other zoo guests can see. Yang Yang, the zoo’s patriarch panda, rises to his full, five-foot height, grips the bars separating him from you and starts bleating like a goat for a treat. You take a slice of sweet potato, stick your hand between the bars and place the orange circle inside his mouth — right between his 2-inch canines. He chews it, looks you in the eye and bleats for more. Keep the food coming, but don’t forget: There’s a zookeeper in the den, and it’s not you. “We’ve had guests come in and try to give the pandas training commands,” laughs zookeeper Heather Roberts. “We’re like, ‘Please don’t confuse them!’”
Fancy yourself a bit of a night owl, with your wild side not coming out ’til well after zoos and aquariums have shuttered their gates? On the banks of the Chattahoochee River, folks at the Chattahoochee Nature Center (www.chattnaturecenter.org) stage Night Hikes ($10) for those who want to roam the wetlands when the sun goes down. Naturalist Eve Neumeister leads a lot of these hikes, and she isn’t afraid to march into the woods, whacking away sticky spider webs and pointing out pairs of glowing eyes in the distance. This is a kid-friendly attraction, which means she won’t intentionally lead you toward a fox’s den. In fact, many times the wildest creatures you’ll come across won’t be the ones you see, but the ones you hear, like great horned owls calling for mates or coyotes howling in the distance. “Being out here in the night is a sensory experience,” Neumeister says. So if you feel an opossum scamper across your foot, consider it part of the fun. And since taste is one of your senses, it’s only fair that you stimulate that one, too — which is why you’ll pig out at a marshmallow roast after your hike.
During all of this, though, remember that while you’re not really Jack Hanna, these animals are real wildlife. So behave and be respectful, or you might be sent to sit with the chili dog eaters.
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