Animal Experiences
Wild Wonders is a private wild animal refuge where you can book an up close and Animal Experience featuring many of our animal ambassadors. Experiences are by appointment only.
Please click the button below to read our Updated COVID guidelines.
If you have pre-paid for your Experience and just need to book a date and time, click here for a reservation request.
Using a Wild Wonders gift certificate? Chose your Experience below and you’ll be asked for the gift certificate number at check-out.
Celebration VIP Behind the Scenes Tours
Whether you’re celebrating a birthday, an anniversary, a graduation, or just that it’s Tuesday, bring a picnic to Wild Wonders and let us make it a memorable occasion with our Celebration VIP Behind the Scenes Tour!
You’ll meet and interact with many of our animal ambassadors on this special tour and we’ll bring out a special animal just for your group. And after your keeper / educator has enthralled you with our animals and the important roles they play on our planet, enjoy your snack or meal at either our African Safari Tent or our Cheetah Viewing Deck.
Duration: About 90 minutes (60 minutes for tour, 30 minutes for snack)
Age Requirement: 5 YEARS OR OLDER.
Price: $285 for a group of 1 – 4 people on weekdays; $315 on weekends. Additional guests ages 12+: $30. Additional guests ages 5-11: $15
Offered: Any day of the week at 11AM and 1PM
Additional important information:
- Because we are a private facility, our bathrooms are only for our staff and volunteers.
- Remember to bring everything you’ll need for your lunch (plates, napkins, food storage bags, etc).
- Due to USDA restrictions, we cannot store your food in the same refrigerators that store food for our animals. If you have something that needs to be refrigerated, please pack enough ice in your cooler to keep it fresh.
- We ask that you pack out your trash.
Meet and Greet a Cheetah
Imagine standing close to a cheetah! In this Animal Experience, we’ll bring one of our cheetahs out of its habitat on a leash.
FEDERAL LAW PROHIBITS ANY PHYSICAL INTERACTION WITH CHEETAHS, but you’ll still be awed by being so close. Our keepers will share personal information about our cheetahs, and you’ll learn about conservation efforts of organizations in Africa to preserve this most endangered cat. Following this amazing experience, you’ll have an engaging and interactive tour of Wild Wonders where you’ll get up close and personal with other ambassadors. Call or email us if you have further questions!
Check here to see a chronicle of the first few months of Tavi, our youngest cheetah.
Meet and Greet a Cheetah includes the Behind the Scenes tour of our 5-acre facility with even more animal encounters
Duration: About 90 minutes
Age requirement: 12 YEARS OR OLDER
Price: $395 for a group of 1 – 4 people on weekdays; $425 on weekends. Additional guests ages 12+: $50.
Offered: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday at 9AM
Picnic option available. Click here to learn more
We met Victor the cheetah and he was gorgeous!. … This is a must see!
–ja
Learn more about our cheetah conservation partners
Meet and Feed a Bearcat
Binturongs, also known as Bearcats, love fruit, and you’ll get to give them some of their favorite treats like grapes or banana slices. You’ll also be able to touch their long dark fur. Our partner, Arctictus Binturong Conservation, has several programs underway in Southeast Asia to help these threatened animals survive as their habitat is destroyed by deforestation. Following your Bearcat feeding, you’ll get an engaging and interactive tour of Wild Wonders where you’ll get close and personal with other ambassadors. Call or email us if you have further questions!
IMPORTANT NOTE: Although most of our enclosures are accessible by wheelchairs, steps are required to access the Bearcat habitat.
Meet and Feed a Bearcat includes the Behind the Scenes tour of our 5-acre facility with even more animal encounters
Duration: About 90 minutes
Age requirement: 5 YEARS OR OLDER
Price: $285 for a group of 1 – 4 people on weekdays; $315 on weekends. Additional guests ages 12+: $50. Additional guests ages 5-11: $25
Offered: Any day of the week between 9AM and 1PM
Picnic option available. Click here to learn more
Meet our bearcats here
We did the Binturong feeding tour, and it was amazing! We met so many animals and our tour guide, Michelle, was just the best. We’ll definitely be going back for other tours in the future!
— ew
Great experience feeding the bearcat. Second time my husband and I did it and would do it again
— k
Learn more about our Binturong conservation partner
Wallaby Walkabout
Three Bennett’s Wallabies call Wild Wonders home: Piper, “Taz”, and Kiki. In our Wallaby Walkabout Animal Experience, our keeper / educator will accompany you to a bench in their habitat area. They may be shy at first, but given a little time they’ll be very interested in their favorite treats which you and the keeper will have. You’ll also encounter their friends and habitat mates: 3 Patagonian Cavies, Chui, Chalupa, and Chico. With Piper and the Cavies cavorting around their home turf, a “hoppy” time will be had by all! Be sure to wear closed-toes shoes for this encounter. Wallabies are very sensitive to disease, and to help us keep them healthy, you’ll need to dip the bottoms of your shoes into the exterior disinfectant footbath before entering. Call or email us if you have further questions!
Wallaby Walkabout includes the Behind the Scenes tour of our 5-acre facility with even more animal encounters
Duration: About 90 minutes
Age requirement: 5 YEARS OR OLDER
Price: $285 for a group of 1 – 4 people on weekdays; $315 on weekends
Additional guests ages 12+: $50. Additional guests ages 5-11: $25
Offered: Any day of the week between 9AM and 1PM Picnic option available. Click here to learn more
Meet our wallabies here
Fennec Foxes and Friends
Fennec foxes may be the smallest foxes in the canid family, but they are the largest in the cuteness department! If you don’t think so now, you definitely will after this encounter! How can you not love this little face?
Weighing in at less than 4 pounds, these little omnivores are on the move all the time. In the Fennec Fox and Friends Animal Experience you’ll interact with our little guys, feed them some treats, and give them their behavioral enrichment. And you’ll learn where they come from and why they have such big ears.
Call or email us if you have further questions!
Fennec Fox and Friends includes the Behind the Scenes tour of our 5-acre facility with even more animal encounters
Duration: About 90 minutes
Age requirement: 5 YEARS OR OLDER
Price: $285 for a group of 1 – 4 people on weekdays; $315 on weekends
Additional guests ages 12+: $50. Additional guests ages 5-11: $25
Offered: Any day of the week at 10AM
Picnic option available. Click here to learn more
Meet our Fennec Foxes here
Cat Education 101
Fascinated by felines? Servals, like Sabi on the left, have the longest legs for their size of any predator, which enables them to jump high in the air to capture birds. Siberian Lynx, like young Tashi on the right, are also adept at jumping and have those wonderful tufts of hair on her ears.
In the Cat Education 101 Animal Experience you will accompany one of our keepers to their exercise habitat where you will safely watch them work with one of these animals. What looks like “play” and “fun” is actually exercise, and very importantly building a bond with our keepers. The trust we build with them enables us to avoid sedation for minor things like vaccines and nail trims.
You’ll also learn about the interesting Lynx re-introduction program in Scotland which will bring back the Eurasian lynx after almost 700 years!
Call or email us if you have further questions!
Cat Education 101 includes the Behind the Scenes tour of our 5-acre facility with even more animal encounters
Duration: About 90 minutes
Age requirement: 5 YEARS OR OLDER
Price: $285 for a group of 1 – 4 people on weekdays; $315 on weekends
Additional guests ages 12+: $50. Additional guests ages 5-11: $25
Offered: Any day of the week between 9AM and 1PM
Picnic option available. Click here to learn more
All About Cats
Fascinated by felines? At Wild Wonders, we certainly are!
You’ll begin your Experience with a snack on our cheetah observation deck, where you’ll see one of our adult cheetahs enjoying his or her time in the yard.
Then:
- You’ll watch separate training sessions with Tashi (a lynx) and with Sabi (a serval). And, you’ll create some of their behavior enrichment treats and watch them as your guide gives them to the cats.
- And you’ll see Tavi, our cheetah cub and Yarra, Tavi’s golden Labrador BFF enjoying their time in the Cat exercise yard.
- And, although not a true “cat”, you’ll meet our bearcats.
All About Cats does not include a complete tour of Wild Wonders, but at the end of your Experience, you’ll adjourn to our shaded pergola area where you’ll get up close and personal with some of our smaller animals.
As a souvenir of your visit, you’ll receive a small “pawtograph” created by Sabi.
Duration: About 90 minutes
Age requirement: 12 YEARS OR OLDER
Price: $450 for a group of 1 – 4 people. Additional guests ages 12+: $50.
Offered: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 9AM and 11AM
Picnic option available. Click here to learn more
Winged Wonders
Parrots are certainly some of the most colorful, playful, intelligent, and full of personality birds around. In this experience you’ll meet and get up close and personal with beautiful Blue and Gold Macaws and Sun Conures. Learn all about their habitats in Central and South America, what makes them successful there, and watch them in free flight! You’ll have plenty of interaction with these engaging birds, and lots of great photo ops. This really is a special treat for bird lovers of all ages.
Winged Wonders includes the Behind the Scenes tour of our 5-acre facility with even more animal encounters
Duration: About 90 minutes
Age requirement: 5 YEARS OR OLDER
Price: $395 for a group of 1 – 4 people on weekdays; $425 on weekends. Additional guests ages 12+: $50. Additional guests ages 5-11: $25
Offered: EVERY DAY at 9AM
Reptiles from Around the World
If you love reptiles, this unique Experience is for you! We have reptiles from South and Central America, Africa, Eurasia, and Australia / Asia, and you’ll have feeding and/or hands-on interaction with a variety of them.
This Experience is both indoors and outdoors. Our reptile room is home to iguanas, snakes, uromastyx, a legless lizard, a skink, and a cane toad. For their comfort, we keep it nice and warm and a bit humid. Outside, you’ll meet some of our tortoises and turtles (snappers and red sliders) and watch a training session with one of our alligators.
We offer this Experience only on feeding days, so this is not for squeamish people. Many of our larger reptiles receive whole prey that has been frozen and then defrosted, while the smaller ones get live mealworms or crickets.
Reptiles from Around the World includes the Behind the Scenes tour of our 5-acre facility with even more animal encounters
Duration: About 90 minutes
Age requirement: 5 YEARS OR OLDER
Price: $285 for a group of 1 – 4 people on weekdays; $315 on weekends
Additional guests ages 12+: $50. Additional guests ages 5-11: $25
Offered: Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday (Alligator feeding day), 9:30AM
YOUR Ultimate Animal Interaction Visit
Want to create your own CUSTOM visit? You can combine Animal Experiences to create a unique visit that you will never forget. .
Your private keeper / guide will greet you with a beverage and a snack, after which you’ll embark on your Wild Wonders safari where you’ll meet animals from all over the world. Call or email us if you have further questions!
Includes the Behind the Scenes tour of our facility with even more animal encounters
Duration: Depends on number of Experiences chosen; Could be up to 3 hours
Age requirement: See individual Experiences for minimum age requirements
Prices: $500 for a group of 1 – 4 people with Two Experiences on weekdays; $530 on weekends. Additional guests $50
$650 for a group of 1 – 4 people with Three Experiences on weekdays; $680 on weekends. Additional guests $50
$750 for a group of 1 – 4 people with Four Experiences on weekdays; $780 on weekends. Additional guests $50
Offered: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at 9AM and 11AM
Behind the Scenes Experience
Excellent visit- the docents are passionate, knowledgeable, and delightful. The animals are amazing!
–ar
Wild Wonders is a private wildlife education and conservation center on 5+ acres in Bonsall, CA. We have about 120 animals from all over the world. Your “Behind the Scenes” Animal Experience will be led by one of our professional keeper / educators. During your private tour, you will meet up close and personal with some amazing animal ambassadors, including our ring-tailed coatis (see video nearby). Your Behind the Scenes Experience promises to be interactive, educational, and fun.
Duration: About 60 minutes
Age Requirement: 5 YEARS OR OLDER
Price: $195 for a group of 1 – 4 people on weekdays; $225 on weekends. Additional guests ages 12+: $30. Additional guests ages 5-11: $15.
Offered: Any day of the week at 10AM and 1PM
Please Note: You will NOT be admitted for an animal experience without a written confirmation from Wild Wonders.
Please try to schedule your tour a minimum of one week in advance.
NOTE: Every Animal Experience benefits the animals at Wild Wonders and our global conservation partners. THANK YOU!