Friday, June 24, 2011

#190: The Wildlife Learning Center


Up the 405 on the outskirts of a sleepy Sylmar suburb are six of the most adorable porcupines you will ever meet. Adorable? Porcupines? You heard me. In my opinion, porcupines have gotten a bad rap. I think it stems from the rumor that they can shoot out their quills (False, by the way). One trip to the Wildlife Learning Center, though, and I guarantee that you will fall head over heels in love with the prickly little critters. Aww, just look at this guy:

wax on, wax off

The WLC is an animal lover's dream come true. Here are some of the things you can do during your visit:

pet a darling fennec fox


feel the cool scales of a snake around your shoulders


come face to face with a sleepy-eyed sloth

feed a porcupine (his name is Walter, and he will melt your heart)

hold a tawny owl

pet a nervous prairie dog

get up close and personal with a serval wildcat

The Wildlife Learning Center offers three tours. We opted for the 1-on-1 Animal Experience, a 1.5 hour tour which was led by a friendly WLC biologist. The tour costs $100 for the whole group and can accommodate up to four people. We brought along our friends Christine and Adam, which made it an even $25 per person.


The center also sells general admission tickets for $6 ($5 for children and seniors, kids under 2 free), but I would highly recommend paying the extra money for a tour, which ranges from $10 to $25 per person. With general admission, you can only admire the animals outside of their cages, whereas on the tours you can go into their enclosures.


The WLC houses over 70 different species of rescued and zoo-born wildlife and provides outreach programs for the public. They are even available for birthday parties!

Have you been to the Wildlife Learning Center? What did you think of it? Leave me a comment below!




8 comments:

  1. Susan I. GoldsteinJuly 15, 2011 at 2:05 PM

    Fabulous pictures and really cool animals. Keep up the great work.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow! Looks like fun. Thank you for sharing your pictures

    ReplyDelete
  3. We cannot wait to visit! What cool looking animals.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is amazing, looks much fun and also knowledge about the wildlife.

    ReplyDelete
  5. We visited this place with our 4 and 7 year olds. It was a wonderful experience. My daughters were so scared of any moving creatures until this day. After we finished one full round, my daughters asked, if they could pet the Prairie Dogs or the Fox, which was a sign of the change that came within them. I am happy for them. The entry fee is very negligible, but there is a fee for petting or dining with any of the animals, which again, goes towards the maintenance of these animals, so no complaints, but only praises for the works they do. I would have joined as a volunteer, if the driving distance was less than 30 minutes, but I have to drive an hour, one way.

    I got the inspiration to visit, after reading this wonderful Blog.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Gladson Jacob: Thank you for your comment! I was so happy reading about the positive change in your children. It's a wonderful place, isn't it? :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi there, do you know if they changed their pricing / tours? I can't seem to find the 1-on-1 tour for $100 that you mentioned in this post. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hey Anonymous, I just check out their site again and it's called the Zoofari Tour. Here's the link to the pdf:
    http://www.wildlifelearningcenter.com/pdf/WLCVisitorTourInfo.pdf
    On their website it's listed under "onsite private tours" under the "visit the center" tab. Looks like they increased their prices though from $100 to $190.

    ReplyDelete