UPDATE: Since I originally wrote this post, the Wild Animal Sanctuary has made SIGNIFICANT changes to its visiting policy and admission policy and costs. Please read their Visit The Sanctuary page on their website before visiting!

Tigers in Colorado?  Why yes, as a matter of fact there are.  Rescued tigers, that is.

The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colorado, just a short 45-minute drive from both Denver and Boulder, is home to over 300 animals, primarily large carnivores that were rescued from terrible and sometimes outright horrifying conditions.  Where humans once failed or neglected or tortured these animals, the sanctuary has rescued them and given them respite with acres of natural habitat to roam freely for the rest of their lives.

“Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!”

The sanctuary houses a wide array of animals.  There are large cats, including tigers, lions, leopards, mountain lions, servals, bobcats, and lynx, as well as several different types of wolves and bears.  In addition, there are a variety of other animals, including alpacas, camels, ostriches, and emus.

These animals come from many different places, but all have been rescued, sometimes from terrible situations.  A few examples:

• Eight lions that were kept in a 6’ x 12’ cage (all of them in that one cage!) as part of a circus in Bolivia
• Two tigers who spent their first five years living in a horse trailer, and two more tigers who lived in airline crates in the back seat of their “owner’s” car while he used them to make money by charging tourists to take pictures with the young tigers
• Two grizzly bears who were rescued from a taxidermist who had raised the bears for the purpose of eventually killing them and stuffing them to sell as trophies
• A mountain lion that was owned by a family that hit her on the side of the head with a baseball bat because she was more than they could handle as a pet

There are many more stories, some of them heart-breaking.  But all the animals at the sanctuary will remain there for the rest of their lives, receiving medical treatment and care, plenty of food, friends, and room to roam.

What to expect when you visit

Once you park, you enter the sanctuary through the visitor’s center.  Closer to the visitor’s center, you will see animals in smaller enclosures, sometimes a little more typical of the size you would expect of a zoo.  These are transitional areas for animals when they come to the sanctuary.  This allows the animals to recuperate from any injuries or illness they may have suffered prior to coming to the sanctuary as well as to get used to their new surroundings, to other animals, and to the group that they will eventually join.  Some animals have come together in groups from other situations, but some animals have been alone all their lives and may not have even seen other animals or felt grass beneath their feet.  These transitional areas are safe places to begin to understand their new world.

Past these areas, the sanctuary opens up into acres of natural habit.  Each species has its own habitat, sometimes multiple habitats per species.  The smaller habitats are about three acres and range in size up to 25 acres, depending on the size and number of animals in the group.  The animals roam freely through their habitats and have numerous enrichment areas and natural features, such as a pool and water toys for the tigers (tigers are one of the only big cats that love water), and long tunnels and dens for the bears where they can retreat and hibernate as they wish.  Each habitat provides the animals with the things they need to engage in natural behaviors and to roam freely without human interference.

The sanctuary has a unique elevated walkway that that has been dubbed “The Mile into the Wild.”  The walkway is about 30 feet high (9 meters) and, as the name suggests, almost a mile long (1.5 kilometers).  The walkway traverses about 300 acres of animal habitats, just under half of the 720 total acres of the sanctuary.  (The sanctuary plans to extend the walkway as more habitats are developed.)  As you travel over the walkway, you will see the large free-roaming habitats of many of the animals, including tigers, lions, wolves, servals, and bears.

The walkway connects the main visitor’s center to the Bolivian lion house, which was constructed in 2011 as a transitional housing area for a large group of African lions that were rescued from Bolivia after the country passed a law barring circuses from using animals (hooray!).  While most circuses found new homes for their animals within the year they were allotted after the law passed, a few circuses did not, and as a result, the Wild Animal Sanctuary stepped in and rescued 25 lions, bringing them back to Colorado in one of the largest rescues of its kind.  The lion house originally served as transitional housing for the lions who arrived at the sanctuary in February of 2011, as the lions went from Bolivian summer to harsh Colorado winter within a 24-hour period and needed time to transition to weather as well as to recover from the medical treatments that were necessary to help them recover from the neglect, abuse, and malnutrition that they had suffered through as circus performers.

The lions are now free to roam their large habitat, but they still frequent the lion house, coming and going as they please.  In the lion house, the walkway widens to a large sitting area where you can see the lions from above while you enjoy a snack from the snack bar and check out videos about the sanctuary.  If you’re lucky, as we were on our visit, you may get to hear lions roar from below – a truly amazing sound.

Things to know before you go

UPDATE: Since I originally wrote this post, the Wild Animal Sanctuary has made SIGNIFICANT changes to its visiting policy and admission policy and costs. Please read their Visit The Sanctuary page on their website before visiting!

The Wild Animal Sanctuary is open to visit every day of the year (with the exception of New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas) from 9 a.m. until sunset.  Of course, check the website to verify current hours of operation and admission costs. 

(Bonus for the financially savvy types: The sanctuary is a registered non-profit organization, so your entrance fees are a charitable deduction for those of you who itemize that type of thing on your taxes.)

Plan to spend two to three hours there.  We went toward the end of the day and spent almost two hours there.  We could easily have spent another hour meandering back, not necessarily because it took that long to get back, but because we wanted to take our time seeing all the beautiful and majestic animals again.

All visitors must be off the property by sunset, per regulations, and the staff is diligent about herding visitors back accordingly.  (Again, check the website for the specific closing time, as it is based on the time of sunset.) The animals do seem to get a little more active later in the day, which is fun to see, but give yourself enough time to fully enjoy the experience.

There is a gift shop at the visitor’s center where you enter that has lots of goodies and souvenirs, and there is a snack bar in the lion house at the end of the walkway where you can sit and eat and check out some videos about the sanctuary and various rescues that they’ve done.  You can also bring your own food and drink and enjoy a little picnic in the sitting area there, as well, if you feel so inclined.

I would recommend bringing binoculars for good measure if you want to see things up close and/or your fancy zoom lens for your camera to get pictures that do the animals justice.  (A huge thank you and shout out to my brother, Bob Gjestvang, for the beautiful photos that he took on our visit and for allowing me to share them here.)  While the aerial walkway allows for beautiful viewing of the animals in a natural setting, you may not get the amazing photos you would like by just using your camera phone.  The habitats range in size up to 25 acres each, so plan your photographic expedition accordingly.

The sanctuary is a great way to see exotic animals without the cruelty of circus life and cramped confinement that is common in zoos.  It has given all of its residents a new lease on life.  And that’s work worth supporting.