The ranch has been in the Soechting family more than 100 years, and the safari park is not only Texas' oldest but its most visited safari park. More than 50 species from every continent but Antarctica call the park home, with around 500 animals roaming the scenic hill country land north of New Braunfels at 26515 Natural Bridge Caverns Road. Visitors receive a bag of tasty (to the foreign but friendly mammals) alfalfa pellets to pour out car windows for the appreciative exotic residents. (In the past, visitors had been provided cups of feed, but some of the more aggressive species took to knocking cups out of hands for a quick chow-down.)

African addax, miniature Sicilian donkeys and Indian black buck antelope will come right up to your car for the proffered food. Perhaps one of the stately African ostriches will grace you with his mating ritual, planting himself in front of your car while fanning his feathers and puffing himself to huge proportions. (Check out his white wing tips. If they're sparse, he's at the low end of the "pecking order" and has had his white feathers pecked off by more dominant birds.)

A few of the species are confined in easily viewed areas. These include the South American jaguar (who would consider the other inhabitants personal snacks), the long-legged family of giraffes, and Bertha and Goliath, a pair of 4,000-pound, endangered white rhinoceroses. (Trivia fact: The rhino's horns aren't horns at all but hair-like tissue matted together.)

There are zebras, camels, springbok, gazelles, antelopes and cute wallabies, carrying pouched young who are born the size of lima beans and automatically crawl out of the birth canal and into mama's handy pocket. On the "native American" end of the mammal spectrum are the shaggy buffalo (loves to be fed, but has strong breath) and Texas longhorns, a cross between cattle breeds brought over from Spain and England.

Near the Visitors Center, with its nature-oriented gift shop and snack bar, is a petting zoo where youngsters can play with African pygmy goats, baby llamas and fallow deer. There are also primate cages nearby housing a variety of exotic and highly endangered lemurs. (Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch is known for its successful endangered species breeding programs, ensuring the continuation of animals who might otherwise become extinct.)

So if you want to eyeball an emu, ogle an oryx or nourish a gnu, swing by this natural wonderland, just minutes from San Antonio out I-35 West. It's a ride on the "wild" side you won't soon forget.

Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, 36515 Natural Bridge Caverns Road (off I-35, between San Antonio adn New Braunfels), 830.438.7400

Open daily, 9 am - 5 pm
Adults: $9.50
65 - plus: $8
3 - 11 years: $6