Conservator's Center Through Odie's Eyes

Happy Sunday everyone. I want to first thank my friend Kathiey who introduced Linda & I to the Conservators' Center north of Mebane, NC. If you haven't visited Kathiey please do and I promise you will be glad you did.

It was a picture perfect day to visit the center and we had a 3 PM appointment for a guided tour. The only negative to this tour if there could be one was that some of the animals they really wanted us to see were taking a nap but there are so many to see that we were not so disappointed.

Not only do they have beautiful animals but also have gorgeous flowers as well.

These are their wolves that were also cooling it in the shade.

Such a magnificent animal and surly one of my favorites.

Partner to the Tiger you just saw is this lioness who is very special to the people at the center. When she was very young her father sat on her injuring her hip so she walks with a little difficulty but otherwise is doing quite well.

One of the animals that I wish you could see better is the wonderful white tiger that has his on label on a wine at the Iron Gate Winery near Burlington, has his own facebook page with many friends and actually has an owner that comes to visit bringing him turkey legs as a treat. Speaking about food, the center uses about 500 lbs of meat a day to feed all the animals. Fortunately they have made friends with hunters in the area that bring them many deer and farmers help them with chickens as well.

Learned a great lesson from our tour guide, Adeline. If you are near a lion that is backed up to a fence and raises his tail, beware, he can spray a stream about 12 to 15 feet. I saw this beautiful gentleman do it from a distance.

One of the snoozing tigers

This tiger never stopped pacing back and forth. He actually has his own large metal pool to get in and cool off. Tigers love water.

A lioness perched high on one of the many high points they love to rest on.

Isn't she pretty?

Along the trail and by the way that is Linda in the golf cart being driven around by one of the very nice center staff. She didn't want to press her luck trying to walk for 2 hours with her knee still healing.

This girl love guests and stayed near us rubbing against the fence.

This is one of my favorite animals at the center. A "Singing Dog" from New Guinea. They seem so friendly and look just like dogs you see all the time but there is a big difference. Their vocal cords have a split that allows them to make sounds like singing especially when they hear lions roar. Another difference is that if they were free to run and encountered a domesticated dog and a fight started the local dog would submit but the Singing Dog would never give up and would eventually kill the local dog.

Probably the cutest creature there is the ringtail lemur. Oddly, the boss of these two lemurs is the female and the male does exactly like she wants. If she wants something he has, he give it up with no complaint.

My first experience seeing a Serval which is a very cute cat.

Of course they have some items to take take home as a memory of the adventure and these are some of the stuffed toys.

Tee shirts were available in a variety of colors and sizes.

Also available were books and lovely pictures. We opted for a picture of the beautiful tiger to go on our wall to remind us of the wonderful center.
This shot was taken before our tour and is the meeting spot for right now. Just to the right is a nice building that is in the final stages of construction that will give visitors an air conditioned place to start the adventure, use restrooms and purchase treasures. For the present there is a porta pottie that you can see on the extreme left of the picture. This is a place to return to and we will.
Help support the center by booking a guided tour. Call 336-421-0065 for reservations. Go on google to check them out "Convervators' Center of NC". I plugged the address into my Garmin and it did say we were arriving on the left which was wrong but we continued a short distance down the road and saw the sign on the left so getting there will be so easy.