Experience an African Safari in Texas

Welcome to Dallas, Texas, and your adventures in travel to study animal sciences and learn about wildlife conservation in a unique environment! Transfer to your hotel, settle in and take some time to explore the local area. Your tour escort will meet you for dinner and share the exciting plans for the week — your stateside African Safari awaits you!

Head out to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center this morning, an 1,800-acre wildlife preserve devoted to the conservation of endangered and threatened animals. Their diverse mission and activities extend from helping people appreciate and care about the natural world to preserving endangered species and biodiversity to professional training in wildlife conservation to research and scientific investigations in related areas. Learn first-hand about their efforts while you are here!

Settle into your accommodations among the lovely views of Texas Hill Country and begin your immersion among over 1,000 animals and discover how the efforts made here on behalf of wildlife and the environment. Then take a safari through the preserve for an overview of some of the rare and endangered animals that make their home here and listen to their stories. A giraffe or an ostrich might check you out or if you’re lucky, perhaps you’ll see one of many cheetahs on the preserve.

Enjoy a delicious dinner under the Texas skies.

Spend the day behind the scenes in parts of the reserve normally off-limits during the regular safari. Take a safari into the Intensive Management Area where Mexican wolves, red wolves, cheetahs, maned wolves, and black rhinos roam freely. Learn from dedicated, hard-working animal care specialists, and ask any questions that pique your curiosity. Discover more about their captive breeding program to reintroduce endangered species back into the wild and their techniques to make those efforts successful. Discover the research going on and what you can do to make a difference for wildlife and the environment. Then enjoy a delicious dinner overlooking the busy watering hole where animals gather as dusk approaches. An enlightening and fun day!

Enjoy another delicious breakfast and view the morning wildlife from the observation deck looking out over the favorite watering hole. Then step away from the present and set out to walk in the steps of dinosaurs!

 Nearby is Dinosaur Valley State Park where some of the most well-preserved dinosaur tracks in the world are found. Walk in the river bed and step in the fossilized tracks of dinosaurs where they once walked over 100 million years ago. As you step in each print, experience a sense of wonder as you think back to that time long ago and the stories those tracks tell.

Hundreds of dinosaur prints can be found in the park’s 1,500 acres, and you can even follow them using specially created maps that you download on your GPS. While the tracks are still visible, now that they have been unearthed they will gradually disappear ─ but not forever. Learn about the elaborate mapping process to preserve them on a digital file. Hopefully, the water levels are low, so you will be able to see the tracks clearly. Join a ranger to hear the stories and discover the dinosaurs of the past and the wildlife that roams the area today.

With animals most active at dawn and dusk, take an early morning safari this morning to see who is up and about. Spend the morning on an exclusive photography safari to capture all the best spots and wildlife preservation in action.

As afternoon merges with your last evening here, enjoy the preserves’ nighttime beauty under the stars as you explore the park by vehicle and on foot after dark! Learn about nocturnal animals and see the nightlife of Fossil Rim Wildlife Center using spotlights. Cherish the sounds of the night as you reflect on your African Safari in Texas.

On your way driving back to Dallas today, you will route by way of McKinney, Texas, to the Heard Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary. With almost 300 acres, the sanctuary is devoted to restoring and maintaining habitat and wildlife so entire ecosystems can continue to thrive amidst expanding human development. Learn about their projects, techniques, and enormous efforts to save and preserve land that would otherwise be lost forever.

Enjoy hiking in the diverse habitat and notice the Blackland Prairie, the most endangered extensive ecosystem in North America. With a commitment to research, education, and community outreach, they also have gardens, collections, and engaging interactive exhibits to understand more about the natural environment of Texas. Learn how they connect with the community and bring all this to them, both on and off the sanctuary grounds.

Have an outstanding and delicious farewell dinner reminiscing about your African Safari in Texas and all you learned!

Say farewell to Texas today as you take home a world of experiences and insights about preserving wildlife and the ecosystems that support them. Share with others and do what you can to preserve and protect the natural world around you.