Unique? Indeed. Up close and personal? In most cases, the wildly popular animal encounters at Oglebay’s Good Zoo is a first-in-a-lifetime experience a guest will never regret or forget.
When the encounters began 13 years ago, Good Zoo was one of the only facilities in the United States to offer such an experience, and while other zoos have since added them, local people join others from across the world with choosing one of the 12 animal encounters now offered at Oglebay.
“We developed the animal encounter program in 2008, but it started with a small meet-and-greet for the Red Pandas,” recalled Dr. Joe Greathouse, director of the Good Zoo. “The reason we did that is because, for people who work with those animals, it’s pretty life-changing. That is why we thought opening it up to the community was a great idea so those people can have those experiences, too.
“We immediately expanded the encounter program, and now we do them with just about every species we have here at Good Zoo,” he said. “And now, people come from all over the country and beyond to experience one or more of those encounters.”
Positive Publicity
Greathouse’s first day on the job at the Good Zoo was as an intern in 2008. Very quickly, though, he was elevated to part-time zookeeper status while also a member of the custodial staff at the facility. Then Greathouse was hired as a full-time keeper, and then, in 2001, he was the animal curator until 2012.
He left Oglebay for The Wilds near Cambridge, Ohio, as the director of conservation and science and remained there for four years. That when Greathouse returned to the Good Zoo as its director while also teaching Zoo Science at West Liberty University.
These days, he gets to spend a portion of his days with guests inside the animals’ living areas.
“The animal encounters are incredibly popular. Right now, our Red Pandas are booked through February of next year,” Greathouse said. “And that is why we have had people fly in from outside the country to experience an animal encounter, and one travel magazine listed the Good Zoo as one of the five best places on Earth to get up close to the animals.
“We are pretty unique, too, because of the fact that we have been doing the animal encounters for several years now. There are some folks in the country who have picked up what we have been doing so they can do it as well,” he said. “That’s because of the benefits. Our guests get to meet and learn about the animals, and the program also gives our keepers more time with those animals. Plus, the animals are able to get more comfortable with multiple people.”
Benefitting Both
There are the Red River Hogs and the Cape Porcupines that are new to Good Zoo, and encounters also can be reserved with a bobcat, a Cheetah, and a Snow Leopard, too.
There are the Red Pandas, of course, but there are the Two-Toed Sloths, the Ring-Tailed and Mongoose lemurs, and kangaroos, Wallabies, and Meerkats, as well. Not only do the guests gain an incredible experience, but Greathouse believes it benefits the zoo’s animals, too.
“When we have performed a veterinarian procedure, the animal would always get a little nervous because they have seen a second person show up,” Greathouse explained. “But now they are used to five or six people showing up and interacting with them, so the encounters help the animals in that way.
“The keeper really guides our guests so that the encounters are very safe situations, and when our guests cannot interact with some of the more dangerous species, we still offer the experience of what the keepers get to do every day,” he said. “In some cases, our guests will go into the animal area when the animal is not there so they can see firsthand what it is that the keepers do.”
The pricing for the animal encounters can be discovered on Oglebay’s website, and members of Good Zoo receive discounts during certain times of the year.
“The Wheeling area is small community, but that community provides us with the majority of the support that we receive. That’s why we do some special events and pricing structures,” Greathouse said. “For example, from January through March, any member who is on the Silver level or higher can do any encounter at 50 percent off.
“We have seen the animal encounters purchased for Christmas, for birthdays, and for other occasions, and in some cases we have had repeat guests for a different encounter,” he added. “Some of the animals are more popular than some of the others, but they are all very interesting, and part of the experience is learning as much as possible about them.”
