St. Augustine Wild Reserve

Specialties

The St. Augustine Wild Reserve offers tours by appointment only. We are not open daily, although we do offer special two-​hour tours, reserved in advance. Tours are held in the afternoon, usually on Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays at 2pm. Email as far in advance as possible to make reservations (wildreserve@​aol.​com). Children under 5 are free. We may be able to schedule a tour on a different day, if we know far enough in advance. Guests will be given a guided tour of the 7-​acre animal compound by an experienced wildlife professional. An introduction to each species, basic biology, and how the species arrived here will be discussed in detail. Visitors will be allowed a close-​up view of the exotic animals. Guests will be able to venture closer to adult African lions than they ever imagined. Also on the tour will be our amazing white tigers, several orange tigers, a very rare golden tabby tiger, lions, ligers, cougars, servals, lynxes, leopards, hyenas, coati mundis, and a host of wolves. We also have a varied bird collection, which includes macaws, African gray parrot, royal palm turkeys, guinea fowl, peafowl, and crest Polish chickens. We feed all of the big cats on the tour on most days, and set up a tiger bubblebath on our tours. We do not allow photography at this compound, however, we do offer a fabulous photo CD at the end of the tour for a small donation.

History

Established in 1981.

The St. Augustine Wild Reserve began in 1981 in California, where it specialized in wolf rescue. After the 1990’s, we began caring for exotic cats, and relocated to Florida in 2000, which is where all of our beautiful animals now call home.

Meet the Business Owner

Deborah W.

Business Owner

Deborah Warrick has always loved animals. Her desire to care for different creatures led her to the University of North Florida where she received her B.S. degree in Biology. Since 1981, she’s been rescuing exotic animals. Using her passion for preservation, this UNF alumna has launched a successful career in nonprofit management. Adding to her zookeeper training award from the Los Angeles Zoo in 1984 — Warrick was one of 20 students out of 400 to make it to the final exam and work with animals in the zoo — UNF gave her the academic knowledge and hands-​on training needed to establish herself as a skilled biologist. Her degree, she said, was the proverbial icing on the cake that gave her credibility as a serious biologist. Warrick is currently working on her Masters degree from UF in Veterinary Forensics.