Apart from curvy roads, redwood forests, and tiny towns, there's not a ton of genuine "tourist attractions" in northern CA between our house and southern Oregon.
We'd driven by the Great Cats World Park (a bit randomly located, about two and a half hours from our house south of Cave Junction and in the middle of nowhere) several times on various road trips but never stopped. I think the park was closed for much of 2020. A bleeding-heart animal lover and conservationist, I am also not a big fan of seeing animals in cages/zoo-like attractions. Nevertheless, the center seemed really big on animal protection/conservation and we decided to stop as a half-way point in our drive home as I knew the kids would enjoy visiting it. Iver has an incredible memory of all animal-related facts he reads or hears, and Niall adores all things lion/Lion King. (Disclaimer: there is a small possibility I have misnamed/mislabeled some of these cats. I am not a feline scientist. I did my best from what I could remember from the order of and information from the tour!).
The Bengal tigers were amazing to see so close. Apparently many of these species (including the tigers) may be extinct in the wild in as little as two decades.
White tiger
Leopards (we found out that there's not actually such a thing as a panther or "black panther" even though some are almost entirely black-appearing [they still have spots under their uniform black-appearing coat]!)
The Amur Leopard is the most endangered leopard species in the world (mainly due to demand for its gorgeous coat), and only a handful are even viewable in captivity across the world (the wild population numbers around ninety total).
Snow leopard, which is incredibly endangered (I'd never seen one before even in captivity! It's so rare some call it the "ghost cat.")
Puma (one of about thirty names for "mountain lion")
Caracal (which looks like a mini mountain lion)
Lynx
Fisher cat (which hunts under water) and has web-like paws.
Jaguar (one of the most powerful animals in the world in terms of bite strength)
Serval (almost as fast as a cheetah)
Lions!
This little Simba-lover even had on his Lion King hooded sweater!
Ocelot (this one was rescued from a bad pet-trading operation and has a lot of health problems, including arthritis and hydrocephalus)
African wildcat (which looks very much like a housecat).
NOT A CAT: Indian blue peacock (we also saw some baby otters at the end of the circuit).
The kids had a great time seeing all the big cats (and of course wanted to bring a stuffed white tiger home). While I didn't love the gloomy information about these cats' diminishing numbers in the wild or seeing them caged up, the kids and I did learn a lot about the different species and hope that they will also assume a lifelong responsibility to help preserve the precious wildlife that remains on our fragile planet.
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