Changing Seasons At TCWR
October 15, 2020
Although summer is typically our busiest time for visitors, fall is where the fun is! Summer is filled with sleepy cats and splashing pools, but fall is filled with fun, play, and leaves! Lions, tigers, and bears all love the cooler weather. This small window of time sees tigers perking up from the long hot summer, lions enjoying the last warm afternoons, and bears foraging to get ready for a long winter nap. This is the perfect time for a visit!
During the fall our animals get a little extra fun enrichment. Nature offers our team some unique and engaging materials to offer our big cats and bears! Amazingly, tigers love pouncing in leaf piles, rolling around, and flattening them into submission.
Pumpkins are a hit with all of the animals that call the Refuge home. Although the big cats don’t eat them, they enjoy sinking their teeth into their orange flesh and ripping them to shreds. Bears get extra special treats from nature, nuts, leaves, and pumpkins, which make for sweet snacks as they plump up for the winter. All of these fun enriching items come directly from nature for all the animals. It is wonderful to watch how much childlike wonder these animals display in the fall!
Fall not only brings around cooler weather for the animals to enjoy but also perfect days for our human visitors! Arkansas fall is a ‘Goldilocks’ dream… not too hot, not too cold, just right! In addition to that, the autumn leaves make the beautiful Ozark mountains even more beautiful! Fall peak is predicted to hit around November 2nd but the changing leaves have already begun.
If you can’t make it this year, start making plans for a trip in the fall of 2021! This is the best time of year for an overnight visit, weekend trip, or week-long vacation! You can’t go wrong spending a beautiful fall day at Turpentine Creek! Plan your visit, stay overnight, or donate today to support our animals as we also prepare for winter at the Refuge!