Due East of Mt Rinjani, near the coast, is the Lombok Wildlife Park (think “zoo”, but you’ll soon understand the big difference!). It’s quite small in comparison to animal parks we’ve visited around the world, but that’s consistent with their unique experience.
When you arrive they give you a wristband and assign a guide who then walks through all the exhibits with you. He describes everything in detail and answers any questions. Our guide, Ikshan, was excellent and upbeat the whole time.
They start off with a collection of colorful birds. Ikshan encouraged us to hold them (well, most of them, some he told us to steer clear of!).
I actually have some experience with large birds..
Gabriel
Our family included an entertaining double yellow-headed amazon parrot for many years named Gabriel. (we were told that Gabriel was a “he” since apparently you can’t tell externally). We adopted him from another family after they let us watch him while they were on vacation then never wanted him back. He had several phrases that he said very clearly, but more importantly, very much IN CONTEXT. If he heard knocking on the door (or admittedly any hard surface) he’d yell “Hello!”. He’d call the cats “Here killer! Here killer!” followed by a tongue clicking sound, and many times laughed heartily at a joke before any humans in the room had reacted. Gabriel loved me, was friendly with boys, tolerated my mother (since she fed him), and fiercely threatened everybody else. He would sit (and occasionally shit) on my shoulder and ate banana pieces sticking out of my mouth. He would snuggle under a blanket, perhaps nesting instincts? We let him walk around freely most of the time, so he would randomly do his ding-toed attack walk at people’s toes. Despite our bird-mance, Gabriel chomped my finger to the bone in reaction to my sister walking by once. He would also pinch my ear HARD if he got nervous, reminding me that his razor-sharp beak could cut through anything. He was a great pet, but much like cats (with whom he had a mutual respect), life was on his terms and we should be honored to be included.
Fortunately.. the park birds are handled by strangers all day and are familiar with the routine. That said it took a healthy amount of faith to stand beak-to-beak with some of them!
Some exhibits are far less hands-on. These “baby” salt water crocodiles (which can grow to be the biggest in the world at over 7m (23 ft) long) barely moved. We were glad to know that they keep their mouths open just to regulate temperature.
We didn’t get any great shots of this Proboscis Monkey, but it was fascinating feeding him melon pieces through a small window. He’s sort of a cartoon of an animal with his bulbous nose (“Well, he has got a big nose”). He was also stood erect while sitting if you know what I mean..
The most interactive creature was a bit too interactive. You actually pay extra (maybe that was an omen) for the “orangutan interactive experience”. What is marketed as a sweet meet & greet with two babies is an outdated description of meeting these now teenage, adult-sized Bornean Orangutans. The male, Kaka, sits on a platform overlooking Kiki. Kiki.. grabs men (while mostly ignoring any nearby women) and steers them to scratch her. She repeatedly grabbed my hands to crush them onto her nipples while the guides encouragingly said “she wants scratching!” I guess I can say it’s eye-opening.. but it’s also quite uncomfortable. I think she has outgrown playtime with tourists.
I think I’ll pass on high-fiving the Sun Bears.. look at those claws!
Just an old couple lounging..
The Asian Small-Clawed Otters were cute if not the smartest when it comes to finding things..
One of the most popular attractions are the Binturongs (Bearcats). We opted to feed it and it certainly is a beautiful, expressive, and unique creature. Surprisingly non-threatening given its name, although it’s not related to bears nor cats.
Silvery Gibbons are loud and active, but since they love to play in the treetops hard to get a good shot at. This one paused for half a second.
The Siamang Gibbon had a lot less to hide behind and a lot more gymnastics on display. It also has a classic central part in its long locks and an impressive inflatable throat sac for hooting and howling.
Back with the reptiles, but now the friendly sort. This Tiger Python was quite a bit bigger than Damian, the Boa Constrictor I borrowed for a weekend in high school. It was constantly moving so I had to shift its weight around, but fortunately it seemed comfortable being held and didn’t do the death grip on the neck thing, always nice. Far more relaxing than the orangutan experience.
This Green Iguana is huge and has the most vivid orange scaly skin. Like so many animals here, being able to get so close prompts a much higher level of appreciation. The subtympanic membranes (the big circles under the mouth) are both big and.. foreign. There’s a lot going on in those eyes too, sort of regal.
It was sort of sad to see the Komodo dragons in captivity knowing that so many live so freely so near by. I don’t know the stories behind these two so perhaps they are recovering. However it was really cool to be able to get much closer than we could in the wild, and to really look them in the eyes. Where the iguana is regal, the dragon’s eyes seem like dark portals into another time.
The Pigmy Hippo was next up, and provided a very new perspective of a familiar face. We hand fed full-sized hippos in Chiang Mai, Thailand 14 years prior and realized just how big and gnarly their mouths are. However there we were reaching down into a water hole, and here we were on the other side of a small fence. It was an eating machine, allowing us to pat its head briefly, and wow is that skin like slimy rubber! They have a totally different energy in their eyes, and their feet are like nothing I’ve ever seen.
A brief stop to touch fingertips with a small East Javan Langur. Cute and curious. The fingerprints and nails are a reminder that we’re not so far removed.
Elephants! Here’s another animal that most people have seen in zoos and circuses around the world. We’ve even ridden them extensively in northern Thailand near Burma (we THINK they were well-treated btw, an important thing to look for in the elephant-tourist “industry”!). Still.. here was different. These female Sumatran Elephants carefully eat fruits out of your hand with their opposable ~finger and the remainder of the circular trunk opening. It almost fully engulfed our hands, and knowing that they could pick you up and fling you if they wanted to is very humbling.
In a nearby enclosure, isolated from the females and humans due to a history of fighting (thus the big holes in his ears) was a male. Those massive cinnamon eyes.. he’s seen some sh$t.
While elephants may have been expected, our next creature, a Southern Cassowary, was definitely not. It looks like a psychedelic cartoon of itself, yet has a confident power and grace.
There’s a fairly small aviary with several types of birds loose inside. The Australian Pelican has there world’s longest bill, although thankfully this one kept it sheathed.
Between enclosures we noticed a disturbingly large wild creature suspended just over my head.. a Giant Golden Orb Weaver spider. The body is a couple inches long and with legs it’s easily the size of my outstretched hand. Non-venomous but..
There are many other creatures around in smaller enclosures, cages, and just living freely. Something for everybody to sit and really get into. We highly recommend visiting the wildlife park if you’re in the area. The owner was walking through while we were touring and our guide praised his dedication to the facility and experience. There are also new exhibits being opened, including a tiger planned for 2026.
We ended up spending two hours at the wildlife park, and our entrance fees even included a substantial lunch. We were pressed for time however as we had an appointment ahead so they kindly packed everything up for us to take with us. It was such a nice gesture , we really appreciated it.
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