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Friday 5pm - 9pm Sunday 10am - 4pm

Big Joel's Safari Petting Zoo & Educational Park

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Wright City, MO
Big Joel's Safari Petting Zoo & Educational Park

Big Joel's Safari Petting Zoo and Educational Park is more than just your average petting zoo. Come experience the "Zoo made for you"!

Welcome to Big Joel's Safari Petting Zoo & Educational Park page. Our family owned and operated zoo is home to well over 500 animals covering over 70 species of domestic and exotic animals. Our facility operates from spring and through the holiday season. You can pet and feed some of our animal residents while many are just for viewing! Big Joel's Safari Petting Zoo & Educational offers b

irthday parties, educational field trips, Rent the Zoo, and more during most of our regular season. Join us in the fall for Big Joel's Spooky Safari where the the park is decorated for the fall & Halloween season. Don't forget to join us for The Holidays at Big Joel's Safari! This is our evening walk thru experience where the main attraction is the animals. You will see many animals especially our more winter ready species, Christmas lights, decorations, fire pits, snack shack, and more. For more information and more about us in great detail visit www.bigjoelsafari.com! Come visit the "zoo made for you" for some family fun for everyone you won't soon forget!

11/05/2024

Big Joel’s Holiday Safari is coming soon! For more information about our holiday season at the park go to https://www.bigjoelsafari.com and click on our events link.

Nov 22nd - Dec 17th: Open Wednesday thru Sunday
Closed thanksgiving (Nov 28th)
Dec 18th - Dec 30th: Open Everyday
Closed Christmas Eve & Christmas (Dec 24 & 25)
Hours are 5-9:00pm on all open dates

The last day to visit during daytime hours is November 17th. Thanks and we hope to see you soon!

10/31/2024

Happy Halloween!

🎃 We hope you and yours have great day!🎃
Our hours today are 9-4:00pm for our last day of our Spooky Safari. We start our November days and hours tomorrow, but the Spookiness will be coming down.

10/30/2024

October 31st is the last official day of our Spooky Safari! We will be open regular hours from 9-4:00pm.

Days and hours of operation do change for November.
Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, & Saturdays 9-4:00pm
Sundays 10-4:00pm
(Closed Tuesday & Wednesday)

The last day of our regular season is November 17th before Big Joel’s Holiday Safari begins on November 22nd. Our holiday schedule can be found by clicking https://www.bigjoelsafari.com/admission .

10/28/2024

Happy Birthday to Safari John!!!!!

John is Big Joel’s dad who was an important part of the Safari in the early days (even before the park) and of course still is! We do take it a little easier on him nowadays, lol. We do not think that when taking the photo at St Augustine Alligator Farm long ago that he ever thought his son would eventually have a couple gators of his own and so much more!

Happy Birthday!!!!!

10/18/2024

There are many new construction projects and improvements going on at the Safari both big and small! A majority of them will be completed before our 2025 season begins and some slated for the summer season. So pardon our construction and mess as we continue to improve the zoo.

10/18/2024

Big Joel’s Spooky Safari is open everyday thru Halloween on October 31st!

Cash and June, our Eurasian eagle owls wanted to remind you that there are just two weekends left to visit our Spooky Safari to see all our fall and Halloween decor. As a reminder our days and hours of operation change for the month of November and for the upcoming holiday season. Just click on https://www.bigjoelsafari.com/admission to see the rest of our 2024 season schedule.

10/13/2024

It’s a great day to spend time with family!

10/05/2024

It’s going to be a boo-tiful weekend! Open 9-5 Saturday and 10-5 Sunday. (Front gates close at 4:30.)

10/02/2024

Spooky Safari is here! Now open every day!!!

09/25/2024

It’s that time of year! Pumpkins Galore is OPEN! This year their corn maze features Big Joel’s Safari and an alligator. 🐊 one of the first animals here at Big Joel’s Safari. As a reminder, the corn maze is not at Big Joel’s Safari, but is at Pumpkins Galore, along with a lot of other fun stuff. Pumpkins Galore is 2 miles from Big Joel’s Safari, so you can have a fun filled day stopping by us both! 🎃

09/22/2024

Getting Spooky around here! Can you spot the photo bomb?

09/20/2024

Being all cute! Meet Phil and Lil, our little capybara friends. They are not full grown yet like Bibbidi our other capybara that resides with the rheas. If you are lucky you might get to pet them, however this is only if they are in the mood. No guarantees. They are on a special diet, so no feeding please. ❤️

09/12/2024

Mommy, Daddy, and if you look really close, Baby. ❤️
Hint: Mommy wallaby is the white one, the Baby is gray like Daddy.

09/03/2024

Calling all field trip coordinators! We have set our dates for next Spring already! We typically don’t do this until the winter but we have been getting so many calls. So if you’re ready to book your field trips for April/May 2025 you can call our office. If we don’t answer, leave a message, we will call you back. 636-745-3031
Also attached is more field trip information. The dates will be different for 2025, but the other information is the same.
https://www.bigjoelsafari.com/educational-field-trips
As a reminder we still have Fall 2024 availability.
Thank you and hope to see you all!

08/28/2024

As a reminder we ARE OPEN on Labor Day.
9am-4:00pm (front gates close at 3:30pm)
Hope to see you soon!

08/27/2024

Happy National Dog Day!
In honor of our beloved dogs Rudy and Franco we decided to put a shout out to all the great dogs and best friends out there. We haven’t posted about this before, mostly because it has been too painful, but we lost both of our best boys this year. They were truly the best. It’s been difficult for sure. Thankfully they both passed essentially from old age and we got to be with them at home in the end. Franco was an 11 year old bulldog and Rudy was 16. So please give your dog an extra hug tonight and remember how wonderful they are. I always say the only thing wrong with a dog is they don’t live long enough.
Love and miss you buddies. ❤️MiMi

08/15/2024

Hello!
Just as reminded our hours do fluctuate throughout the season. We will be closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays working on projects and Spooky Safari. Then October 1st and 2nd we will be open again on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Thank you for your continued support!

Address

13187 State Highway M
Wright City, MO
63390

Opening Hours

Friday	5pm - 9pm
Sunday	10am - 4pm

Telephone

(636) 745-3031

Website

http://www.bigjoelsafari.com/

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Videos

Hello This is Sandy one of the mountain coatimundis at Big Joel’s Safari. She enjoys hard boiled eggs, bananas and bread-but only after dipping it in water first. Mountain coatimundis are related to raccoons.

Happy Father’s Day! Not to be corny, but it’s your day to really pig out! 😂

In the bird world, to attract females, most males are the more brightly colored bird. But I believe these two are mostly showing off for each other. Kind of reminds me of high school. But instead of a fancy truck, it’s fancy feathers. Lol

Happy Mother’s Day! Big Joel’s Safari is open regular hours today (Sunday, 4/12) from 10-5pm. Have a great day!

Itching for something fun to do? Big Joel’s Safari is open Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. 🐐

Thank you all for a great opening weekend! We hope you enjoyed the improvements. There are more yet to come. Thank you to the new guests too!

At least the chickens are helping to spread the mulch. Of course one is kicking it out into the walkway. 🤦‍♀️

Everyone is getting ready for opening day! April 13th! Some of us are working hard, while others are going for a swim.

Goats! Goats! And more Goats! Look closely. Which Momma Goat do you think has the most patience? Jungle Gym Momma or Milk Momma?

NOW HIRING!!! Sniffing out a great opportunity? Hanging on all winter for the time to apply? We are now hiring here at Big Joel’s Safari! Please go to our website-www.bigjoelsafari.com Tap on Employment Opportunities for more information and to apply!

We almost forgot to say “Hoppy” New Year!

The fire pits will be ready!!!! Big Joel’s Winter Wonderland is open 4-9pm tonight. You can grab a hot cocoa or s’more kit from Rudy’s Refreshments to enjoy around the fire. We have cookies, coffee, snacks, and more inside Rudy’s Refreshments. It is heated so can warm up while you enjoy your selections and the kids can write a letter to Santa too!!!! Happy holidays and we hope to see you soon.

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Our Story

Welcome to Big Joel's Safari Petting Zoo & Educational Park page. Our family owned and operated park is home to well over 500 animals covering over 60 species of domestic and exotic animals. You can get up close and personal with many of our animal residents here at our park. You can pet and feed many of our animal residents from little goats to our gigantic camels and some of our animal friends are just for up close viewing.

Our 2020 Season is from April 4th thru November 1st and will be our eighth season open to the public. We have big plans for this season throughout the year, so come on out to visit and keep posted for updates on this page. During our regular season we offer birthday parties, educational field trips for schools, camel rides (weekends Spring/Fall and everyday in the summer), pony rides, parakeet shack, and several events throughout our season such as our Spooky Safari. For more information and more about us in great detail visit www.bigjoelsafari.com! Come visit the "zoo made for you" for some family fun for everyone you won't soon forget!