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SUBIC BAY Freeport: The Freeport offers a new animal experience this
summer. Zoobic Safari, which earlier brought a tiger safari to the
free port, is now offering a bigger and much-improved animal show,
plus an educational camp for venturesome kids and adults.
“If you want to see poodles do the waltz,
monkeys that dunk a basketball, pigs hurdling obstacles, or dogs
dancing the tinikling, then Zoobic Safari is just the place for
you,” said company CEO Robert Yupangco.
The popular theme park opened several new
attractions for the summer season, dubbed “The Zummer Zoobic
Safari” program, with additional facilities and entertainment
features.
“You can do so many things here,” Yupangco
said. “You could go camping. We have a boot camp, with a course.
You can learn different things like how to breed animals.”
Under the special summer program, Zoobic Safari
has headlined its daily entertainment fare with an animal show,
where Jenny, the monkey, impresses the audience with her acting
skills; Vera, the dog, does a tricky question-and-answer segment;
while poodles dance and demonstrate athletic skills and potbellied
pigs jump and fool around.
During a tour of the whole theme park, tour
guides share trivia about the golden pheasants, tarsiers, albino
water buffalos, moon bear, camels, and other animals featured in the
park.
The tour would take half a day, as it includes a
visit to the “Rodent World,” which has specimens of cloud rat,
one of the biggest rodents in the world; the “Rodent Saloon,”
which is equipped with small bath tubs, hair blower and shampoo for
its tiny furry customers; the “Serpentarium,” which has a
collection of pythons and other reptiles; and the “Tiger
Safari,” where visitors ride on metal-screened jeepneys to get
close to tigers roaming in their natural grassland habitat.
Also part of the tour is a visit to the
“Savannah,” where ostriches, wild bears and guinea fowls roam
freely; the “Animal Muzooeum,” which boasts of a rare collection
of stuffed wild animals and mounted animal skeletons; and the
“Croco Loco” that features live crocodiles.
A highlight of the tour, and for a fitting
afternoon finale is an animal parade with representative specimens
in the park, both wild and domesticated animals, are brought out in
a parade that is actually a modern take of the biblical story of
Noah’s ark.
Despite the overwhelming number of attractions
at Zoobic Safari, Yupangco said the theme park is only about 30
percent completed.
“We have yet so much to do, and I think 50
years won’t be enough to accomplish all of it,” Yupangco said
with a laugh. “We now have 50 tigers here, but we will soon
introduce white tigers as well, more zebras and giraffes are also
coming in, and yes, an elephant.”
Yupangco also mentioned plans for animal races,
which include greyhounds, horses, and quite surprisingly, even
chicken. This is in addition to Zoobic’s ongoing breeding program
for endangered animals, and a “pit bull program”, which trains
what are otherwise known as fighting dogs for the non-aggressive
activity of racing.
Management is currently working on more
adventure rides, a forest camp with trailers painted in tiger
stripes, as well as fishing and canoeing adventures.
The “Aeta’s Way” offers the unique
experience of living close to nature, as the indigenous people of
the Subic Bay Freeport still do.
This seemed ironic, as Yupangco himself
admitted, but he added that the idea was for Zoobic Safari visitors
to get a grasp of the Aeta lifestyle without sacrificing comforts.
-- Anthony Bayarong
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