Taman Safari Prigen

The animals are displayed against the natural Mount Arjuno backdrop. The safari park looks like an engaging place to meet the residents, a kind of a semi-open institution. Visitors may buy bananas and carrots at vendors along the approach route. Sliding gates on the road between the habitats. The animal species are kept apart. The road leads along rocky animal enclosures which permit good observation of the animals walking around, sleeping or begging. The predators have similar roadside enclosures. Monkeys at a Balinese fake temple are a reference to some zoo architecture!

Taman Safari II is founded in 1997, with the specific aim of breeding the endangered Banteng.

Once you are in, you hop aboard the safari bus or drive around in your own car among the animals and thereby are able to feed some of them. We opt to wind up our windows, view them from the car and to feed ourselves, not the animals. Park staff is present on some fences or animal groups. We keep following the road, exploring habitat after habitat. A llama is the first casual passer-by. Okay. And not that I have any experience in zoo safaris, but when a brown bear emerged close by, cold-eyed, I realized it is a different experience in a car compared to a safari bus. At the end of the road, you can park the car to visit the restaurant, some stuff for kids or stunts by animals. Otters are the dolphins supporting-act and in a play we see dogs and apes cleverly outsmart the hunters (zoo staff) and the narrator efficiently stopping a young orangutan jumping off the stage to his adoring audience. Sometimes real reality is way better than virtual reality.