(calm music continues) (calm music continues) - Aikman Wildlife is Illinois' first and only drive through Safari Park.

(calm music) - And then coming up we have our two zebras and Ziggy, our Zedonk.

(calm music) - My background is business and finance.

I was a banker for about 10 years and I had a dream on the night of October 22nd, 2013, that my wife and I owned and operated a wildlife park.

Told her about the next day, she said, "You're crazy.

Our son's gonna be born in a few weeks, you need to get that out of your head."

I agreed with her completely.

That night I had the exact same dream and so I told her, "I don't know why, but I feel like this is something God's wanting us to do."

And she said, "Well, if God's behind it, He'll find a way to make it happen."

And from there my mind just started becoming flooded with thoughts, plans, ideas, layouts.

We bought this property about 22 months later and open it up to the public about six months after that.

In just about a week, it'll be our 10 year anniversary from purchasing the property.

Kind of just continued to add and expand what we offer here.

So, we have a museum prehistoric life now.

We have a Masters of All Toys Museum now, we do weddings and receptions out here, we also have an overnight component called Wildlife Manor so we have some Airbnbs open to the public.

(calm music) Fabio, our Bactrian camel, the Bactrian are the two-humped.

(calm music) We have a drive-through side and we have a walkthrough side.

All of our predators, our smaller mammals, our petting zoo, our parrots birds there on the walkthrough side of the park.

So, drive-through has a hoofstock, walkthrough has very different animals so you see it's two different experiences.

The walkthrough is kind of set up more like a traditional zoo.

Animals are in their own areas, you kind of see 'em through the fence.

On the drive through side though it is much different.

So, you're in your own vehicle and they could come right up to your car, they could walk right in front of it, but you aren't able to feed or pet the animals in your own car.

And then the next option is kind of our two different UTV rides.

So, the animals are kind of right there in your face.

It's definitely our most up close and personal way to experience the drive through.

- We also have our wagon ride so they can go out on a guided tour that way as well and feed those animals underneath our railing of our wagon.

So, during that drive through, they get to kind of see like zebras and things that they wouldn't see close up, it's definitely something that they would never experience I feel like outside of here.

(calm music) - We bought an existing tourist attraction but it was very run down, it had been closed for almost two years so we had to do quite a bit of demoing, quite a bit of renovations, all new pathways.

I think we planted over 200 trees we kind of completely changed the topography.

And then with the animals it was kind of putting our name out there, letting people know that we are here, we exist, we're willing to take animals that need homes and animals just kind of started coming in.

- Our animals that we have at our park, they were never born and raised in the wild, so they kind of grew up around people even though they're not out in the wild in their natural environment, we basically gave them a place to go when they needed one so we're basically helping them live a good life.

(calm music) - So our first animal we actually got before we had the property, so his name is Tobias.

Tobias is our Grant zebra.

He's got the stripes all the way down to his hooves.

(engine revving) He's is my favorite animal at the park.

Usually zebras, the stereotypes, they're kind of mean, he's the same age as my oldest son.

He was very chill from the beginning, let us feed him.

He'd come up and just rest his head on your shoulder.

(calm music) My wife and I, we kind of had the concept, and then my three brothers came on in the very beginning as well and so we built it and we run it as a family business.

- I love that this facility is family owned.

So, as a worker, I definitely feel as part of the family.

So, I like the fact that they actually do the tours, they come out, they greet the guests that come out, so they actually are building those relationships.

So, I really like the family atmosphere, not with just the staff, but when people come out I feel like they enjoy here and want to come back.

(calm music) - The impact on the community has been fantastic.

I think we are from Arthur, so we knew that we wanted this to be in the community to be a blessing to the community.

We knew it would bring people in, it would bring people through the communities and most likely if they're coming here then they're gonna go eat somewhere, they're gonna get gas, We have a ton of people that come down from Chicago land area, we have people coming from three or more hours away, but then it's also just something for the different local communities to come out and to enjoy themselves.

What we would love people to know about this place is, number one, it is family friendly and appeals to all ages.

We have 90-year-old couples that have come out and I've done behind the scenes for that have an amazing time.

It's not just for kids, it is for any age.

The goal would be it would become a family business that we're creating and building a legacy that will not only impact our family but impact the whole area for years to come.

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