History
The park was founded by Gordon Debenham "Don" Dailley, a retired Canadian Army colonel, and opened its doors on August 22, 1969. Dailley initially partnered with the Chipperfield family from England to purchase four farms in the Rockton, Ontario area totaling 250 hectares (620 acres). He bought out the Chipperfields in the early 1970s. Dailley's sons Don and James, along with their sister Ginny, took over operations in 1989, following their father's death. It remains privately owned and operated.
The original size of the park was 80 hectares (200 acres), and the only significant feature was the drive-through reserve. In 1971 the park began working with Asian elephants, and in 1985 they started to make a concentrated effort to breed Asian elephants. Over the years successful breeding of 30 endangered species and 20 threatened species has occurred in the park.
Read more about this topic: African Lion Safari
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“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)