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Where The Wild Things Are

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By JO-ANN JOHNSTON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 5, 2007

DADE CITY - A brief trolley ride from downtown can transport visitors to a world populated by wild animals as alien as African lions and as local as the Florida panther.

They're all inhabitants of Stearns Zoological Rescue & Rehabilitation Center, a private, nonprofit center that cares for birds and beasts that have been injured or relinquished by human guardians.

A few people in Dade City and in animal-rescue circles have known for the past few years about Stearns Zoo, operated by Kathy Stearns and her family, who own a local peat company and garden center.

Stearns, in addition to being a businesswoman, is a wildlife rehabilitator who got the permits needed to open a center for animals that couldn't be returned to the wild.

Three or four years ago, Stearns started thinking about opening the center to the public for educational tours. Tickets could help support the upkeep for the animals and bring wider attention to conservation causes.

But the Stearnses wanted to perfect the setting - a botanical garden. They also wanted to make sure they had enough animals at the 22-acre site to hold the interest of tour groups.

The time is right, Stearns said as she introduced Dade City's Wild Things tour to media and local officials recently. 'We have over 150 animals.'

The tour begins at a shop downtown at 13951 Seventh Ave., where the operation sells tour tickets and stuffed animals, books, toys and other animal-themed gifts. Visitors park at the shop and ride a refurbished, old-fashioned trolley to the zoo on Blanton Road.

Stearns bought the trolley - which is separate and distinct from another downtown trolley tour run by Citrus Country Groves - because she wanted to consolidate the traffic to the zoo.

She favored a trolley over a small bus, she said, because 'we wanted something historic that would fit with the flavor of the town.'

The trolley travels north on Seventh Street and east on Meridian Avenue to the zoo, and drops people off for their walk through the wild on landscaped pathways accompanied by a tour guide.

The animals are housed in custom-built cages, some with wading pools and houses, depending on the species. The Stearnses have installed safety barriers made of PVC pipe around the cages, a regulatory requirement.

Even with the barriers, the setting allows visitors closer views of the animals than might be possible at the bigger zoos in Tampa, Stearns said.

'Even at Busch Gardens and Lowry Park Zoo, you don't get this close.'

The tigers display pleasant and sometimes not so endearing qualities. The Bengalis sometimes make soft, pleasant noises, she said.

'That's what we call chuckling - they do not purr. It's a happy greeting.'

She has stories about each animal, it seems. For instance:

•Male lions can be heard from 5 miles away.

•A black duck that lives on the premises narrowly escaped death when a hawk that had grabbed it for a meal dropped the web-footed bird.

•The baby otter in residence likes to play hide-and-seek by popping its head in and out of a rubber tunnel, and it toys with a yellow rubber ducky in its wading pool.

And so on.

Stearns has organized the tours so visitors will spend 2 1/2 hours on the grounds walking at a relaxed pace and hearing about each animal. With the trolley trip back and forth into town, the excursion lasts three hours, she said.

Stearns said she hopes families as well as schools will take the tours. Ticket prices are $23 for an adult, $20 for senior citizens and $13 for ages 2 through 12. Ticket prices are tax-deductible.

Phyllis Smith, executive director of the Greater Dade City Chamber of Commerce, said the new attraction could be beneficial to the local tourist trade.

'The more things we have for people to do, the better it is,' she said. 'And we have a variety of things for people to do.'

IF YOU GO

FOR SCHEDULES AND INFORMATION: (352) 567-9453 or www.dadecityswildthings .com.

Reporter Jo-Ann Johnston can be reached at (352) 521-3062 or jfjohnston@tampatrib.com. Keyword: Stearns, to see photos and hear an interview about the zoo tour.

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