The zoo doesn't feel as grand as Boston's Franklin Park Zoo, and it's easier to navigate. On a summer Friday, although plenty of people are wandering the paths, there are no crowds. My 2-year-old doesn't have to wait in line to peer at the tortoises. He is the only passenger flying around in circles on the airplane ride.
Southwick's has all the usual suspects -- zebras, tigers, and monkeys -- and also some less common species: African warthogs, binturongs (also known as bearcats), and mandrills (relatives of the baboon that have colorful, rubbery faces). There are opportunities for nose-to-snout interaction: a petting zoo with barnyard animals, rides on some of the larger creatures, and deer who obligingly snuffle up corn (50 cents a handful from a machine) from your hands.
The sika deer, a spotted Asian variety, gobble the corn through a fence, teaching my son a new word -- nibble -- for what a persistent deer did to his hand even after the corn had disappeared. (Hopefully this wasn't the germ of a lifelong phobia of all things hooved: "Deers hurt you!" he later says in wonder.) In the 35-acre deer forest, visitors walk through a double set of gates, there to prevent deer from bolting. Inside, the animals, tamed by legions of visitors filling the corn machines with quarters, wander up to you and sniff for food.
Southwick's got into the animal business in the early 1800s. Its dairy farm eventually expanded into peach orchards and vegetable gardens. In the 1930s, Justin F. Southwick began collecting fancy fowl as a hobby. His son Justin A. Southwick shared his poultry passion and in 1956 placed a donation box at the barn where the public could view his birds.
The Southwick Wild Animal Farm opened in 1963 and one of the two families -- the Southwicks and the Brewers, the current owners -- has run it since, with no state support. And yet, compared with the astounding price of amusement park tickets, or even the daily parking rate at many beaches, the $16.75 adult price tag seems modest.
There are a handful of mechanical rides, mostly for younger children, including a small carousel, and old-fashioned cars and planes that spin (gently) in circles. Each day, there are live animal shows, with birds and elephants and barnyard animals.
The Woodland Express "rubber tire train" -- really more like an open-air bus -- runs through an area of forest and preserved wetlands. On our ride, a blue heron was feeding at a pond and a family of ducks was swimming nearby. A small herd of elk with magnificent antlers foraged beside the road, ignoring us and our train.
Kathleen Burge can be reached at kburge@globe.com.
