Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.158 | feat. Jeff Taylor from The Wild Park

Episode Date: April 10, 2026

Inside The Wild and The Haven: Chittenango’s Interactive Zoo and Safari Resort Vision Host Noah Chrysler interviews Jeff Taylor, owner of The Wild in Chittenango, New York, an interactive zoo featuring animals from around the world with a focus on guest experience, animal welfare, and conservation through education. Jeff describes The Haven, a former dairy farm property expanding from a wedding venue into a concert venue and resort with planned lodging near animals, a resort-style pool with a flamingo exhibit, and other amenities. He highlights the unique setting of weddings and concerts overlooking a savannah with giraffes and other African species, and lists upcoming concert acts including Drake Milligan, Avery Anna, Buckcherry, Lakeview, Montgomery Gentry, Marshall Tucker Band, and The Band Perry. Jeff shares 2026 season updates such as grizzly cubs, returning tiger shows, and a nonprofit, Friends of the Wild, funding conservation via paid tiger feedings. He discusses operational scale, staffing, local pushback, veterinary care, and the role of zoos in education. Visitors can find information at thewildpark.com and Haven social pages. 00:00 Welcome and Introductions 00:24 What The Wild Is 01:01 The Haven Origin Story 02:13 Safari Weddings Vision 02:54 Concerts and Big Events 04:31 Season Opening Updates 05:01 Tiger Shows and Nonprofit 05:56 Feeding and Animal Care 06:24 Farming and Self Sufficiency 07:14 Growth Challenges and Red Tape 08:56 Animal Welfare and Conservation 12:47 Team Values and Staffing 14:21 How to Visit and Closing

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Good News York. My name is Noah Chrysler. I am here today with Jeff. Jeff. Jeff, can you introduce yourself? Yes, Jeff Taylor of the Wild, the Haven, Taylor's Wilderness Safari. Absolutely. So tell people what this actually is. What is the wild? It is a zoo. We have animals from all around the world. It's a very interactive zoo up close with a wide variety of animals. The guest experience is really important to us. The animals, lives are important, their welfare. And it's just, you know, conservation through education and promoting and, you know, having people enjoy the park. Fantastic. So, yeah, you guys are a zoo right here in Chittango, New York, yeah?

Yep. And we've walked around a little bit. It is absolutely massive and very beautiful. We also, so this is all brand new. We are sitting in the haven, yeah, or the venue that you have next to the haven. Is this technically the haven? What is this? This is the haven.

I purchased this property a few years ago. It was an old dairy farm and basically came up with the idea for this. It's expanded a lot since then. Started as just a wedding venue and since then it's basically transformed into it will be a full concert venue, wedding venue, rooms you can stay in with lions and tigers,

cottages where you see wolves. It'll be a full-blown resort. So there's going to be all the amenities. that you'd get at a resort right here in Chittanago. I kind of look at it as like when you go on a cruise, you have to offer different excursions and stuff, and that's where all my other businesses fit in, and we're just looking to expand and continue

and add businesses and different ideas that I come up with. And I come up with ideas, and I have just an amazing team that works on it, and somehow we always come through, and they do a great job with everything. Beautiful. Cool. Tell us about, so tell us specifically your vision for this space, right? So you said this is a wedding,

but also a concert venue as well? Yeah, so my passion is animals. Growing up, I loved animals. I just always wanted to build a zoo. And so I try to theme everything with that. And the initial idea of it was a wedding venue that sat on a savannah, just like you're in Africa.

So that's where this is behind me. Is it a field of, in the summer and spring, there's giraffe, there's zebra, there's wildebeests, there's ostrich, there's Africa, There's African antelope right out here. So during our weddings, you can feed giraffe and you just get to see them roaming and it's a big area, so it's like more of their

closer to their natural environment, as you can have in captivity. And then just the idea expanded with the concerts and I enjoy the concerts personally just because I like having them, but it seems to have worked. We were labeled by an article as the most unique concert venue in the country.

in the country. Cool. Where else can you listen to music and look out and see giraffe, like just chilling out in the field? So that's really taken off. We have a bunch of weddings booked. This summer, we have a lineup we're looking to add to. We've got Drake Milligan coming up in May.

He was on America's Got Talent. We have Avery Anna, who's an up-and-coming country performer. She actually just got nominated for an ACM new country artist of the year. We've got Buck Cherry coming in July, 4th of July. We've got a three-day weekend where a Thursday night's Lakeview. They're the country rock band Friday night is Montgomery Gentry and then Saturday is Marshall Tucker band. Then we just announced that we booked the band Perry.

So a lot of concerts and big events and I think we've probably got six or seven weddings. It's a unique place where there's no other place where you can get married with a giraffe right there. Sure. try to make it really high-end facility, like try to go above and beyond with everything here. We're going to build a resort-style pool area with, you can be hanging out at the pool, and there's going to be a flamingo exhibit next to it. So you'll just look at the flamingos while you're right now.

Yeah, we'll put a gym in. Oh, cool. We'll do pickleball, basketball, a lot of different stuff. Everything you could imagine. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, a lot of stuff. Very cool. So the 2026 season is opening up right now, right?

It's spring right now. It's Friday, yeah. It opens Saturday. Fantastic. A big, big open. What new things can people expect at the wild this year? Things that have, that have seen yet.

You know, we've worked on some of the exhibits and redoing some stuff. We've got some grizzly cubs for people to see. They can just like normal, get yours to picture taken with a baby kangaroo. There's, you can feed the giraffe. Just a lot of stuff, you know, we're just always trying to improve.

We're working on bringing back. We used to do animal shows, live animal shows, tiger feeding and stuff. We kind of got away from that. that just with the COVID and the staffing issues and people really enjoyed that. So we're actually going to start doing tiger shows again. I formed a non-for-profit called Friends of the Wild. You know, we've got these businesses and it's great, it's business, but I'd also like to

contribute to conservation and it's also to enhance the lives of animals in captivity. So we're going to do some different things. We're going to do tiger feedings during the tiger shows where you can pay to feed the tigers get your picture taken feeding them and all the money goes toward our non-for-profit so it's from a safe distance everything's safe you're not going in sure you're not handing them a steak from your hand no what are you feeding a tiger during a tiger feeding so it's it's meat beef um chicken um and they all have vitamins mixed in with that that's part of like with running a zoo it's very extensive we go through between eight to 10 thousand pounds of meat every month wow which is a lot it's a that's a lot

to meet, but we have, you know, one of the biggest private cat carnivore collections in the country. It's kind of my passion of the cats and stuff. So it's a lot of mouths to feed and want to make sure they get everything they need. So absolutely. How many, how many cats do you have? Between 30 and 40, I think, something like that. Yeah. So and, and, you know, my business, we try to be self-sufficient. We try to do as much of our own construction we can. We also have a division that we do farming. We do all our own hay. So I've got, different farms where we bail all the hay, we put it away and feed the animals. So it's easy. It's better to sustain ourselves and rely on other people. So that's a whole other aspect.

There's a lot going on around here like always. I believe it. I believe it. No, that's super cool. I grew up on a farm, so it's kind of like I enjoy the farming aspect of it. My father really helps out with the hay. And I've just got a great team, you know, everybody that works really hard and it makes it all come together. Absolutely. No, yeah. I mean, what a unique, what a unique business to have here in Chittendenhago. I mean, that's incredible. And I don't know. We've talked a little bit about some of the progression

of the business over the years. Has it been difficult to kind of expand the business? And have you gotten pushback from the locals and that sort of thing? It's been a battle for, you know, this is my 16th season. I've been fighting from the beginning. You know, it's, I push the limits. I'm like self-aware of that.

So, but if I didn't push the limits, I'd probably never be able to build a zoo in Chittango. So, but it's been a constant battle. It's been challenging, but I'm a fighter. I don't like the point where I kind of don't really enjoy it anymore. I'd rather just have things go smoothly. You know, my business contributes so much to the community, just, you know, employment and helping other local businesses and stuff.

So that's where it gets frustrating. But sometimes I'm my own worst enemy, and with pushing the limits, you kind of get in trouble. What are some things that you've learned since the start, right, in terms of, you know, navigating that or even just operating the business in general? So I used to like go by the whole easier to ask for forgiveness than to be told no. And I kind of ran out of forgiveness. So just trying to do things there within the right ways.

And I still can't sell out and do it completely. No, I'm just kidding. But, you know, that's the challenge. I like to just do things. Just get them done and stuff. And I don't like red tape. And there's a lot of red tape. I believe it.

And just just working with them. And, you know, I've got some great people like on the local level now that we're work with. And it's got to the point where I think that they really want to see my business succeed and they're trying to help. It's challenging. It's not your normal business and I don't stop and I keep adding things and changing things and doing different things. So it's challenging navigate, but we're trying to have things in place to make things a little bit easier. Cool. Yeah. Absolutely. I think one thing in the back of people's minds when they come to a zoo or they come to things like that, you know, they want to make sure that the animals are, you know,

being treated well and being taken care of. And it seems like you're very thoughtful about that, you know, with habitats, with nutrition and that sort of thing. Can you speak a little bit to that, some of the amenities that you provide the animals to make sure they're well-term? Yeah, you know, it's very challenging. You know, we have, I don't know, between 6 and 800 animals,

which is quite a lot, and it's a lot of mouths to feed. And, you know, there's different diets, different, you know, vet care. We have a vet that comes out twice a week or emergency situations is needed. We really focus a lot of effort on that. And it's challenging. You know, people, you could tell your doctor, you're sick. Animals, you have to pay attention to body language, pay attention to body condition.

You can tell her sometimes you can't tell. So that's where it's very challenging. But we try to just, you know, do the best we can for them and give them big habitats and give them enrichment, give them things that they can get out and move around. And it's not easy, but they can. deserve it being in captivity and the other challenge thing is dealing with you know there's a sector of animal rights people and they're nuts so they just they don't even want you to want a dog or cat so

but it's easier to go after a zoo than a dog or cat so you're always fighting new laws that they push and it's it's challenging so you try to just not give them any material and it's very hard for people to grasp the concept of, you know, life is there's death. And, you know, with people, people's lifespan, I don't know, 70, 80 years. And animals, when you have 800 animals, their lifespans range from, you know, some are five years to 20 years. And so shorter time period, things will happen. You don't want it to. You want them to live out their full lifespan. And in captivity, they live a lot longer than in the wild because they get health care. They get their diets. They get everything. The sad thing about animals that are wild and their natural

habit is most of them die like of starvation as they get older they break down they can't hunt they can't find things and it's you know it's a bad way to go and obviously you know in a perfect world we'd want everything to be free roaming and be out there and in their natural environment but it's not realistic as you know humanity expands and cuts down their habitat it's it's challenging and you know people will say you know release them back to the wild one animal captivity will not survive in the wild they can't hunt learn to hunt they can't they just wouldn't be able to function but it's like where like where do you want me to put them they're they're cutting down the forest they're destroying the rainforest and and that's where the animals in captivity are basically like an

ambassador for the animals in the wild so that we can raise awareness um we've gotten so far away from things with social media and everything the phones and i feel like you know you go to the zoo it takes kids away from their phones and gives them a break and actually makes them focus on seeing an animal you can see an animal on tv and a book it's not the same as seeing a 500-pound tiger like right there and you know talking about it and feeding them it's just you know I I want to have a positive impact and hopefully you know educate people and that and and it's just that's it's the way that it has to be if you don't have them for kids to see up close like that there's not going to be the awareness

that we need to protect them and they they basically it needs to be put in front of your face and I feel like zoos are very very important in that aspect for sure for sure Yeah, as far as, you know, building, you know, building this facility and taking care of those animals, do you have any, like, guiding principles, things that you keep in mind as you are taking care of these animals and designing the, you know, the systems and things that help support these animals. Do you have, like, values that you like to adhere by to make sure that the animals are well taking care of? Yeah, you know, the challenging thing is, is, we're so big now is finding quality employees nowadays.

days. We have some amazing employees. And like I've said, like people give me credit for building this facility. I'm nothing without my team. I mean, they do the work. I mean, this winter, what they dealt with with the winter and the freezing and the frozen water buckets and different things. Like I give them all the credit in the world because they're out there when it's, you know, 20 below, they're taking care of animals. And it's not comfortable, but they work hard. And but it's challenging, you know, we find good people and try to to keep them and but it's takes you have to go through a few to get some some good ones but I'm fortunate I do have some really great employees and it's you know we try to like push the

team you know the team we're a giant team everybody working together have their different parts and that's where yes I'm the owner it's my business but I'm nothing without the people that worked for me and over the course of the years um there's people that have worked me that are no longer here working, but they were a contributor to get to the point that I'm at now. And it's, it's, I'm forever grateful for that. And, you know, if people leave, like, I wish them the best and success, because if they want to move on and do bigger and better things, like, I'm always looking to do better with my life. So, like, I hope they can do the same. And it kind of sucks. You know, when you lose good people, but you can't, can't hold people back and you want them to

enjoy things and succeed as much as possible also. Absolutely. Cool. Beautiful. Cool. Cool. the 2020-6 season opens on Saturday. How can people find out, come out here? And are there any events or things that you want people to come to this season here? Yeah, we've got Thewildpark.com. Our website, our social media pages are big to follow because we list all our new events.

And we do special events at the zoo. We do Halloween nights. We do different things throughout the end of school year bashes. And then the haven page, I think it's havenof-the-wild.com. And then we have her haven-faced. We have Instagram pages. And it's just the best way to see concert updates and stuff. Everything's just based on those pages.

Visit the zoo, you get tickets right at the door. Yeah, just come check it out. I think people will be surprised, and our visitors tend to come back. And I greatly appreciate everyone that has ever come and visited over the 16 years because I can have all the ideas in the world, but I can't build anything without the visitors that are helping to support us. they're a big part of where we're at today and the future we have a crazy amount of plans. Like it's only going to get bigger and better and I'm not going to ever stop.

Beautiful. I love it. Well, cool. Jeff, thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, this was Good News York. Thanks so much for watching. See you next time.