New developments coming to Wild Adventures | News

VALDOSTA, GA- With summer break over and kids back to school, traffic at the Wild Adventures Theme Park in Valdosta is slow and the park is using this time to build new attractions, fix up the park, and much more.

Almost twenty years ago Wild Adventures Park was just a petting zoo. Now it's a huge Georgia theme park. But when summer ends the park closes it's doors Monday through Friday to work on revamping all aspects of the park.

"Taking the time to make improvements while the park is closed is our little secret; people always wonder how do we get it done especially when we're open seven days a week for the summer, but we use the time when were not open to make changes and improve the park," said Micha Hogan with Wild Adventures.

One project is building new attractions that will open next year. Park officials are keeping the details secret, but we do know there will be more than one. The park is also doing away with paper maps, and encouraging guests to download the free digital map application.

If you need to find a family member in the park, all you have to do is locate their phone on the application to find out where they are.

When the hours are cut back it's really helpful for the zoological team to give extra attention to the nearly 200 animals living in the park. But the zoo manager says the animals really miss all the commotion.

"When the guests aren't around the animals will actually get a little bit quieter and they look to us for a lot of attention and we don't see that when the people are here," said Walter Dupree, Zoological Operations Manager.  

Park officials say they do budget for revenue loss when they're only opened on the weekends but they host big holiday events for Halloween and Christmas to keep guests coming.

Wild Adventures will host a big Labor Day event next weekend with helicopter landings, and K-9 and fire safety demonstrations by the fire department and the sheriff's office.

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