If you live in Kansas I’m sure that you have probably heard about Tanganyika. Have you ever wondered how a big and successful park started? Well I’m here to tell you. It all started with a man named Jim Fouts as a boy when his grandfather gave him a San Diego Zoo guide book. Fouts became fascinated with animals at a young age and wanted to get his start in the animal world as a zoo keeper in 1972 at the Sedgwick County Zoo. Years later in 1985 Fouts bought five acres in Goddard and that’s where they built one barn and started Tanganyika Park! It officially opened in August of 2008 with 15 exhibits and three interactive areas. In eight years it turned into the third largest animal collection in Kansas and one of the largest attractions in the state!

It’s a fun and exciting place to go with your family and friends! At the zoo you get to feed, touch, meet and learn about all different types of animals! There is a large variety of different animals there and some that you may have never even heard of. It’s a great place for kids to learn about different types of animals. My favorite thing to do in the summer is go to Tanganyika!

In the spring Tanganyika is open March 9th through May 26th; in the summer, May 27th through September 4th and in the fall, September 5th through November 12th. They also have a Splash Park summer season, Memorial Day through mid August. If you want to see the entire park it takes about three hours to go through everything. The most exciting and highlights thing for me about Tanganyika is that you get to hand feed the animals! You can feed lemurs, lorikeets, giraffes, tortoises, rabbits and guinea pigs. To feed the goats you can bring quarters to get food out of a machine, same with the alpacas and koi fish!

When its hot in the summer and you need to cool down make sure you stop by the splash park! It’s a colorful, animal themed, state of the art water paradise filled with awesome aquatic features such as slides, water tipping bucket, climbing structures, waterfalls and large animal structures! The water park is a very kind friendly park and safe. Tanganyika water park is definitely a place a kid will remember and want to go back to.

The most frequently mentioned favorite at Tanganyika is how close you can get with these rare and endangered exotic animals. They have over 400 animals and 37 successfully breeding programs, with 10 interacting with the animals stations. I recommend going to Tanganyika in the spring because its a long park and you can get hot. But if you go to the summer stop by the splash park!

You can buy tickets on the Tanganyika website or you can buy them when you walk in.