MONKEY BUSINESS I
Aloha Safari Zoo offers up-close visits with exotic animals | By Khary McGee
t’s not at all surprising that Cameron, N.C., a small, quiet town in rural Moore County, would be teeming with wildlife. The North Carolina Sandhills have long been a top destination
for nature lovers and game hunters due to their vast population of deer, turkey, quail, doves, foxes and fish. But one might not expect Cameron
to be home to a white Bengal tiger or an Asian water buffalo. Thanks to Lee Crutchfield and the Aloha Safari Zoo, the presence of exotic animals and birds in the town is no longer a far-fetched idea. Opened in early 2010, the Aloha Safari
Zoo is home to about 200 animals housed on 60 acres. Crutchfield, over the course of the last two decades, has made it his mission to give homes to abandoned and unwanted animals. He built the zoo from the ground up and runs it with his family. Every weekend visitors find themselves transported from rural North Carolina
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