Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville has become a national, and even international, destination since April the Giraffe went viral back in 2017. 

While 2020 has been a difficult year, 2021 brings plenty of new animals, and plenty of excitement for owner Jordan Patch. 

April the Giraffe helped put the small town of Harpursville, NY on the map forever. Nearly four years ago, April captured the world’s attention with her pregnancy, as park owner Jordan Patch watched his dream become a reality. 

Now at 20 years old, April is considered geriatric, and the park is stepping up to help. Patch recently installed a state of the art flooring system to give her a comfortable place to relax in the winter months. 

“With that comes the issues and ailments that you would expect any older human or animal to experience, and that’s like arthritic and joint pain and things like that, so we’ve been taking steps and measures to ensure the comfort and welfare of April as she ages gracefully here at the park,” said Patch.

There aren’t many people in the world like Patch, who can drive their pick-up truck through a park filled with giraffes and dozens of rare animals from all over the world. He started his career with a small reptile shop in Endicott decades ago. 

Fast forward to 2021, and Patch is the owner of a park that just welcomed one of the rarest kangaroos in the world. 

“When we said our jaws were on the floor, they literally were. We knew we had a baby, then we knew we had a special baby being white thinking perhaps it was an albino. Once we saw that we had a white kangaroo with black eyes, suggesting it’s leucistic in mutation, we knew we had something rare on our hands,” said Patch.

But Cosmo the Kangaroo won't be the newest baby at the park for long. Johari the Giraffe is pregnant, though her due date is a bit of a mystery. 

“Johari continues to keep us in suspense. What we are seeing is still the manifestation of physical signs. We’re seeing growth, we’re seeing slight development, but by all means our timelines were off,” said Patch.

With plenty of excitement to come and fun animals like these, every day brings something new for Patch. But despite his success in the now nine years of Animal Adventure, he never lose the side of where he came from, and views every day as a blessing. 

“The dream has always been there and very much alive. To see a dream actually come to fruition and be able to work with amazing animals and welcome offspring into the world, especially something as unique and rare as a white baby kangaroo, it’s one of those pinch me moments. It’s humbling, but I will tell you it was a lot of work to get here and a lot of support from our community,” said Patch.

The park opens back up on April 28.