For Jordan Parch, the work never stops.

Driving across 100 acres, just across the street from Animal Adventure Park, new animals roamed free in an all-new, multi-million dollar preserve. In the coming days, 250 animals will be brought in for one of the biggest drive-thru experiences in the northeast.

“It is a free-choice environment for the animals, and the irony here is you, as the guest, you’re the one captive in your vehicle, while the animals are in their natural environment. So if an animal chooses to engage you and come up to your vehicle, it’s because they truly want to,” said Jordan Patch, Animal Adventure Park owner, in an exclusive interview.

What You Need To Know

  • The drive-thru experience will feature giraffes, rhinos, deer, bison, and much more

  • The 100+ acre trail sits directly across the street from the popular Animal Adventure Park

  • Owner Jordan Patch funded the $2 million project

Construction is still underway, but in a few weeks, the land will be home to everything from rhinos and zebras to giraffes and bison. Animals from all over the world will be featured in a safari-like atmosphere.

For Patch, after years of success across the street, he needed something bigger.

“The preserve is the itch I needed to scratch. This property was acquired in 2017, when April the Giraffe went viral and it was acquired frankly for the upper field that we use for overflow parking. About one year ago almost to the day, we started the work over here, and in one colander year, in about eight months of actual activity, the preserve has come to life,” said Patch.

Patch funded the $2 million project with the goal of education and propagation. While The Preserve will start with roughly 250 animals to drive by, it won’t stop there.

“It’s going to take time. That’s exactly what this is. This is a propagation, educational facility. As we build our herds, eventually the facility will be home to five to 600 different animals,” said Patch.

In just a few short years, the small Broome County community has become a tourist destination. As for the preserve, Patch wanted to keep it as natural as possible.

“We were very lucky to have a number of logging trails and seasonal roads that were already on the property, so we’ve repurposed a lot of those, which made our distribution of the actual natural space minimal,” said Patch.

The Preserve at Animal Adventure is set to open by the end of July.