Homes on the Ranges - richmondmagazine.com - Richmond magazine

I asked a friend who announced she'd "never been into zoos" if she had ever seen bats walking. "Walking?" she asked, as though I'd misspoken.

Sure, I'd seen more than my share of flying bats — the only mammals that fly — during my first 18 years of life in a big old farmhouse with just enough space between the eaves and upper walls for the occasional bat to slide through and gain access to our attic, and, from there, access the bedrooms one floor below. (My father was adept at getting them back outdoors.) But walking bats weren't something I'd seen until I visited the North Carolina Zoo, 7 miles south of Asheboro, where they stared back at me from behind the glass of their woodland environment that had been re-created by staff. I stared back, noticing the distinctly longer front limbs with webbing resembling wings; I watched these strong front limbs give the push to move forward, helping with locomotion the way an ape's knuckles do.

I've visited zoos from Berlin to the Bronx, but the North Carolina Zoo, with more than 1,800 African and North American animals on 500 developed acres, lives up to its reputation as the world's largest walk-through natural-habitat zoo, with 5 miles of trails. The carefully re-created environments of species from bats to bison are expansive, with the elk and bison habitat reminiscent of the environment at Yellowstone National Park. There's even a tower for chimney swifts. Perhaps it was just luck, but I also saw my first ocelots. Secretive animals, these wild cats had always been hiding behind rocks when I visited other zoos.

I chose a golf-cart tour with a professional guide, the "Ride-and-a-Guide" program available by advance reservation (stroller and wheelchair rentals are also offered). If you don't have a full day, allow at least five hours to see everything from a desert habitat to a tropical, free-flight aviary. Major attractions include two polar bears: Anana, a female, and Payton, a male who arrived at the Rocky Coast habitat in early 2021 for breeding purposes. The bears, helpful in the zoo's climate-change program, enjoy farm-to-table service as staff provide a maintenance diet for them — just as the horticulture team grows a ginger plant for the gorillas, who are susceptible to heart disease.

Workers adapt to natural events like eclipses, which throw off the schedules of nocturnal animals such as lemurs. The zoo also helps humans adapt to hot weather, with two misters on site through which visitors can walk. A wildlife rehabilitation center established in 2001 isn't part of the tour, but information details the veterinary and rehab care given to injured and orphaned North Carolina wildlife with the sole purpose of returning them to the wild.

As with bat-watching, I enjoyed seeing different species react to one another: When chimpanzees got loud, lions across the way looked to see what was going on. The zoo's conservation mission and programs are evident everywhere, from African vultures (the fastest declining group of birds globally) to North Carolina's endangered red wolves. Monarch butterfly waystations in areas such as Kidzone and the Kaleidoscope Butterfly Garden engage visitors and show how easy it is to create pollinator habitat.

With more than 2,800 total acres, much of the undeveloped land is set aside for preservation because of its unique geological, botanical and wildlife value. A new habitat at the zoo – Asia, with tigers and Komodo dragons – is set to open in the next few years.

Stay and Eat

The zoo is just under a four-hour drive from Richmond. Asheboro offers an array of overnight stay options, from mountain campgrounds and cabins to bed-and breakfast-homes and chain hotels. Visit the Heart of North Carolina Visitors Bureau website for more. Grab a post-zoo visit meal at Taco Loco, which has dine-in and curbside pickup options.

If You Go

WHERE: North Carolina Zoo, 4401 Zoo Parkway, Asheboro, North Carolina; 336-879-7000, nczoo.org

COST: $15 ages 13-61; $11 ages 2-12; $13 ages 62 and older; free ages 2 and younger

HOURS: Open daily except Thanksgiving and Christmas; hours through October are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; November through March, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

IT'S GOOD TO KNOW: Every season is different but almost equally good; bears will have a fresh coat of fur by fall, which means their darker undercoat will no longer be visible.