Across a bridge and over an Osceola County swamp, different is Wild Florida.

“When we bought this place, we said we wanted to be different,” said Sam Haught.

Here, you’ll find Sam Haught talking to the animals.

“There’s nothing that feels better to a lemur than a good armpit scratch,” Haught said.

The former investment banker turned Doctor Doolittle has plenty of friends.

What started with one zebra grew to two animals, and then three, and now, the wild kingdom here waits to greet you. 

Wild Florida in Kenansville boasts "you just found the middle of nowhere."

“We weren’t allowed to cut any trees.  So this boardwalk jigs and jaws around the trees,” Haught said.

Sam’s family built a boardwalk through a native swamp where real Florida lives.

From a barred owl to peacocks that roam free, many of the other animals here are rescued or donated.

“It’s not uncommon to come down here on a Saturday morning, and meet a guy at the door with a bird and a cage who says, ‘Here you go.  I want you to have this guy,’” Haught said.

Sam said green Harlequin Macaws and Scarlet Macaws don’t fit with busy lifestyles and neither did a Silver Fox named Loki.

This silver fox became too friendly.  At first, we spooked him, but very quickly, he was ready to get up close and personal. And it’s also part of Sam’s mission.

“We want you to see, hear, touch wild Florida and what it looked like 1,000 years ago," Haught said. "And we also want you to make a connection with animals in general.”

Wildlife lectures fill a stadium where visitors get a close look at creatures like a South American giant toad.  Yet, Sam makes no apologies -- it gets a little wilder in the back.

Haught demonstrates with an animal that is part-zebra, part-horse.

“What we found was that zebras are impartial," Haught said. "And what happens at Wild Florida stays at Wild Florida.”

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