Located in Winter Haven, FL, the facility affectionately known as “The Ranch” is NEI’s home base. While our birds are not actively wowing and inspiring audiences in zoos and theme parks across North America, you can find them at the Ranch. Birds that are in training for shows learn and refine their behaviors here, and will return here to live after their time at the show is over. The Ranch provides an ample amount of space to train free-flight behaviors. There is a beautiful 10-acre field that is an ideal spot to fly birds preparing for shows.
Sitting on 34 acres of land, we house a very diverse collection of birds. The massive harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja), the rare blue-throated macaw (Ara glaucogularis), and the elegant black crowned crane (Balearica pavonina) are only a few of the incredible species we house at the Ranch. More than 70 different species are represented in our collection of over 550 birds! And birds aren’t the only animals who call the Ranch home. We also have three miniature donkeys and six wonderful goats who are great at picking up novel behaviors during training workshops. And of course, we can’t forget to mention our intrepid Ranch dogs Hendricks and Opie!
Along with training, breeding is another priority. We have breeding enclosures for several different species including blue-throated macaws, African fish eagles (Haliaeetus vocifer), white-necked ravens (Corvus albicollis) , and military macaws (Ara militaris).
Last but not least, the Ranch is home to our Training and Education Center. Daily meetings with the NEI trainers are held here, and when workshops come around this building is transformed into an enlightening classroom where some of the brightest minds in the animal field come to teach and to learn. The Training and Education Center hosts a wide variety of workshops, webinars, symposiums, and retreats focused on animal training and welfare, team performance, and educational program production and development.
We are always looking towards the future and we are excited about the ongoing growth and development of the Ranch!
