MARANA, Ariz. (KGUN) — The weekend storms blasted a private petting zoo near Marana and left the zoo operators hunting for animals lost in the storm. There is a lot of rebuilding ahead for Ghost Ranch Exotics.
You know how over at Davis-Monthan they call the A-10 the warthog because it’s kind of ugly but effective? At Ghost Ranch Exotics they have a living example of where the A-10 got its nickname. They have two genuine warthogs and they’ve been displaced by some rough storms over the weekend.
Beans the warthog is not the only animal affected by the weekend storms that hit Ghost Ranch Exotics near Marana.
Ducks and chickens are visiting with the goats, because winds carried their aviary about a quarter mile outside the fence.
What’s worse, some of the animals ran away when the storm tore open their enclosures. Georgi Davisson says they’re not just animals, they’re family.
“Most of them have been hand raised and bottle fed by us. Most of them either started out at my house or were born here at the facility. So the ones that are missing right now, my heart is broken. I don't know what I'm gonna do if we can't find them and I'm not sure that we're going to.”
A kangaroo named Guroo hopped away.
Two porcupines ran off, and so did one of the Capybaras.
Capybaras normally live around water.
Mid afternoon Monday, Ruby the Capybara turned up where Georgi Davisson thought she might, in a nearby irrigation canal.
Davisson says for now the animals are improvising to find shade while the enclosures and shades get repaired.
“Honestly I'm not even sure that it’s really sunk in on how much work we have to redo. We just built this place. We spent the last year with four people building the place. We just finished up so to watch everything that we built over the last year just be gone in an evening, I don’t think it’s set in yet.”
The emus seem like they are faring the best. Their pen held up to the storm fairly well but there’s a lot of work ahead before Ghost Ranch Exotics can repair what the storm left behind.
