Bonsall animal refuge started with snake, parrot, tortoise, now has more than 100 animals

A woman with a heart for animals started a wildlife education center with a few animal companions from college, a boa constrictor, a desert tortoise, an Amazon parrot and a chinchilla.

Jackie Navarro visited schools around North County and introduced her animals by name. She talked about where they came from in the wild and what their jobs are in the wild. Kids who were terrified of snakes stepped a little closer.

Word got around and more people invited Navarro to come and share her animals. She started getting calls from wildlife rehab centers and other educational facilities, asking if she could provide a home for some of their animals that could not be released in the wild.

The effort grew into Wild Wonders, an internationally known wildlife education, rescue and conservation center. The 10-acre wild animal refuge at 5712 Vía Montellano in Bonsall, is home to more than 100 animals representing 70 species from around the world, ranging from wallabies, bearcats and armadillos to porcupines, binturongs, lynx, marsupials and kinkajou along with an iguana and alligators.

The center, which is accredited by the Zoological Association of America, marks its 35th anniversary this year. But the mission is the same, “Rescue, educate conserve.”

“Our goal is to nurture and inspire kids and adults to become better stewards of the animals’ environment as well as our own,” said Navarro, founder and director of Wild Wonders.

Wild Wonders typicall...