If you haven’t visited Global Wildlife Center recently, now is the right time to experience this singular wildlife preserve, which offers an extraordinary glimpse of Africa in Louisiana. Stretching across 900 scenic acres of hilly terrain in Folsom, about an hour east of Baton Rouge, Global Wildlife Center has been making memories for generations of families since its founding in 1991. Nowadays, parents who visited Global Wildlife Center as children are returning with children of their own. When they do, they’re bearing witness to a progressive new era for the Center where new leadership is guiding Global’s development to serve as a sanctuary for endangered and exotic animals from all over the world.
At Global Wildlife Center, reticulated giraffes roam free alongside zebras, Bactrian camels, kangaroos, African antelope and other exotic and threatened wildlife from the world over, in a natural, expansive, free-ranging environment. At this one-of-a-kind facility, visitors literally encounter animals at eye-level, interacting with and even feeding them from an open-sided safari wagon or Private Pinzgauer tour while knowledgeable guides educate and entertain.
Christina & Maci at Global Wildlife
Since Global Wildlife founder Ken Matherne's passing, the preserve has been owned and operated by his daughter, Maci Matherne (above, right), with Executive Director Christina Cooper
Since Global Wildlife’s founder Ken Matherne’s passing in 2021, the preserve has been owned and operated by his daughter, Maci Matherne. A savvy, socially conscious CEO, Maci loves relating the story of being accused of telling a “tall tale” by her first-grade teacher. (She really did have a giraffe in her backyard!) A graduate of Tulane University, Maci is proud of her goal to make Global Wildlife Center the “best place to work in Louisiana.”
In 2022, Christina Cooper rejoined Global Wildlife Center as Executive Director, bringing with her a rich background in the fields of conservation, animal care, tourism and marketing, including an animal science degree and time spent studying in South Africa. Christina helped grow Global Wildlife Center during her first tenure from 1996-2010, where she was a fixture around the Center and on the local morning news.
