PARKTON — In October 2023, when Wendy and Michael Gibbs decided to buy two ostrich chicks for their farm, they hadn’t planned on starting a business.
Michael Gibbs, on a business trip to South Africa, visited the Kruger National Park, where he found himself fascinated with the animals he saw.
“I called Wendy and said, ‘We should get something fun for the farm,’” he said, “and she already had a list ready.”
According to Michael Gibbs, the ostriches attracted a significant amount of attention, and passersby started to slow their cars as they passed the farm, sometimes stopping entirely and getting out to take pictures. The attention sparked the idea for Parkton Petting Zoo, and the two immediately began to research what they would have to do for that.
Wendy Gibbs did much of the research at the beginning, and she got the farm USDA-certified to exhibit animals. “We got a wallaby, and [Wendy Gibbs] took it into the kid’s school, and they went nuts,” Michael Gibbs said. “That was really the start of it, where we knew there was something to this.”