Feed curiosity, exotic friends

Where do you buy a zebraor camel? How muchdo they cost?
& lt;a href=mailto:yovich@vindy.com & gt;By TIM YOVICH & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
VIENNA -- While every Tom, Dick and Harry has a pet dog or cat, the Bertok family has 500 animals and birds, most of them exotic.
"We have animals from five continents," said 64-year-old Alex Bertok, who operates Wagon Trails Animal Park on state Route 193 with his family.
The 72-acre park, which was once the family's dairy farm, opens Saturday for its fifth season.
The park usually attracts 60,000 customers annually and goes through 20,000 bales of hay and four tons of grain each year. It also has two manure spreaders.
Bertok and his wife, Sandy, have two daughters, a son, daughter-in-law, son-in-law and four grandchildren working with them. "We all pull together," commented Diane Fleming, one of Bertok's daughters.
The park has some 20 buildings, including an aviary and 400-seat indoor picnic area, two miles of roads and 12-foot-high fencing as far as the eye can see.
Transporting visitors
The family designed and built six trucks that hold 45 visitors each. They will be used this year rather than horse-drawn wagons that have been used to take visitors around to view and feed the animals.
Bertok explained the family operated a building supply business, Dry Wall Barn, for 51 years. They always had horses around that pulled heated wagons.
"Why don't we open a park?" Bertok said to his family in 1997.
"We all discussed it and decided this is what we wanted to do," Fleming added.
It took 2 1/2 years of construction to accommodate the animals.
Where do you get a water buffalo, elk, ox, zebra, ostriches, European sheep, African and Indian antelope, zebra, kangaroo, African Watusi cattle, South American llama, buffalo, Tibetan yak or a camel?
The park has two camels, actually -- Chewy and Humphrey.
Bertok said he went to North Carolina and bought 60 to 80 animals in 1999, a year ahead of the opening, so the animals could become accustomed to each other and the horses.
What do they cost?
A zebra goes for $5,000 to $6,000; antelope or kangaroo, $3,000; camels cost $4,000 to $5,000 each.
Adding to the population
Bertok said the park has about 100 newborns a year, some of which are sold to zoos and other parks. The water buffalo herd has grown to 30 to 40 animals.
The park is licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Although the family inoculates the animals, two veterinarians in the area have experience with exotics and are called in if necessary.
The busiest times for Wagon Trails are in May and October, when schools conduct their field trips. The park draws from schools as far away as Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
"It's neat to see things through their eyes," Fleming said of the children. The animals get excited when they see one of the trucks because the animals know they're going to get fed.
Fleming explained that because the trucks are handicap accessible, the park can cater to special needs kids and nursing homes.
They also receive visitors from the Northeast Ohio Adoption Agency in Warren, YMCAs and Girl Scouts.
Admission is $13 for adults, $10 for senior citizens and $9 for children between age 2 and 12, though specials will be offered throughout the summer.
& lt;a href=mailto:yovich@vindy.com & gt;yovich@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;