Waystation Resuming Evening Dinner Tours

The Wildlife Waystation is set to expose visitors to night scenes from the Serengeti, the Andes and the Outback during its sunset and starlight dinner tours through the complex in Angeles National Forest.

The tours, which were stopped last year when the facility in Lake View Terrace was closed for seven months for environmental violations, resume Saturday. Other tours are scheduled July 14 and Aug. 18.

Waystation Director Martine Colette said the 120-acre wild and exotic animal rehabilitation compound takes on a new life at night.

“Because we have so many howling wolves, roaring lions, it’s sort of a magical evening to come out and listen to the chorus,” Colette said. “You can see the animals in the daytime, but the moonlight ambience is missing. Besides, where else can you hear 50 African lions roaring at once in Los Angeles?”

Admission to the one-hour tours is $50.

The dinners are another step toward normalizing operations at the station, Colette said. The sanctuary turned away animals and people for most of last year under orders of the California Department of Fish and Game.

Colette was ordered to clean up creeks running through the compound that were polluted with animal waste and to retrofit cages to state standards.

Public tours resumed in December, when most of the prohibitions were lifted.