Bison Hill at Whipsnade 08/05/11

American Plains Bison, Bison bison bison.

Although there's only a couple of Bison nowadays this is still one of my favourite parts of the Park.

Me too, not least because so few other visitors bother! The prairie marmots were lively as well and making a fair bit of noise.

The bisons' sophisticated indoor accomodation always makes me chuckle too. I have seen them using it more than once- possibly more to escape sun, wind or flies than the cold though?

Forgive my ignorance, but I can't find "Bison Hill" on Whipsnade's map. Please enlighten me.

It's not been on the map for some years - if you're looking at the current/recent one it's off to the bottom right beyond the penguins.

It's one of the longest-standing Whipsnade exhibits - there have been American Bison there right from the early days of the zoo. The paddock is clearly visible from local roads and when they took the bison out at one point (late 90s?) they had so many local complaints about 'Where have the bison gone?' they had to put them back. The road (and a local tourist car park) outside the zoo are also called 'Bison Hill' after this paddock.

Thanks, Maguari.

Do the prairie-dogs free-range just in this area, or can they be found all over the park?

They're not limited, so they can go where they like, but they tend to stick to the downs on this edge of the park. There is little disturbance here and large areas of short turf for burrowing (http://www.zoochat.com/216/bison-hill-36747/).


Been checking to see if I can find a date for the first bison on Bison Hill. Clin Keeling's book 'Sir Peter's Way' and Elspeth Huxley's 'Whipsnade' both agree the species was in the zoo when it opened in 1931, but neither make it explicit if they were already in this paddock. They may well have been.

The Whipsnade Zoo guidebook for 1932 includes a photograph of an American bison on Bison Hill.

Thanks Tim! Seems likely they were there from the start in that case; certainly they were on Bison Hill within a year of the zoo opening.

EDIT: as an aside, according to Clin's book Whipsnade opened to the public on 22nd May 1931, so its 80th anniversary is only days away. Happy birthday old friend.