African Wild Dog at West Midlands Safari Park

That's very interesting. I didn't know it was even possible to enter an enclosure with them, I thought they were too aggressive. In which case I'd revise what I said above about the West Mids exhibit.

Lets get it clear here the Hunting Dogs exhibit at WMSP is on the safari drive - you're not allowed to get out of your car and play with them :O)

nno i ment staff wise. the staff at port lymnpe and howletts go in the enclosure with them. DEFINATLEY NOT THE PUBLIC!!!!

LoL - be an amazing selling point though :O)
i'd be very tempted!!

i must say it is quite a plain exhibit . there is not much cover or trees. its not like the hunting dog enclosure at port lymnpe or longleats wolf wood

You're right about the lack of cover - but I really enjoyedthe opportunity to get in the enclosure with them. The Pack at Knowsley has more cover and places to hide but they are essentially in a caged enclosure so you have the fence between you and them - not bad for photography if they are not to close to the fence as you can focus beyond it - the WMSP issue I suppose is that you have to shoot through the glass of your car windows to get images.....swings & roundabouts as they say!

I don't know any zoos other than Port Lympne where keepers went in with the dogs. However, there was one male, Rafiki, who was hand-reared (in the days before they cracked the formula to produce surviving litters of parent-reared cubs), not sure if he is still alive, and he was the one hunting dog who, coincidentally, was too aggressive for keepers to go in the enclosure with him.

Yes, I heard about him. Evidently handraising removed his natural fear and allowed his aggression full reign. I hadn't realised they went in with non-handraised ones though- I'd always assumed even they were too aggressive also.

I've been to WMSP a few times when the electric gates are on the blink and I have to say that the staff member manually opening and closing the gates does tend to be a little nervous. One keeper even commented that it's the worst job she'd had since being employed there.

@scimiterhorned1 well that aged well about the “nobody has ever been hurt by a wild dog”