Yes, it's one of the most attractive zoos I've visited. The first half is packed with aviaries and small enclosures, whilst the valley has a number of larger exhibits for cheetah, ostrich and antelope. Last time I visited, the enclosure to the left was home to a pair of capybara but it's huge and I can see it making a great sitatunga exhibit.
Thanks for that Redpanda it certainly looks to be very nice. Have you seen the new Black Leopard enclosure?
Yes, on my last visit the enclosure itself was completed but a leopard had not yet been found to put in it.
Thanks for that. Ebony the female leopard came from Santago Rare Leopard Project ran by the late Peter James. After the death of Peter James, The leopards had to be found new homes, Ebony was born at the Park and needed rehoming. They now have a new male Zoysa coming from Linton Zoo about 2 weeks ago, He is a very aggressive and dominant character so it will be interesting to see how things go. Could you give a short review about the Enclosure? Many thanks.
It`s about 25 feet high 2 large wooden platforms steps at different parts of the enclosure its about 40-50 feet long and about 30 feet in width and reasonable well planted and the house has 2 or 3 dens and 1 viewing window into the house,and I think you can view the Leopards from 3 large window panes,all in all I would say its alot better than any of the ones from Linton that the Leopards have been kept in!
Thanks Zoogiraffe. When was the last time you visited Linton? The elder Leopard enclosures have been out of use for about 2-4 years now. A new Leopard enclosure is in the planning stages. The only Enclosures holding Leopards now is Zoysa's old enclosure which is very good, tall plenty of vegitation and platforms and the old Lynx enclosure holding the old Leopard Lisa which is very simple with a platform and a few logs - Being 17 Lisa only tends to sit on her platform so it is perfect for her. Being a small zoo money is hard to find so rebuilding the small leopard enclosure has been put down the line, as there have been more important things to sort out, but I do agree Exmoor's is definately alot larger then the Linton ones. It certainly looks very good and I am looking forward to seeing it soon. Zoysa is a very difficult and agressive animal to work with so it will be very interesting to see how he gets on with the keepers and indeed Ebony in the future. For such an animal to get used to a new enclosure, new keepers and new leopards it will be hard for him but he should come round soon enough and stop being very agressive (jumpy and shouty) at anyone who just passes him.