The new penguin pool costs £110,000. Good luck to WWP. BBC - Penguins arrive at Wingham Wildlife Park
News from Wingham Wildlife Park Latest news from Wingham: November has also been a big month at the park for animal movements, as we have said farewell to a number of our Lemurs. This year we have moved a record number of Lemurs for our park thanks to the excellent breeding seasons we have had with these beautiful primates over the past 2 years. We have moved a young pair of Black and White Ruffed Lemurs which made their way across most of the globe to arrive at a zoo in China, which is a move which was organised in association with Rare Species Conservation Centre in Sandwich. The majority of our Lemurs however have made the slightly shorter journey to the other side of Europe, going to Sofia Zoological park in Bulgaria. This move was made up of 10 seperate animals (1 Red Ruffed Lemur, 2 Black & White Ruffed Lemurs and 7 Ring Tailed Lemurs). The red Ruffed Lemur will join their very successful educational team where she will help to teach children about the plight of Lemurs in the wild, while the others have joined groups of each of these animals to further the genetic bloodline of Sofias breeding animals. While moving the animals to Sofia zoo we used a very good animal movement agent who delivered some new reptiles to us at the same time from the Czech Republic (moving this many animals between this number of zoos has been an absolute logistics nightmare!). We have received 2 young Gray's Monitors which came from the Czech Crocodile Zoo at Protivin. These are 2 beautiful captive bred animals from the Philippines, which have been waiting to come to Europe for almost a year (being just under 2 years old now). We are very pleased to say that we are amongst only 4 zoos outside of the Philippines which have this species on display (data taken from the ISIS animal records system), and one of only 2 zoos in Europe holding this species. The Gray's Monitor is a magnificent species which is very unusual in that it feeds largely on fruits (whilst almost all other monitors eat mostly meat and insect prey). They are also one of the worlds largest truly arboreal species, reaching around 6 feet in length when fully grown. We cannot wait to try and breed this species in the future, and are very happy to say that this incredibly shy and fragile species has settled in very well to park life.
Hmm... just when I was thinking I could afford to skip Kent as a zoo expedition next year, Gray's Monitors turn up. Very nice.
When are you are thinking of doing it as I`m game for a trip to Kent to see a pair of Grays Monitors.
I'm still trying to resist - too much else I want to do next year (not least Scotland and Belfast). But as I could get away with Wingham on the same day as Howletts and do Wingham and the Aspinalls in a weekend I may be tempted yet!
If you lads time it correctly and timely I might come out as well. It is a short stint for us to the Kent coast from wintery Amsterdam.