I paid my first visit to The Ark Wildlife Park earlier this week and having been hugely impressed, I wanted to post my thoughts on the place. This is a small collection at Stickney, Lincolnshire which is essentially a sanctuary for rescued animals, mostly ex-pets. I know some Zoochatters have some reservations about sanctuaries, however my view is that this is not only a place with a good heart, they are also a professional, well-run establishment with some excellent large animal enclosures. However, if you like your zoos traditional and/or want to see endangered animals being bred, well this one isn't for you! For me the star attractions are five Red Foxes in two large grassed enclosures - although none of them are the typical colour! The larger enclosure of the two is home to Sox (a male fox with unusual markings including white legs, hence his name), Shadow & Skye (two silver sisters). The other, newer enclosure houses Dexter (also a silver fox) and Lana who is white with blue eyes. All of them are beautiful. Between them is another large pen housing Tembea the serval, and nearby there is also a Lynx. Opposite are some paddocks for wallabies and domesticated animals such as goats and donkeys. Ring-Tailed Lemurs have a nice island and close by a new enclosure is being built for four ex-lab macaques, expected to arrive later this year. Another highlight is 'Tanuki Pond', a large enclosure for a pack of eight very friendly Raccoon Dogs. Nearby are enclosures for Raccoons, Coatis, and Skunks, Jaguarundis which are quite elusive but I did get snarled at by one, and a Small Animal Barn with numerous rabbits along with the inevitable Meerkats! There is also a Tropical House which appears to be a converted stable, inside the mammal highlights include Rusty Spotted Genets and an Asian Palm Civet. There are separate small rooms for a variety of reptiles and other exotic pets, most notably including a Morelet's Crocodile. That is pretty much it for the animals although despite its small size, the visitor facilities are also very good; there is a decent play area and the combined entrance/shop/cafe is excellent, with some lovely homemade cake amongst the goodies on offer! The owners are extremely friendly and very passionate about what they do. Its worth emphasising that they don't seek out animals to add to their collection, everything has come because it needed a home. These range from Dexter the fox who was going to be euthanised by his owner who had bought him to take to children's parties but found him to be too 'aggressive' (allegedly), the serval who was living in a room in somebody's house and was not cleaned out for around two years, with predictability horrific results, and a crocodile that was being kept in a bath! The enclosures are fairly basic affairs and not especially pretty, but mostly offer the animals a lot of space and the chance to behave naturally, for example the foxes have dug their own tunnel system within the fences. The priority is clearly to give the animals what they need; the owner told me that they could take considerably more animals but do not have enough money to house and care for them properly. However, they do have a large field to expand onto, and more animals are expected later in the year - a Jungle Cat was mentioned which I suspect will be of interest to some on here as apparently there is only one in the UK at present, at the Big Cat Sanctuary in Kent. If you like to see animals given a good life after being kept in far from ideal conditions, a visit to The Ark is a must and I certainly left the place with a nice warm feeling inside. You could easily look around in around an hour, but I highly recommend staying longer, as some animals (Lynx and Jaguarundi particularly) are only usually active at certain times of the day and warrant a few visits if you don't see them straight away.
I'm know I'm cynical and am not going to judge the place (as I've never visited) but I'm a little sceptical about that claim given some of the animals held. A number of species mentioned (Jaguarundi in particular and also Ring-tailed Lemurs to an extent) are held privately in such small numbers I struggle to imagine those few people (some of who would have spent a lot of money) who have them would not look after them well enough. i.e. I suspect not all animals are rescued animals or donated ex-pets. I think it's likely at least some of the animals have been purchased (not least because a significant chunk of the stock list are bred and sold from a organisation/location not that far away who coincidentally have Jungle Cats -mentioned above as coming soon) which rather contradicts the statement made. I have no problem, in principle and with caveats, with places buying animals just if they claim not to.
Quite; it wouldn't be the first example of a UK collection with anti-zoo leanings buying stock in, claiming they only keep rescues and decrying the fact zoological collections purchase stock. I know of one VERY anti-zoo falconry centre which obtained a similarly odd and unlikely-to-be-a-rescue species several years ago and claimed to my face that it was a rescue animal when I visited.... some months later I ended up speaking to someone at another collection who knew where and who they had bought it from
WOW the level of cynicism here astounds me!! Some will probably think I am being naive but after a lengthy conversation with the owners I am as confident as I can be that they are 100% telling the truth. As for animals that are unlikely to end up being rescued or donated to a sanctuary - anybody's circumstances can change due to things like someone dying or being taken ill, needing to cut down on 'luxuries' etc. Re: the Jungle Cat - sorry for the inaccuracy, presumably this will be the only individual on regular public display? I think its being imported, indeed a number of the animals here have come from a sanctuary overseas that is pretty much full to capacity, including the serval and white fox.
Oh and for the record, talking to the owner he is not anti-zoo at all. We had a nice chat about a few favourite collections actually!
The Ark work with the AAP which is where the lemurs come from. I agree with @Sand Cat, having visited on a few occasions and speaking with the owners, I'm fairly confident that none of their animals were purchased (I'm pretty sure they told me where the jaguarundi came from but I can't remember).
You'll have to excuse my cyncism but is comes from experience -I've known places claim they've rescued animals which have been purchased from appalling overseas breeding farms and claim that a council asked them to home big cats which were obtained direct from a circus. For the record, I never said they were anti-zoo. I'm genuinely intrigued where their Jaguarundi are from and also surprised (and a little saddened) that no larger/established zoos would have been interested.
I have a bad feeling I might have an inkling of where you are referring to in that first paragraph. It was another poster who suggested they were anti-zoo, not you. Sadly I can't remember either where the jaguarundi came from either - pretty sure I was told as well but there are so many interesting tales to remember! I should perhaps mention that both are quite old and the female only has three legs, so they are effectively 'retired' now. Nonetheless a very cool species and one well worth seeing whatever the reason for them being there!
That does add a little perspective...... Maybe I need to do a double header with Lincolnshire Wildlife Park (when the latter has dried out a little).
Quite; the reason I incorrectly supposed this was a case of an anti-zoo collection is precisely because of the tendency for collections with these sympathies to fudge the origin of their stock, in order to allow the creation of a "we're not a zoo because all our animals are rescue animals" narrative such as the one in the example I gave above.
If this is the place and incident I think it might be, I did think it was a rather strange claim at the time, as I know of no UK circuses keeping tigers by then.
To be clear, I think they were from a circus that had recently ceased (but the council had nothing to do with anything as far as I know -I don't think the place wanted the public to know they had dealings with a circus).
