They're obviously so busy getting their new venture at the Blackbrook site started that they are just copying their near-neighbours' ideas to keep Manor House chugging along Just a shame they are so busy trying to cope with two locations that they have neglected to apply for a zoo licence for the new site!
Competition is normally regarded as a good thing, but I think in this case its a pity these two collections are so close.
When Folly Farm announced they would be going into working with black rhino (here: http://www.zoochat.com/38/black-rhinos-folly-farm-363895/), my initial reaction was, out of all the taxa they could have opted to work with, why invest in the one that the nearest wildlife collection had spent so many years trying to bring to Wales? Given that people posting at the time seemed to be almost celebrating the decision Folly Farm made to go into working with black rhino, I held off commenting as I assumed my judgement must be off and that perhaps my notion of zoos competing was an erroneous one, despite having similar reservations about Colchester during the early years of Africa Alive. But I'd always thought, as holdings in a continent-wide network of EEP and ESB programs, zoos in the same area would want the public to visit them both? How can you compete as a business but subscribe to the idea of cooperation as conservation partners? However, now Manor house is doing something it not only has been consistently criticised for not doing (bringing in new species of real conservation value), and making a logical step given they are so near to a rapidly-expanding collection that is willing to bring in the same high-profile animals held by them, I'm confused that they are being criticised for trying to compete with Folly Farm! I'm not sure what it is, but for whatever reason people frown on Manor house and it's current owners, it should be remembered that they really turned around what was IMHO an ailing and second-rate zoo, ensuring the remaining individuals were housed properly before attempting to bring in new stock. I get the feeling that, had Manor House attempted to keep giraffes and had the same losses as Folly Farm, they would have been absolutely trashed on here. Yes, naive rich folk can be annoying, especially when they're kissing kune kune piglets and making anthropomorphic comments about wild animals, but I just think, well...credit where it's due?
Alternatively, look at it this way … here is an opportunity for both to look into! Why not work together and provide quid-quo pro visits either way? Other exciting means and methods to work together too …!!!
Having posted straight after yours, I should have made it clear that I wasn't responding to your observation, and definitely took it as such. It was more seeing the contrast between threads re the black rhino and the news here of the plans for tigers. Absolutely....it baffles me that there isn't more cooperation between neighbouring collections to (a) ensure there are distinct reasons to visit both and (b) promote each other through discounts and packages.
Pembrokeshire might be a very good place for a certain type of animal collection. It has a very mild climate, its holiday resorts bring in a steady stream of visitors, and South Wales is desperately short of places to see exotic wild animals. I'm just not sure that there is going to be enough money going round to make both collections profitable. Competition is a fact of life, as Darwin noted some time back.
A female Sumatran tiger named Terima has arrived today!! This is manor house wildlife parks first tiger!
Does anyone have any pics of the new tiger accommodation? The park has a new logo and they seem to be just calling it Manor Wildlife Park now
Hi everyone haven't done a post in a long long time. Does anyone have any news about what is going to happen this year. Will be nice to here from anyone
The wildlife park has received 3 Visayan Warty Pigs and guessing from the photo on their facebook in the old Flamingo exhibit. "Introducing Elvis, Boris and Vinne; the three newest members of the Manor Park family! These three cheeky chaps are Visayan Warty Pigs and are some of the rarest animals on the planet, with an estimated wild population of Just 200!!"
Two Red Panda's have arrived from Denmark and are now on show in a walk through enclosure: Manor House Wildlife Park
Something of interest I noticed that I haven't seen reported elsewhere. This scientific paper about the welfare of captive aardvarks in European zoos lists a single female as living at Manor House Wildlife Park. Cannot find any other information about it on the internet, however. https://www.researchgate.net/profil...-Zoological-Gardens-in-the-European-Union.pdf
I think when the fire at London zoo destroyed the aardvark enclosure, the remaining one was relocated to Manor House. I’m sure I remember reading that at the time.
