Highland Wildlife Park Highland wildlife park news 2018

The fact they announced it 9 hours ago on facebook says something about the number that turned up.

Oh and Twycross were doing one out one in today, even without a completed chimp house.

 

Surely they’ll put something in place now to ensure better control.

 

For those old enough to remember, its obviously the 'Brumas' factor at work again. They should have looked at what happened at London Zoo when she was born back in 195... Bristol had a similar experience(on a smaller scale) with their firt cub 'Sebastian' too.

 

They posted the following earlier today:

Thank you to all our visitors who chose to make the most of the sunshine and visit the Highland Wildlife Park. Your support is vital in helping us achieve our charitable aims and our mission of safeguarding endangered species.

If you are planning to visit us over the holiday period, please be aware that we are expecting to be extremely busy, especially during better weather. Please look out for updates on our social media channels.

If you had pre-booked tickets and were unable to enter the Park due to traffic congestion, please e-mail our visitor services team - [email protected].

Thank you once again for your support. We really appreciate all the interest and best wishes towards our Park, our conservation work and the new arrival!

 

Indeed, the publicity surrounding the famous polar bear cub 'Brumas' (born 1949) resulted in London Zoo having three million plus visitors in 1950; the highest ever annual attendance of any UK zoo.

 

...but it didn't last very long as Polar Bear cubs grow very quickly so, as with Brumas the new cub at HWP won't have that strong appeal factor after the first few months.

 

Agreed. "Brumas” was born several years before I was; by the time I started visiting the zoo as a very small child, “Brumas” was “just another polar bear” and no longer anything special.

Similarly, “Pipaluk” soon ceased to be a novelty and the excitement surrounding him didn’t last long; and, of course, similar situations arose with “Pipaluk’s” subsequent siblings,

 

Same thing at Bristol- there were queues stretching outside the zoo to see the baby 'Sebastian' but he grew very fast. Subsequent cubs did not have quite the same impact. I seem to remember one year there were two cubs even, with two mothers- Cynthia( Sebastian's mother) had one and his 'mate' Misha had one too. Must have been a fairly unique situation in a GB zoo- unless Chester ever did that.

I think the HWP cub will already be quite large by the summer holidays...

 

New blog:

RZSS Zookeeper blog - Standing in the footsteps of leopards | Highland Wildlife Park

 

The polar bear cub has been sexed as a male, let the naming competition commence.

 

Visited today for only the 3rd time, how I wish I lived closer!

The park is simply stunning, we seen every single species possible, and even got to witness the young polar bear cub swimming and playing with Victoria (his mother). It would appear that he will named Hamish, as it's this name that's winning the vote by a landslide.

A few pieces of news:

• A Bull Elk arrived yesterday from Curraghs Wildlife Park and has already been introduced to the resident female.
• The park have been given approval to attempt to breed the Musk Ox this year.
• The last Arctic Fox at the park has been euthanised due to severe ill health.
• Signage at the Amur Tiger enclosure indicates that a 2nd Tiger enclosure is due to be built.

 

Yes - I don’t Hamish being beaten now in the poll the way that things stand. It isn’t my personal preference, as I feel that some of the other names have a lot more significance.

 

Not particularly my preference either but when I saw it on the list, it seemed the obvious winner to me...

 

Not surprised to hear that, they looked very old and shaky when I saw them in 2016. Hopefully they will replace.

 

Yes, I agree. I voted for Artor, but I also like the idea behind Poulsen.

 

Another one here who voted for Artor. Hamish seems a pretty uninspired choice compared with the other options, although some of the comments about it on the HWP Facebook page are rather OTT to put it mildly!

 

Yes, uninspired is a good choice of word. It just seems a little eye-rollingly obvious. I haven’t seen the comments that you mention but I may have a nose now just to see what it’s all about!

 

Official confirmation that the cub has been named Hamish:

Public vote for their favourite polar bear name! | Highland Wildlife Park

 

No idea when they were born, but there's a couple of visitors' pics of young Wildcat kittens on the facebook

 

How many Scottish wild cats do they have?