Our creationist friends at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm have decided to save lions and tigers from the Flood. The first stage will be a tiger exhibit. They are planning to bring in five tigers, both Amur and Bengal (and there was me thinking the animals came in two by two). See these articles for more: Tigers could soon be kept at Wraxall zoo attraction Tigers on the way to Wraxall? Planning permission has yet to be granted, but plans of the exhibit can be viewed here: North Somerset Council - Search planning applications What's more, their five year plan apparently includes elephants and bears! What chance of Bristol Zoo's new wildlife park ever happening with this on their doorstep?
Have know about these plans for awhile,the most worrying thing is they are not planning on bringing in a keeper with experience of handling big cats the owner is going to train the staff himself and hes got vast experience with domestic farm cats!!!!!(Well just read the links it now it appears that they are going to employ a keeper that knows what they are doing can only think that joining BIAZA has made them start to do things differently because they were definatly not going to employ an experienced keeper when i first heard of the plans)
It does have great potential as an accident waiting to happen as far as i`m concerned its only a question of what and when.
i think i might go here in a few weeks having a zoo trip down south so want to checkin on old nessbit
I feel that comment could be made about one or two other zoos in the Uk at present, which have recently been taken over by people with little or no previous experience of large scale or dangerous animal-keeping... I'm sure they have the correct licences to operate, and maintain any existing experienced staff where possible etc, but it goes back to that old saying about 'anybody can open a zoo.'
Your are of course quite right but how many of the others keep a pair of White Rhino behind just a electric fence and chain link fence with wooden fence posts,i would hazard a guess none although the place has improved a hell of alot since my first visit 4 years ago its still miles behind in terms of quality of exhibits.Yes they do have all the correct licences to open,as for the experience of the staff they are all very young and have been trained by the owner who is a very experienced dairy farmer.
Let's hope that they do get permission to keep lions and tigers, it could work in some zoo's favour, like Chester's way of getting rid of their Bengals, and maybe another collection getting shut of some spare lions, but lets hope they don't want any of those dreaded white lions from wmsp.....
As much as i want Chester get rid of the Bengals i would rather see them at Chester than them go to Noahs.
I concur. Just because a small zoo may put their hand up for some surplus 'Bengal' tigers does not mean that they should get them in order to free up room in the bigger zoo. Responsible zoos only send animals to collections where they feel that the animal will get a suitable degree of life in captivity. I don't enough about Noah's Ark, but I get the feeling that the park is definitely running marathons before it has learn to walk.
I don't see a problem with a smaller, newer zoo getting Tigers, as they could have the experienced staff etc to look after them properly. However I don't feel Noah's ark zoo has the experienced staff etc to start keeping tigers. Most of their facilities aren't good enough for their animals. When are they getting their Giraffe a female?!
Sorry. What I meant to say was that there is no problem with a small zoo obtaining tigers, as long as they have the experience and knowledge of how to maintain them properly. This goes for any species at any collection. So I do agree with you...
Are they actually going to get a female Giraffe? I'm not sure how I feel about them getting Elephants either...
I don't know is the short answer. I would imagine they will source female giraffes eventually. Are they typical zoo giraffes or Rothschild's? I would be amazed if they could source bears and elephants, however.