The park has been realy active on facebook lately, and regulary embellish the old exhibits in the park. The brown bears received a large forest in 2015, the lynx a new exhibit in 2016. The old (almost historic) bear pit is now empty. Last year the park also introduced black bears in to the collection. This year there weren't big updates, but we noticed a birth with the Chamois.
One brown bear has died last summer. Mother-bear Fifille has reached an age of 34, and was the ambassador and logo from the park. See is the mother of Kinder (°2014) who is still in the park. At this moment the bear-forest only houses two bears. Kinder and Bernie.
Recently a Alpine chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra rupicapra) was born. Source: Facebook of Parc Forestia (23/05/2021) Aanmelden bij Facebook
Last Saturday I visited Forestia for the first time (my 51st zoological facility to visit). It was a pretty pleasant discovery and I certainly enjoyed it. Here are some of my thoughts on the visit and the facility. Forestia is to some extent comparable with the wildlife park at Han, although the terrain is just a bit less difficult than at Han, with the upward and downward slopes just a little less extreme, although still substantial. The collection at Forestia is also different and the total facility is substantially smaller. The exhibits are generally fairly simple in conception, being fenced-off sections of forest and meadows. Most of them are okay to good. But there were some exhibits I have some doubts and questions about, such as the raccoon exhibit which doesn't really offer that much climbing opportunities and only had a large water bowl rather than a pond or stream, the strange little holding pen for the wild boar that was filled with mud and the shelters for the bisons (American and wisent) which didn't offer much dry ground, although admittedly weather conditions have something to do with that. It was also noticeable that the fences were not really in the best of shape in some places, although it was also clear they are working on that, and in several places fences were present that had clearly been placed very recently. So presumably they will be continuing this type of improvement in the future for other exhibits (and in fact there was ongoing construction on the wild boar area). Because some animals in the park are allowed to be fed, exclusively with feed sold by the park itself (which seemed to be grain and some kind of herbivore pellets) quite a few of the animals will come fairly to very close to visitors. In a wildlife park type facility it is of course nice to be able to observe animals up close rather than from a substantial distance. So this system certainly has some advantages, but I wonder whether it doesn't also have some serious downsides. I did not participate in the feeding myself, but I did not see any unsafe or irresponsible situations for animals or people involved. As far as I could see the animals not allowed to be fed were also clearly indicated, and people seemed to be following those rules well. As far as species goes I certainly enjoyed the Alpine chamois, a species I now finally got to see after missing out on them at Han last year. I also saw a very recently born red deer fawn, quite a special something to see certainly. The food truck they currently use was a good way to help with the capacity of the restaurant (currently only allowed to serve food on the outdoor terraces) and to give people a chance for a fairly quite snack and drink on a nearby terrace, with more than enough space between the tables. The bathrooms sadly weren't all very user friendly or clean, especially in the afternoon. In terms of Covid-19 the park had organized things fairly well, sadly the rules weren't always followed completely. But in this regard I again saw no seriously unsafe situations. Luckily the park is large enough that even with a full parking lot it did not seem to be super full at all. I also noticed that the park maps on their website, on the signs in the park itself and the map we received at the entrance didn't completely match in some areas. So not everything is entirely up to date. I am planning to post an extensive photographic overview and report in the gallery in the near future.
A brown bear has escaped from his exhibit (due to hidden stormdamage/ flood from a few weeks ago). The bear remained calm, and stayed within 15m from the exhibit. Visitors are evacuated, but never in danger. With a sedation-shot the problem was solved. The bear was also checked when sedated, but was in good health.
Forestia has received the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) herd from Zoo Berlin, consisting of one male, three females and four juveniles born in 2023. They have moved into an exhibit near the striped skunks and North American porcupines. FORESTIA
