An Indian rhinoceros has damaged a visitor's car. She isn't getting any sympathy from readers of the Birmingham Mail. Rhino attacks woman's car at West Midland Safari Park - Birmingham Mail
Last year my niece's partners car was attacked by a Barbary Sheep, but this is the risk you take when entering the park (or any park for that matter) Animals are dangerous so I have no sympathy with anyone who has the car damaged in a safari park. Remember when the monkeys use to damage cars all the time we thought it was fun how times have changed.
Might sound a bit pedantic but was it not a white rhino that bumped the car? Last time I visited the Indian rhinos were in a segregated enclosure.
I was told that the baboons at Lambton Lion Park used to cause damage to cars, my Dad says that when Grandad bought his new Austin Princess with a black vinyl roof her refused to go their anymore as they used to pull the vinyl off,he used to go there in future on the bus with his friends and go around the park on a double decker painted like a giraffe, that must have been great. As for West Midlands, as long as nobody was injured, animal or human it is no big deal, that damage to her car can easily be repaired by the look of it.
I have to disagree, it is always funny to see any monkey damage a car of any type in a safari park. What Joe Public are sometimes guilty of in Safari parks that can cause them damage like this to their cars, is that they generally try to get too close to the animals. If you take this incident, we have approximately two tons of large animal that is of the type that can be easily startled and to top it off, they have pretty crap eyesight; put that combination together with any animal and a car getting too close is literally an accident waiting to happen. Also, if the person in this incident was feeding or trying to feed the rhino, then I would have no sympathy at all. I have watched rhinos (white) for many years and many hours in safari parks, and had a few 'heart in mouth' moments when they run right by the car, but keep your distance and they just generally ignore you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAVJjlMpyVk The above shows what getting too close can happen...
That's true, I remember once watching the baboons at Knowsley from the other side of the fence pulling people's motors to pieces, one poor visitor in a brand new Range Rover got it worst, must have caused hundreds in damage, he did not look at all pleased , I was in hysterics, wouldn't have been if it was my motor!
That's the great thing about Knowsley, the opportunity to stop alongside the baboons and watch the mayhem, gloating smugly. Then go round the carpark guessing who went in.
Don't West Midlands encourage visitors to feed their animals, at least they used to. I can remember once a giraffe actually once poked its head into our car looking for treats, zebras also.
Yes their "car friendly route" is certainly that!, you should have seen those baboons on the Range Rover, the bloke kept braking suddenly to try and shake them off, but no they were hanging on , looked as if they were experts at it, I can still laugh at it now, I would n't have been if had been by £50, 000 motor though, nor when I got the repair bill.
They certainly used to (maybe still do) sell food that you could hand feed from your car window to certain animals, but rhinos is/was not one of those to be hand fed. Personally I don't agree with selling food that can only be fed to the animals in certain sections of the drive and not other sections. People don't read or pay attention to signs enough, we all know that is a zoo/safari park fact.
They were still selling food as of last year, the packets clearly state that it's only for deer and goats.
Clearly a general public that thinks it's a good idea to get a toddler out to pee in a big cat enclosure is unlikely to differentiate between deer, antelope or even rhino
The latest that I've seen is that it was a white rhino and the woman's car was grey. It is thought that the rhino was trying to mate with the car. Feeding of animals at West Midlands can cause problems, addax congregate at the entrance to their reserve and beg for food, everyone stops to feed them and the result is a traffic jam.
