Time to catch up Time to catch up indeed, what do i mean? Over the past few years we have seen the other 4 safari parks in the UK, go from strength to strength in terms of their collections and development at the parks. We have seen the arrival at other UK safari parks of such diverse, endangered and quite frankly unusual species, that has in my opinion left Blair Drummond standing sadly alone in the corner. Aye-aye, Drill, Madagascan jumping rat, giant anteater, Siberian weasel, Iberian wolf, African hunting dog, cheetah, Sumatran tiger, Indian rhino, Grevy's zebra, Somali wild ass, warthog, red river hog, Philippine deer, Vietnamese sika deer, bongo, nyala, roan antelope, blesbok, blue wildebeest, mhorr gazelle and i'm sure others i have forgotten, but not so Blair Drummond. Why though?, why are we not even seeing even the slightest attempt to invigorate the collection, are the owners quite content in pulling in the money, earning off the back of the odd rhino calf or meerkat popping out of a pumpkin? Yes, there are things that the park should deservedly be proud of, the aforementioned white rhino breeding programme, but some of the shine for me is taken away, when you see the rhino mixed with bactrian camels, yak and Pere David's deer, lazy, very lazy. Alongside the other major hoofstock drive through area with American bison, fallow deer and a hybrid camel, maybe it's just me, but hardly gets the pulse racing. The African elephants are in an acceptable paddock and kudos to the park for taking on some problem animals. The lemur area too is quite lovely in the woodland across the loch. But these are mere peanuts, when the main course is required, i'm sure it is a question of money, always is, but even a little imagination can go a long way! Then again there is still an anoa
