Watatunga Wildlife Reserve Watatunga Wildlife Reserve

I have looked around and not seen any mention of this, but the planned safari park in Watlington, Norfolk (mentioned in the thread below), has not only been approved but is now filling with animals. The park is known as Watatunga Wildlife Reserve - the name coming from combining the names of Watlington and the sitatunga antelope.

I am not sure how open the park is (especially in these strange times) but it does appear that there are self-catering lodges attached to the site - see below:
The Stable Cottage (1920) | Norfolk Cottages

As mentioned, the site is gradually starting to fill up with animals. The species currently present on site that I can discern are:
- Indian hog deer
- Axis deer
- Barasingha
- Malayan sambar
- White-lipped deer
- Blackbuck (a breeding herd with full black male; this is the first species to have bred on-site at Watatunga)
- Kafue lechwe
- Roan antelope
- Scimitar-horned oryx
- Blesbok (two males originating from Belfast Zoo)
- Sitatunga
- Domestic water buffalo
- Mouflon
- Great bustard (at least one hand-reared male from the Great Bustard Project, that will hopefully allow the creation of a captive-breeding flock)
- Temminck's tragopan
- Over thirty species of duck

Some of the mentioned species come from the following webpage with an update by Edward Pope, founder of Watatunga:
Watlington wildlife reserve

The remaining animals are mentioned on the Facebook page for the Reserve, which is included in the link below; they are currently still working on their website:
Security Check Required

 

A few other species have been recently announced in a number of posts on the Watatunga Facebook page:

- Common fallow deer
- Defassa waterbuck (the second holder for the subspecies in the UK)
- Reeve's pheasant

 

That's a pretty good lineup of ungulates. The cottages look nice too. The linked web page sounds like they are still working out how visitors will see the animals, but most likely in an electric tram. The page includes this sentence: "While we work with and respect traditional zoos, we seek to trail-blaze a new visitor experience and ask for your collaboration, feedback, and ideas..."

 

Another species has been shown on the Watatunga Facebook page today - the cheer pheasant.

 

This appears to be fantastic place, and I look forward to visiting when "this" is all over.

 

I will definitely look to visit this place when things start opening up again as well. Especially now that a rather exciting species was announced on Facebook earlier this evening.

Watatunga is apparently home to Manchurian sika deer (Cervus hortulorum (nippon) mantchuricus). If Zootierliste is to be believed, it is the only holder of the subspecies in Europe.

 

I'm pretty sure that the sika in Woburn Deer Park are Manchurian - they certainly claim they are on the website and they do look different to the Japanese sika we see at Whipsnade and in the New Forest.

 

I thought Whipsnade's were classed as these also...

 

Just looking on Zootierliste, Woburn is listed as having Ussuri sika (or Dybowksi) deer Cervus hortulorum hortulorum. So it might be that Watatunga does have a different subspecies to anywhere else, or alternatively it may just be a misidentification on the scientific name.

 

I think this is a taxonomic opinion issue (sika are a taxonomic nightmare and there's been a lot of changes, not very consistently applied). Woburn's have always been listed as mantchuricus by the deer park previously so I have no reason to think they're not them (or whatever taxon mantchuricus is included under other taxonomies!).

 

Some more notes about species at Watatunga:

Firstly, a reply to a comment on their Facebook page (from 17th April) gives a better idea of the bird collection. A total of sixty species of exotic duck were introduced to the reserve but due to predation by native raptors this number is now not as extensive. As well as the bustard, tragopan and cheer and Reeve's pheasants already mentioned in this thread, the post also lists golden, Lady Amherst, silver and Himalayan monal pheasants.

Also, the official Watatunga website has launched, including a full list of all the ungulate species living on site. As well as the sixteen species already mentioned in this thread, the following also either live on the reserve or will arrive soon (according to a response on Facebook, a couple of species have been delayed due to the coronavirus lockdown):
- Chinese water deer
- Eld's deer
- Nilgai
- Red deer
- Roe deer
- Pere David's deer
- Vietnamese sika deer

The website is included below, with the species list on the 'About' page:
Watatunga Wildlife Tours and Accommodation in Norfolk

 

Eld's deer, I assume will be Burma brow-antlered right?

 

According to Facebook, the following have happened at Watatunga:

Four offspring born at the Blackbuck so far.

Watatunga Wildlife Reserve

2 Barasingha deer born, the first was born on June 10th. On June 22nd, a male was born. He is being bottle fed because his first time mom is not producing enough milk.

Watatunga Wildlife Reserve

2 Blesbok arrived from Belfast Zoo in March.

Watatunga Wildlife Reserve

A Manchurian Sika Deer was born on June 14th.

Watatunga Wildlife Reserve

Helmeted Guinea Fowl is also present at Watatunga.

Watatunga Wildlife Reserve

A red Lechwe was born in early June

Watatunga Wildlife Reserve

5 hand raised Mouflons were introduced to Watatunga at the end of May.

Watatunga Wildlife Reserve

4 Swans hatched on May 26th.

Watatunga Wildlife Reserve

Julio, a water buffalo will be or have been introduced to the Watatunga herd.

Watatunga Wildlife Reserve

 

Another new species has been announced at Watatunga - a breeding pair of European white storks.

Information comes from the Watatunga Facebook page.

 

Update here from the local paper

New Norfolk safari park with ‘extraordinary’ animals set to open soon

 

Watatunga Wildlife Reserve have announced they are opening from Monday 3rd August. They will be running 8 tours a week as a soft launch - 9.00 & 17.00 on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and 17.00 on Monday and Saturday. The tours will consist of up to 5 electric buggies each fitted with a speaker system and following their expert guide in the lead buggy. It's a 1hr 30min tour, and costs £60 for a for 4-seat buggy, or £90 for a 6-seat buggy. Just booked in for 15th August, will report back if no one else beats me to it

 

Maybe we'll get a video on YouTube in a year or so too

 

A year is being optimistic

 

Opening soon :

New wildlife reserve with passion for endangered species set to open next week

 

Visited yesterday and all I can saw is WOW! What an experience! Visits to zoo and safari parks are usually enjoyable, but this was so much fun.

On arrival you meet the team and tour guide. Each group is given their own golf buggy, given the safety spiel and then you head into the reserve following behind the guide. Each buggy is equipped with a radio and speaker so you can hear the tour guide along the way. The tour was informative and you stop off on the way to get views of the animals. There are some stunning views along the way, especially the watering hole and islands.

The animals are pretty much free to roam the reserve, so each visit will bring a different encounter. Some of the animals are very nervy and flighty, like the blackbuck, but others are more inquisitive, such as Oorja, the young sambar that was hand reared, and Rommel the Great Bustard - he was the highlight of our tour. Other species seen were a single oryx, Roan, axis, water buffalo, white stork, sitatunga, mouflon and Reeves's pheasant.

It absolutely chucked it down at the beginning of the tour. Whilst me and the wife were sheltered, our friend got soaked, as the two back seat have no cover. The 6-seater is more luxurious and has a sat-nav system that the owner has been wrking on that brings up points of interest.

Driving the buggies made it so much fun and a different selling point to the usual safari park. Whilst there is a route, the terrain is different along the way. You drive through forest, on the edge of fields, it really is unique to anything else in the UK. It does feel like safari in Norfolk!

The Père David’s deer have not arrived yet, and the team hoping to add zebra and bongo in the future.

At £60 for a 4-seater buggy (and £90 of the 6-seater) it's a steal! I would urge you all to visit sooner rather than later as I suspect pricing will be tweaked going forward, plus it will be closing over the winter months. I'll be booking again soon when the next wave of slots is released.

Can someone create a media page for this new collection, and I'll add a few photos.