West Midland Safari and Leisure Park West Midland Safari Park 2023

Sad news came in as Rolo the male White Lion has passed away aged 20 and Condonlences and thoughts are with the keepers at this sad time 登录 Facebook

 

Devastating news

 

I have just been over to Howletts Thread and I understand that the new bull elephant Coco is coming to West Midlands Safari Park in the next few weeks

 

Does that mean Sutton will be moved on

 

Now then once Coco has settled into his home at West Midland Safari Park he may need to get use to his new surroundings and then meet Five there

 

I would imagine so, as I believe he no longer lives with his mother, just remains as distant company. As speculated previously, Noah's Ark may seem the obvious choice with their bachelor herd, but it is probably best to just wait and see how everything turns out.

 

When Coco does come to West Midland Safari Park in the next few weeks I would imagine that he will be the breeding bull like he did at Howletts. Spoken to 3 colleagues who works at Howletts and they have sent me some photos of him and show how much he's grown.

 

Visited today for the first time in 5 years and was fair to say it has changed a lot.

Was very pleased to see that there has been vast improvements with regards to the housing provided to the animals held within the African section. It was nice to see that the lowland anoa are no longer held within an enclosure. They are now able to roam within the Asian section that their enclosure was previously within.

With it being the first day of half term it was understandably busy with a long wait by the new elephant/giraffe Lodge areas due to people feeding the giraffe right next to the cattle grid between the two sections. I doubt I could be as calm as the keepers with people holding up the traffic to allow their kids to throw pellets of food at random hoofstock.

In terms of future plans I did overhear a member of staff telling another visitor that they plan to build lodges that incorporate the hippos area and also a lodge where the old rhino house was that will incorporate an enclosure for the African wild dogs. Randomly a member of the catering team also mentioned they have plans for a monkey Island but I didn't get chance to ask what kind of monkey they intended to have on this island.

A few random questions that people may know the answers too:

Is there just 2 elephants now as we only saw 2 and they were separated so assumed it was Sutton and his mother. If there is just the one female now, Five, and the rumoured arrival of the Howletts male could this be the basis of a more natural matriarch herd. I'm sure the more knowledgeable would say there are lots of reasons why this won't happen (Five's age, the fact she has had one successful calf which was the product of AI, etc) but is there any similarities between this setup and the Hi Way family of Asian elephants at Chester?
Does anyone know if there are any plans for the area where the elephants previously were as today I only saw 3-4 camels and a single zebra?
Can anyone confirm whether many years ago the park had chimps on an island in the lake next to the new tiger lodges/ lemur Wood? The person who mentioned the 'monkey island' said they had previously held 12 baboons but seemed mystified when I mentioned chimps. If I am right about there being chimps does anyone know where they went too?

 

Well as you saw the photos of Coco the Bull Elephant after been spoken to 3 colleagues from Howletts that it's to see how much he's grown when they sent me some photos of him. What's the meaning of a Grevy Zebra in with the camels ?

 

The hippo complex is next on the list as the staff mentioned with either dholes or the wild dogs after

As far as I'm aware the park has never had any apes however had some primates in the dhole enclosure a while back. The islands by hippos have been left empty as its not in the parks ownership boundary.

This is the mare for the girls however they pick on him. He was in the previous rhino house as a member states ,but now thats being torn down for the hippo complex to make way.

Hope this helps !

 

thank you so much now I understand. If you look above there are photos of Bull Elephant Coco as I have spoken to 3 colleagues who works at Howletts and it's 3 photos of him they've sent me to show how much he's grown. Hope you like them

 

I don't know why West Midlands persist with allowing the feeding of their animals by visitors. It causes untold traffic jams at certain points at busy times. I also think its unhygeinic and potentially dangerous- for the humans that is. Do any other Safari Parks do this?

They have never had Chimpanzees.

 

More to the point when it says many animals not to feed, and people seem to totally ignore them as well.

 

Are you sure?

I have this book at home titled "Wildlife in Britain - Guide to Natural Habitats, Safari Parks and Zoos" which of course focuses on collections and native wildlife in the UK. It's a very old book from the 70's as it contains details of a lot of minor zoos (ones that have closed down in years gone by like Glasgow zoo or Windsor safari park).

On page 219, there's a part about WMSP which reads:

"This Safari Park, set in undulating parkland on the edge of Wyre Forest, has a general collection which includes Lions, Tigers, bears, wolves, White rhinoceros, Giraffe, Eland Antelope, gnu, zebras, camels, elephants, deer, Chimpanzees, baboons and sealions. Many lion cubs are bred. You pay extra to go into 'Bird Paradise' where there are 600 birds. There is also an Aquarium with 200 fish; a children's zoo called 'Friendly Animal Forest', containing flamingos, pelicans, Muscovy Ducks, lambs and goats, and a safari boat trip on which you see Chimpanzees on an island and flamingos. There is also a garden centre. The Park was opened in 1973"

 

I stand corrected! But I don't know anything about them or what happened to them.

 

Does anyone know what's happening to the Goat Walk? Because, when I went in October last year, it was closed... I presumed for redevelopment. Is there anything being built to replace it?

 

I believe more lodges possibly lion ones they had plans somewhere online

 

Yes it'll have the new bachelor group, the plans are all on the Wyre forest Council planning plage

 

That would be really good indeed

 

The park have announced this morning on their Facebook page that they will remain closed today due to the snow.