With family in Bristol, I traveled down to this little park 3 weeks ago. I was seriously impressed. They only have a few species but they have big plans. As you enter the park, there are Reindeer, they have around 6 and there paddock is small, but this is because they are in the process of preparing a new paddock off the meadow for them, which in time will have around 6/7 other species of deer and antelope and is a 3 year program they are working on but the Reindeer, Addax and Bongo should be in paddocks around the meadow by the end of next year. As you follow the path around, you come to the Okapi and they have 5 large paddocks, with great visibility for visitors and you can get up close to them. They have had 2 babies in the last year and one even was sticking it's head through fence trying to lick me. Got some amazing photo's. The past heads around to a massive African Plain section where Eland and Zebra are out together on the grass land and Savannah sand. There are Red River Hogs in a separate section and they have 3 Giraffe's (all male) in their house and out on their paddock. They plan to introduce the Zebra, Eland, and Giraffe together over time. It's a great exhibit and it's really big and I really loved the markings on the Giraffe they had. They were very different to what I had seen before. As you walk out of that section you come to a Lemur walkthrough which has 5 species of Lemur, all happy to get close to you. Leaving the Lemur section, you head round to the Woodland, where there are a group of European Grey Wolves, there were 5 or 6 who were all sleeping in the woodland, but if you follow the path towards the meadow there is a barefoot trail, which takes you under a canopy where you can see a fenced off part of the woods where the Wolves sleep and you are within 10-12ft of them. Leaving the wood, you follow the path past the meadow and then into the Walled Garden. There are a few bird species and Meerkats and Dik Diks. It's small and basic but room for expansion. Leaving the walled Garden you cut bath through the Okapi section and it brings you out at the Cheetah section. They have a huge enclosure with 3 Cheetah's in there. The path follows round to a mound and hill, where the Gelada live. These are huge Baboons and again you are up very close to them. I got chatting to one of the admins at the park and they had very exciting news. The woodland walk is massive and you brings you out by the Wolves, but next year they will be building Six more enclosures around there, which will house Eurasian Brown Bear, Wolverines, Eurasian Elk, Wild Boar, Eurasian Lynx and another species of Wolves. This is to spread out the Woodland where the European Grey Wolves are as well which will move to the Bear area of the woods, with the Elk or Boars moving into the current Wolves exhibit. After this they plan to expand the meadow for species of Deer and Antelope, and they have a large lakeland section which is currently well off view. They plan in time to have Hippo's, Crocodiles, and other wetland animals in their 10 year plan. At present there is only about 10 species, but they told me they expect this to double in the next 12 months. The total land area is over 150 acres, which would make it one of the biggest sites in the UK only 2nd to Whipsnade. They plan to keep expanding and over time it will take over from Bristol Zoo and they want to house a number of rare species and keep expanding. The current area of the park is less than 5% of their available land and even with the meadow and woodland exhibits to be created they wont have touched more than 15% of their available land. It's a small place but there is a good feel to the place, and the exhibits are huge. I think everyone would like it there, despite there not being much to see yet, but definitely within 5-10 years I feel this will end up the Premier Wildlife Park/Zoo in the UK. I would keep looking out for updates from this park, as they have big plans. Definitely worth a visit.
The reindeer are they the regular mix or the woodland subspecies from N-E Eurasia (Finland till eastern Russia) for which there is an EEP? Purely speculative: perhaps the second wolf species is the Spanish ssp. signatus? Suffice to say: very exciting plans for the coming season! AND: Really ... is ... it just 10 species at Wildplace counting the bird collection in the Walled Garden too?
By 10 I was meaning Okapi Giraffe Lemurs Gelada Zebra Eland Wolves Cheetah River Hogs Meerkats I wasn't including the birds, or species of Lemur, sorry. I was generalising.
They looked like normal Reindeer to me, I wouldn't know one species from another, maybe someone else can assist there. No idea of the Wolves, they didn't say.
DikDik=12. Then there are some Pygmy goats near the Lemurs too=13. And three(?) species of Lemurs but he included 'Lemurs' as a group.
Wild Place has 5 lemur species nowadays: Ring-tailed, Red-bellied, Mongoose, Belted Ruffed and Lac Alaotra Gentle.
Yes they are. The walkthrough exhibit, has two sections to it. The Mongoose, Red Bellied and Ring Tail are in one side and the Belted Ruffled and Lac Alaotra Gentle in the other side.
The Reindeer are domestics - at the present time the only place in the UK with the true wild bloodline is Highland Wildlife Park.
