I have just been reading about the open weekend at the Wolds Wildlife Park, which is a private collection. Had a look on here and couldn't see anything about the park. Here's the link to their Facebook for anyone that's interested Wolds Wildlife Park Ltd
I did not even know about the place until yesterdays local news, when they said that the owner had applied for a zoo license so they could open all year but the local council have had an ojection from a property developer that has purchased the field next door and has claimed that the smell and noise from the animals would put people off of buying houses there.
I dont know but the park owner stated on TV that he offered to buy the land back off the property developer for double what he paid for it.
Wolds Wildlife Park have just announced an Open Weekend on 21st and 22nd April. It's priced at £8 per adult and £5 per child.
Scottish Deer Centre, Dartmoor Zoo, Whipsnade Zoo, Wild Place Project, Welsh Mountain Zoo, Five Sisters Zoo, Camperdown Wildlife Park, Heythop Zoo and Wildwood Kent also have EBB. That's just the ones I can instantly think of. There are also plans (long term) to bring them to Wildwood Escot, and Lake District Wildlife Park, based on the talks they give there. I would say that EBB are in around 10% of UK collections, therefore I wouldn't say that they aren't quite common.
Yes, but three of the places you list are in Scotland (outside most people's sphere of travel), one's closed to the public and two, possibly more depending on your location, are in far flung corners of the UK -so although there's a few about it's possible to perceive them being relatively rare based on your own geographical location. This skewed perception can work both ways, I never think of Gorillas as rare because my doorstep collection's got them but really they're relatively sparse in UK collections (none in Scotland, only Blackpool north of Twycross, none in eastern England, none in Wales). Be careful with quoting "10% of UK collections" given the total number of UK collections is a very flexible number depending on personal definitions.
Your list includes nine zoos (one of which does not yet have bears, another of which is only open to the public very occasionally). Therefore, if that percentage you offer were to be correct – around 10% – it would mean that there were only 90 public collections in the UK. Even the most conservative of definitions of a zoo would give a much higher number than this. Furthermore, remove the collection that is essentially not open to the public, and the one where bears have not yet arrived, and there are only three zoos in England, according to your list, that currently display this species. No, brown bears are not Amazon river dolphins, but neither are they meerkats!
According to zootierliste, only 4 zoos in the UK hold EBBs, so.... But that is compared to 35 German zoos
For the European Brown Bear (Ursus arctos arctos) ZTL lists Canterbury (Wildwood Trust), Dunstable (ZSL Whipsnade Zoo), Heythrop (Amazing Animals) and Sparkwell (Dartmoor Zoological Park). Heythrop is only open about 3 days a year. I used ZTL to check collection status in UK and for generic Brown Bear, the UK has none. It seems ZTL might need an update. I still don't think European Brown Bears are common in UK collections. These ones at Wolds look young and full of beans, I will plan a visit.
Scottish Deer Centre, Camperdown, Five Sisters and Welsh Mountain are also listed on Zootierliste (UK/England, UK/Scotland and UK/Wales are separated on the page). Still not massively common though. I think Yorkshire's Ussuris are the only 'non-Euro' Brown Bears in the UK currently.
I was talking Gorillas not Brown Bears (but can see how confusion might arise if you're not reading properly).
Accepted. I was working on around 100-110 UK collections (Excluding farm parks and falconry centres, but wildlife parks and zoos are around 100-110 I've found), this also excludes private collections. So on 9/10 collections, that is around 10%. Correct that there are 3 in England, but Cliff said UK not England. Had he said England and not the UK, I would not have included those in Scotland and Wales. How many large collections would you say there are in the UK that could house them ? For me there are a lot of Zoo's which are on the smaller size where housing such animals would not be possible. What would there be in the terms of larger Zoos, 40/50 collections maybe ? I would say of Zoo's which are big enough to hold the species, that a number of them in fact have them, possibly around 20%. Meerkats can effectively be kept in an exhibit the size of most people's living rooms, hence why every Zoo near enough has them. Brown Bears are definitely the most common represented Bears in all UK collections, one could argue there aren't enough bears full stop in UK Zoo's, but there are a number of places to view them if you wanted to, and spread out around the UK.
You're playing quite fast and loose with the figures to justify your claim of 10% collections, I notice as you note that your total of approximately 100-110 collections excludes private collections, yet your total of collections holding the species does include a private collection (Heythrop).... not to mention your inclusion of a future holder as already discussed.
