Hi, I'm Brian, 47, single and living in Doncaster, England. I've been working full-time in the nearby city of Sheffield for nearly two years. After about a year of daily 3 hour commute via public transport, my health and well-being took a tumble. I arranged to move from the night shift to the day shift, but it was taking longer than I hoped. I was getting fed up of doing the same thing day in and day out and I realised I had to make dramatic changes to my life - I needed a hobby! I had been living down the road from the Yorkshire Wildlife Park for 3 years without even going once. The idea of a zoo in the middle of the county of South Yorkshire seemed bizarre to me and a place where 'other people' visited. However, I was determined to buy an Annual Membership and commit at least one year discovering another side of life, and I am about to renew my membership for a second year. The concept of a walk-through wildlife park - where the cars are parked up in the car park - appealed to me tremendously - being able to walk around at your own pace is very relaxing and allows you to get closer to the animals than if you drove around the zoo or park in your car. I had a good compact zoom camera which had a video recording feature, but if I wanted to make a proper record I knew I needed a remote control tripod, too. I recorded short clips of about 1 or 2 minutes at the beginning. I had never recorded wildlife and I was uncertain how to get good film. I was nervous about loitering for more than five minutes in one spot in case the park staff thought I was trouble. However, I had paid my money and I was going to "get my money's worth". Also, I realised that I needed to simply point and record - from 2 minute clips, to 5 minute clips and then to 15 minute clips. The longer I kept recording the more I recognised some patterns in animal behaviour. I love playing back my media on my TV through my PlayStation 4 games console. I discovered this forum when I Googled "Yorkshire Wildlife Park in the news" and I look forward to sharing my passion with like-minded people.
Welcome to zoochat; glad to hear you've discovered an interest in the Yorkshire wildlife park. You may enjoy branching out to visit other zoos and flim a bigger variety of animals or animals in different enclosures.
Hi Ned, it's always interesting to compare the management of one zoo with another. There are, of course, zoos which have much more space than the Yorkshire Wildlife Park will ever have and so, yes, will have a wider collection. I could not imagine elephants or wilderbeest roaming happily around in a tiny 40 acre patch. However, I estimate that the park has maybe another 100 acres to expand. So, watch this space...
