Yorkshire Wildlife Park Yorkshire Wildlife Park News 2018

He was 24, with life expectancy of captive polar bears to be around 25 (from a quick google).

 

Sad news

 

And from which zoo would he arrive because I can't find a polar bear namen Tongki in my database?

 

It was Everland in South Korea.

 

From Everland in South Korea, which is primarily a theme park, but also doubles as a zoo.

 

I am going to Yorkshire Wildlife Park tomorrow, first time I've been in over a year and I am doing the VIP tour. Which gets you close to a few of the parks animals.

The tour is effectively for two people, but there's only one of me. If anyone on here has no plans tomorrow and they would like to come along, as I have 2 passes and only need one, feel free to Inbox me, as I would rather see it not wasted than wasted if someone has no plans tomorrow and would like to come along.

 

That is a very generous offer that I would leap all over if we were not so far away. Nice one @Zooreviewsuk

 

Thanks Zia.

Not had a message off anyone yet, not sure if many have seen, but don't want anything towards it.

I'll be at the park from 11am and have access to PM on here on my phone.

VIP tour is 2 hours and starts at 1pm, so if anyone see's this morning and would like to join me then drop me a Pm on here, and I'll get in touch with you as get notifications on email.

 

I really enjoyed yesterday, well the VIP tour, but for just going to the park, I would have to say not very impressive, full review will be uploaded later today, but for all there are some amazing exhibits, it wouldn't be in the top 10 for me, although the VIP Tour was great, but could be improved in areas.

 

@Zooreviewsuk did you get any takers? If I didn't live so far away, and wasn't that broke that I couldn't afford transport then I would have snapped up the offer. It's been too many years since I last saw a polar bear...

 

Lucky you didn't come yesterday, you wouldn't have seen any Polar Bears, or Brown Bears for that matter either lol.

No was 2 hours for just me, actually it dragged over and spent nearly two and a half hours, 1 to 1 with a keeper, seeing loads of the animals, hand feeding, getting to touch and get up close to them and learning loads about them. Meeting a new arrival and getting close to some very adorable oink oinks as well !

 

I'm getting mixed messages I think! you didn't enjoy YWP as a general admission visitor but the VIP experience was good?

I'm considering a trip over the pennines next week. Weren't the bears visible?

 

Monday 21st October

Yorkshire Wildlife Park - VIP Review

I've never been lucky when coming to YWP, the last time I visited was in September 2017 and it poured with rain and saw very little, and the time before was similar, so having booked my trip a few weeks in advance (Not realising it was Half Term) I was half expecting the weather to be miserable.

To my delight having left Lancashire in the morning rain dressed for winter, it was a cool but sunny crisp winters day in Yorkshire. Getting to the park is now so much easier, off J3 of the M18, there is a new A road, which goes straight to the Airport and the park, saving you a trek through Doncaster.

I got to the park shortly after 11 and was amazed to see such queue's entering the park, fortunately I went straight to the Park Office to book in for my VIP Tour and was taken to the side gate for entry, so no queue for me

I had about 2 hours before my VIP Tour started, I didn't actually know what was going to be on the tour so I made the decision to have a look round sections I wanted to look at and hadn't seen before. I first made my way to where the Brown Bears were which is just past the Camel enclosure and up a ramped section. The ramp runs all the way down the side of their massive exhibit but the sad part was the 2 bears only had access to their house, and a small bit of outside area and not the full exhibit. Apparently they are only given access to the full exhibit at certain times and on certain days as they are still being carefully monitored. One of the female Bears is also off show in the secondary Bear exhibit which you can see in the background. It's because she is old and being monitored and they are keeping her away from the public at present, so the two bears in the area you can see, were not visible at all. Like the Polar Bear, Tigers and Amur Leopards, the Brown Bears housing is not really viewable, and whilst I saw a Brown Bear sat in the metal structure part and the other on the side in the small outside section (the walkway along this part is staff only, and that's where they were filming for the TV program. The public don't have access to that side of the exhibit), so whilst you look out on a huge enclosure which has plenty for them to do, sadly if the Bears are inside, or in the pen that leads to the big paddock, you may briefly see them, but you'll have no chance for a photo or to really observe them. I guess it's kinda pot luck at this stage as to whether the two on show will be out in the main exhibit at a time you visit or not, and there is no way of knowing in advance.

From here I decided to go and see the Amur Leopard's but as per the norm the pair seemed to not be in the main exhibit and in the exhibit which is off show. Both Tigers were out, but laying down with their backs to you for much of the time although Vladamir was happy to go for a small walk now and then. I love Vladamir, as I found out at a previous visit, if you chuff to him he will look at you and chuff back. Very few Tigers I've seen in Zoo's chuff or respond to chuff's but Vladamir was happy to stand facing me and chuff a few times as I chuffed at him, and then a few kids joined him and he didn't disappoint. In time the park are looking to Breed with Vladamir, but it won't be with Sayan who he currently shares his enclosure with.

From here I wanted to go and see the Okapi, but the walkway from the Tigers to the Okapi is badly damaged and needs urgent repair so the walkway is closed. This means very little, bar the small bit of grass next to the South American area and the Okapi's stables in visible to the public at present. So having walked all the way round, I got to see Ruby who I got to meet on an Okapi meet and greet in Bristol last year, but she was too close to the fence to get decent photo's. The other Okapi was in the far paddock, but with the walkway closed, too far away to view.

Next I wandered around to the Polar Bear's and sadly 2 were inside, and the other 2 were well hidden behind the rocks and water, on the Paddock next to the house. Three paddocks are currently in use and they have access to all, but only the two who pair up were out and they weren't really visible except for a yellowy / creamy bum in the distance lying down, not really to be seen. This is not the Zoo's fault but it was another visit where the Polar Bears eluded me from really seeing them, although one was pacing up and down in the area of the house, so you could see him over the fence looking through the bars.

The 4th Polar Bear paddock is now on hold but will be developed in time. But work has started on the big development on the other side and the foundation work has started.

I had time for a quick wander back around by the Hunting Dogs and Baboons before it was time for the VIP Trip, but in terms of my first two hours and what I wanted to see, it was a case of seeing a Polar Bear bottom in the distance, a Brown Bear behind metal frames, not a Leopard in sight, and glimpse of the Okapi eating. I did hear a few people often saying where are the animals when looking out into empty or appearing empty exhibits. It kind of reminded me of the car tour of Jurassic Park before the electric went out in the film !

Well it was now about 12.50 so I made my way to the Visitor Office to await my VIP tour, and this was when my slightly disappointing day turned into a fantastic experience.

I can't totally remember the Keeper's name who took me around, but I think it may have been Jack. He was a great guide for the afternoon and in what was meant to be a 2 hour tour, it was great having a 1 to 1 with a keeper for about 2 and a half hours.

The VIP Tour starts in the Lion House, you get to see where all the animals food is prepared, and the meat held (it stinks) and see the charts for what every animal is fed and so on, it's really impressive and it's amazing what goes into some of the animals diets.

Outside you get to hand feed a couple of the Female Lions. Crystal, Ares and Adel who come to say hi. Crystal is very polite and takes the food gently and is happy to climb the fence to get her food off you and is a very sweet natured Lion. Then you meet Ares who is a little tubby, lazy when it comes working for food, but very food excited and happy to growl at you and paw the fence if you make her wait. It was amazing seeing the difference in the Big Cats behaviour. Adel was inside but we didn't feed her, she had already been fed. I also got to see Simba one of the males up close, inside the house (We fed the two girls from the housing area, but in the outside part of their enclosure). He was an impressive but kind male, and was upset we couldn't feed him. Sadly Simba has not been well and is currently off show, blotches of his skin had gone bald and he had lost some condition to his coat and he is currently on medication, so is being kept in away from the other Lions and offshow without outside access during public opening hours. He seemed happy enough but it's sad that he had been unwell lately. He will recover from this condition though and will be back on show in the future.

Upon leaving the Lions, we went to Wallaby Wood, where I got to hand feed and stroke a Wallaby, and it was amazing that the younger ones are really happy to come and say Hi, let you stroke them and tickle them and literally kindly take food out your hands, but the older ones were a lot more shy. Two of the females currently have Joey's in their pouches and the keeper reckons they will start to stick their heads out in the next couple of weeks, so come November there will be signs of Joeys who are around 6 months old popping their noses out for the first time. The keeper I was with normally works with the Wallaby's and was saying how he would love to see the park get a second species of Wallaby and that it is something that is on the cards for the not to distant future, so in the future there will two species of Wallaby's in the wood!

Upon leaving the Wallaby's he took me to see the Baby Visayan Pigs and this was a real treat for me. The Babies who are less than a month old are currently in the house only (during Zoo hours) and whilst you can see them in the indoors viewing section when they are around mum, they mainly stay in the off show area where their food and bed is.
This was amazing, I got to see them from centimetres away as they popped their noses through the bars and whilst there was no touching, they were immensely cute.
We then put their food down, and watched them eat and play with their mum, before hand feeding the Male peanuts and watching him destroy an egg in seconds. I really enjoyed this part as I got to see the pigs up close, get nice photos and hear how cute they sound and see them with their mum in the off show area. It was a species of animal I had done nothing with in the past with, so it was a really good experience, especially with the little babies running around.

Having left the Pigs, it was next stop the Giant Otters and getting to see them outside in their exhibit and hand feeding them through the fence. They have now started crate training and one of the two females will soon be leaving the collection. This will enable them to bring in a male Giant Otter so they can breed, which is very much in the parks plans. An interesting thing I found out and got to see was, no matter what side of the fish you offer the otter, the will turn it around and eat it head first, it's how they eat all fish, going for the heads first. I done it 2/3 times offering the tail end and every time they turned it around to eat head first. Amazingly the Giant Otter will eat Caiman and Piranha in the wild, so that shows how strong they are. The Giant Otters were also really fast in coming for the food, and were good fun to get close to.

We left the Otters and walked down past the Coati's. Sadly the Coati's who are normally part of the VIP tour, hadn't been well lately and were on meds and because of this we were unable to go into their exhibit and get up close with them and stroke and feed them but this is normally part of the VIP tour. A bit gutting for me as I love Coati's !

Then we went into the South American house, and I got to get up close to Marmoset's and Armadillo's . The former devoured Crickets and Locusts in front of you and are happy to get up close to you. We prepared Marmoset Gum for them (To resemble Tree Sap) and put it around their enclosure and watched them eat it, allowing me to get very close to them and close up pictures. Sadly the groups are currently separated as one of the females has been ill, and two of the boys have had the snip ! The cruellest cut of all as I often say!

We then woke up the 6 banded Armadillo's, I was only expecting the little ones who crunch into a ball, but nope, these are 6 Banded bigger ones. We got them to come outside with temps of treats and I got to hand feed them meal worms. Such gentle animals they are really tough to touch but soft and furry underneath. They were very cute and were great to hold and get up close to, as I have only seen the 3 banded in the past, so it was nice to meet the bigger ones.

Upon leaving here we went to visit the Anteater (Or should I say Anteater's ). Yes, a second Anteater arrived at the end of last week. Tammy is a female companion for Niki in hope they will breed. Tammy has had outside access but has only ventured out at night. She was asleep when we went into the house, but Niki woke up to come and say high. I got to feed him broken eggs from a bowl which he was licking out of and you got to see just how massive his tongue was and also got him to do some enrichment where he lifts his feet. Doing this you see just how long their claws are and how there is a hole in the middle of their foot, for them to tuck the claws into, so they aren't clawing the ground when they walk. I also never realised before just how big they were. Niki is an impressive boy and was really cool, except when his slobbery tongue got me across the face when he missed the bowl of egg and got me instead! Hopefully in the future, there will be baby Anteater's

Leaving this section the Keeper took me via the South American paddock, where we saw the Okapi's eating, they are only new and getting used to the place, so currently they are not on any VIP tours or experiences, but as they get settled and happy, they could be included, it would be great if they are, as I already knew Ruby from a VIP day at Wild Place Project and she was such a Princess at Wild Place and she is behaving the same at YWP, she is a lovely Okapi and hopefully there will be little baby Okapi's one day at the Park.

we also got to see the Mara sat on the grassland and the keeper pointed out 2 Baby Mara who are less than a week old, they were snuggled up and very cute, but we were careful not to disturb them as they are very much newborn and their mother was protecting them.

We then went on a bit of a walk, past the Polar Bears who were still not out, and he talked to me about the plans for the developments across the other side, and mentioned 2/3 exhibits they were planning to build with new species coming in and the plans for the current buildings at the current entrance when they have completed the other side, but asked me not to mention to anyone what the 2/3 species were, as nothing has been fully confirmed yet, and the plan is it to be developed much in the same was as Islands was at Chester, and that is how future phases of Buildings on the other side could be created and that is just the first phase of the build over that side which has been announced and planning obtained, as there will be 2 more phases in time for that side which will be in the Islands style that Chester has. Two of the species for the other side will be big draws for crowds though and boost for the park in an area of species they currently don't hold any of. That's all I can really say on the subject, but the plans are big for the future! He also said plans to hold Pygmy Hippo's near the old entrance area of the Zoo had now been shelved so that plan is now on the back burner, due to the nature of the big development on site b.

We then headed round to the Lemurs where we fed them Apple and got close to them. They now have Brown Fronted / Mongoose Lemur (A pair) on show with the Ring Tailed Lemurs and these have arrived from Wild Place Project. The Lemurs who I was not allowed to touch were very friendly and keen to take food, but a little cheeky one called Conk had other ideas on the non touch, as he kept climbing my legs, jumping on me and sitting on my shoulder. The keeper removed him each time but he was very clingy and playful! He was also really really light, and I thought a Lemur would be heavy than it actually was. I've done a lot of Lemur experiences, some where touching is allowed, some where it wasn't but this was cool, getting close to them, hand feeding them and being close enough to get some really good photo's.

The VIP Tour ended with a trip past the Babboons where we threw them Maize and Apple and watched them eat, we were over running on time, as we had spent ages in certain areas of the Tour (My fault, I didn't want to leave the Pigs or Armadillo's as was having too much fun!) but usually you would go in the house and put the Maize on contraptions for them to pull levers and things to release the feed for them, but as we had already over run by 30 minutes, we just threw the food out for them and watched them eat. Sadly only 2 of last years babies had survived, as it's not uncommon for Baboons to kill their young. As to protect themselves the Females lift up the Babies as a Shield when the male tries to attack them, expecting the Male not to kill their young, and sometimes this can cause the baby to get badly hurt. Sadly it happens and there is little a Zoo or wildlife park can do to detract this natural behaviour and it happens a lot in the wild. They sadly had lost a couple of last years babies, but 2 survived and are healthy and happy in the group and they will be expecting more babies soon as well as it's a very active breeding group.

This completed the tour as we headed back to the office, of which I got a money off food voucher. I went to the sort of Restaurant place in the Safari village and for all it was pricey even with the discount, I would say the food was first class and definitely restaurant standard and worth every penny. It was nice to find a Zoo that had excellent top end catering facilities for those wanting to sit down and have a decent meal rather than the poor choices a lot of Zoo's give, so the food despite it's price of tour courses and a drink for £17 after discount, gets a big thumbs up from me.

Now reviewing the VIP Tour was simple for me, it was brilliant, and I mean brilliant, and I had a great time. Even if I accounted it as £200 for one person it was exceptionally good value for money, but that was the for two people price, and for £100 each I would recommend it for anyone. A lot of Zoo's give 20-30 minute single animal experiences at £40-50 per person, so when you consider I got close, interacted and fed 9 species of Animal during the experience and show other parts as well, then for me this was great value for money.

Now aside of the Lions it didn't include any of the big animals at the park, which is ok as they are available in other experiences, and the Vip Tour is the cheapest of the 3 big experiences on offer. But for variety and value for money it's bang up there and I would recommend it to anyone.

They have two other experiences which I would be keen to go on at the park and these are more expensive but offer interaction with the more bigger species.

At £250 they offer what is the Alternative Big Five experience, I did laugh at this as it's actually 4 species and a Big Breakfast ! It's £250 per person, so I think it should be the Big Four Alternative, as I wouldn't really count a Big Breakfast as an experience, even if the Restaurant is amazing at the Park.
In this experience you will get close and hand feed Giraffe (have done this at a few zoo's as single experiences, so it's not something that excites me), get to hand feed one of the big cats and help with enrichment (depending on what day it could be Leopards, Tiger's or Lions), now this is great , but for me I've done loads of Tiger Feeds and my last two big cat feeds have been Lion's so for me the appeal would be if it's Leopards as I've not done a close up Leopard feed before, but I don't know if there is any choice on this or luck of the draw. Also included is Polar Bear hand feed, which for me is the big puller in this one, as they do a 2 hour full on Polar Bear experience before the Park opens, but this is £600 for 2 people, so for me the hand feed and see behind the scenes in the Alternative Big Five would appeal more. Finally there is a Rhino experience where you can get close to the Rhino's and feed them. I'm yet to do a Rhino experience so this does appeal.
So for £250, getting to meet and feed 4 of the biggest attractions of the park is good value for money and something I will probably book soon, but I still feed the VIP Tour with the smaller animals and more volume offers better value for money on the whole.

Finally there is the Carnivore experience. I have done two of these, One at West Midlands which was amazing. The Carnivore experience offers for £300 for two people, a two hour experience where you will hand feed Lions, then enrichment train or feed Tigers or Leopards, feed and meet the Hunting Dogs and get close to the Meerkats. This for me is again appealing if it's Leopards , but the Hunting Dogs looks great value. If there's two of you it is something i would find good value, but as its the same price for 2 people as 1 person, the £300 for one person, makes it feel a bit more expensive.

For me I'm likely to book a Alternative Five soon as I had a great time on the VIP tour. If and when the Okapi, and Coati were on the VIP tour it would be even more excellent value for money.

Pictures will be added to the gallery when I get chance.

 

Whenever I go to YWP I have breakfast there as it is excellent. I can spend hours watching and photographing the Polar bears and tigers there.

 

Do they only have 2 tigers now? I'm sure there were 2 adult females when I was there a few months ago. I ask because the review refers to 'both tigers'.

 

Three Tigers. 1 Male Vladamir, and 2 females.
He shares his enclosure with Sayan, but she isn't his breeding partner. The other one will be, But he will only be mixed with her when it comes to time to breed the pair of them. The female in his enclosure, is on a contraceptive so she can't have babies.

 

The other female tiger is Tschuna. They have bred from her and Vladimir before (3 cubs) but them being mixed depends on studbook recommendations.

 

Thanks for the clarification. It was just that 'both tigers' suggested that they were the only two (to me anyway)

 

Female Black Rhino, Najuma (Born August 2016) arrived from Zoo Krefeld this morning.

 

Video-clip of the arrival (FB )

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1975078242792000