Best guess is that the brown bears will stay where they are, although that info is from the beginning of the year, I am visiting on Friday so could ask then. The plan was to create a rescue and rehabilitation zone beginning with the brown bears and expanding from there, interestingly, the brown bear enclosure was originally intended for a female polar bear. I know that one of the boys has an issue with one of his legs. I haven't seen the development so I don't know for sure but I would imagine it would be for a new species.
I think the staff have been advised not to speculate on future plans for a while now, so good luck with your enquiries Sadly in a way, the highlights of my visit this time round were actually a Little owl perched very close to the tiger walkway and a trio of young Stoats within touching in an area appraoaching the Brown bears.
If the new enclosures are across the river I believe they are part of the big expansion that’s planned? Not sure if they’ll connect them up until the first phase of the new development is finished. That way it will save people walking past empty or not fully established enclosures and complaining.
Part of the tiger walkway is closed to allow work on the bridge across the waterway; temporarily, visitors can walk between the tiger and leopard enclosures instead. I didn't notice this last month, but the Addax are gone and benches now take up their space. The female brown bear had wondered almost to the furthest corner from her house, while I only only saw the larger of the two males out briefly. I didn't see the painted pups, but about three have been seen when mum has shuffled them around the den.
Just checked online and YWP have now made a planning application for the bridge to connect the old and new parts of the park. There is currently a lot of objection being raised by local residents though so I don’t imagine that they will be able to complete anytime soon.
Sadly there seems to be a large group of people that live in the nearby villages that object to everything that is proposed. The local council also seems to block a lot of what they try to do. It seems as though they just don’t like the fact that a visitor attraction has opened near their (not cheap) houses. The main objections to the bridge seem to be that it is too wide and they want it to be only wide enough for one or two people at a time with the zoo controlling how people cross it.
Eeeh bah gum! Proper Yorkies don't need a reason to be objectionable! I learned that at college when I shared a house with 2 Tykes
It is always said that 15% of the English will object to anything, regardless of detail - and any project or venture wont have been pitched properly if it is less...
I believe the original plan was for sun bears but obviously it will be dependant on what they can source.
Could be an additional enclosure for the painted dogs as there have been some issues within the group and three have been separated, this could be alternative housing for them so they could potentially have two breeding groups, then again they could plan to move the three to another collection.
The park has attracted some bad publicity after cancelling one of its summer evening concerts last night due to high winds. The park has been offering people tickets to attend another concert at the park later this month, but understandably not everyone can attend those dates, or even wishes to see the acts who are appearing at the other events. I hope this gets sorted out soon as mud sticks, but they really need to offer people a refund! On a more positive note, Big Week At The Zoo returns on Channel 5 on 19th August and will again be based at the park.
I'm not sure if was mentioned previously, but the marmosets sharing with the armadillo have now been replaced by a pair (i believe) of cotton top tamarins
YWP have now confirmed via facebook that Thabo, the mother of the two painted dog pups died a short while ago. The rest of the pack are doing a great job of looking after the offspring.
How can a planning application not mention species to be held? Surely that's relevant to planning consent? Does YWP notify Doncaster Council by any other public means (Zoo Licensing Act documents etc)? I really love YWP but staff there were tight lipped yesterday even though some of the new arrivals are already in situ. Why so secretive?
In this case it’s not just an enclosure or two they’ve applied for planning for but something on the scale of a small zoo on its own. They won’t include a species list for the simple fact that they won’t be positive on what species they’ll be able to get when it’s finished. As mentioned before one of the plans submitted did have species wrote on it which I can only assume is the plan they are hoping to work towards but as seen at every collection these plans change frequently.
