A bit of harmless fun but instead of a New years resolution how about a Zoo year resolution where we undertake a commitment of visiting a zoo/safari park that we haven't visited before and is at least two counties away from where we live .Obviously once task is complete a photo of completed challenge needs to be submitted For me I am going to put forward two Longleat & Banham
I'll go for Dudley. I am due to finally make my first visit there next month though, so that's cheating a bit I guess. Wild Place on the same weekend will be another first hopefully. If I pick somewhere I have no definite plans for then it has to be Yorkshire Wildlife Park
I'm going to be doing several zoos in Germany and Austria in April, and a few in the West Midlands next month; satisfied?
One I haven't made definite plans for yet, but do-able - Bristol In the process of planning - a few German collections A complete wildcard - Royal Artis
We are planning to go back to cologne for "part 2" and do Dortmund, ZOOM and dusseldorf aquazoo when the aquazoo has reopened
With a bit of luck, I will get that finished in time - nearly finished the write-up for the first day I did Zoo Berlin, and the second day reports for Zoo and Tierpark will be pretty short, so the only long stretch remaining is Leipzig.
Excellent, I look forward to reading them, especially since I'm hoping to do two days at the Tierpark in late April.
I already have plans to visit for the first time Bristol Cotswold Falconry Centre Yorkshire Wildlife Park
One or two I haven't planned for but I'm sure I can do easily this year is wild woods or wingham... Prob a good hour and half away but with wingham I may have to add RSCC onto the end of the day!
I want to see bear cubs, any flavour but don't know where would be closest/easiest to see some. As far as I'm aware, the only possible breeding bears in England are at Chester?
Sorry to sound cynical but you might struggle with this aim (I'd be delighted to be proved wrong): 1. The last bears to breed in the UK was accidental, I believe,and was Brown Bears at Blair Drummond about three years ago. The pair have now been separated; 2. Before that you're going a long way back in time, way over ten years; 3. Despite increasing numbers of UK collections holding bears in the last few years, apart from Blair Drummond, there have been no cubs; 4. A number of collections holding bears don't have breeding pairs; 5. In conclusion, absurd as it may seem, the Pandas at Edinburgh might be the best bet for a UK breeding of a bear species in 2015 -geographically, some places on the continent may be closer and/or easier to reach.
