Zooreviewsuk
Well-Known Member
Well yesterday I made my way to one of my favourite small collections in the North and there have been huge developments on the building going on since I went in November.
The Parma Wallaby exhibit is now finished and looks really good. Sadly having been promised 3 Wallaby's from a local collection, the other party went back on their word and they are now trying to source 2 or 3 Parma Wallaby's. The enclosure is great, and the plan is to keep them inside for a few months to a year and let them get use to their surroundings before allowing them to be free roaming around the park. They will then look to house another new species in the current Wallaby area. They were initially going to have 3 males from another park but after that park has now decided to keep them, they are on the look out for a male and a female or a male and two female's from other collections. They are hoping to have some within the month.
The park has also been given the all clear by the stud book to breed the Snow Leopard's again. Obviously there is no guarantee they will be successful but a few years ago they had two cubs, so they are hopeful that at some point this year they may have cubs if breeding goes well.
The Red Squirrel open top enclosure and new house is coming along very nicely and they hope to have it completed for Easter. They have already removed the tree tops from the adjoining tree's to prevent them from escaping and it will be good to see them naturally and not kept in a fully fenced exhibit. I believe it will be the only open top Red Squirrel exhibit in the UK which is great for a small park.
The former Lemur area has now been completely empty and cut back with plans to build a new exhibit here later in the year. The park had previously looked at Penguins or Otter's but given the area is prone to flooding they have gone against that as they wouldn't want a Penguin disappearing off onto the M6!
They have possibly considered Red Panda's (but the wait is a long one) and they are likely to go down a similar route. The chap I spoke to said it's a nice size area so they hope to get something which will bring people in. Another small carnivore or something along those lines will be possible.
Work is starting in the history area to add something into this area, whilst I was happy to see the Harvest mouse outside his bed for once! Such a cute little animal!
The Fossa's were inside as was a bit cold for them and the female is quite old now. The Park's male has very strong breeding lines and they will look to bring in a breeding female when the current female passes on.
The talks have now changed around for the winter schedule and the Potoroo's are fed at 12, and are cute little things and you get to see them fed worms and fruit. Now at 1pm the Meerkat's are fed, with the same sort of feed, and they allow the visitors to throw a piece of veg to the Meerkats to eat when it's quiet which is fun. There is then a gap until 3.30 for the Fruit Bat talk, but this is really interesting and gives you a chance to see them up close, rather than hanging from the sealing.
For only a tenner entry it's a cracking little place with some unique animal's (especially in the reptile house, as they are the only collection in the Uk to have Garter snake),
I took some pictures and they will follow.
The Parma Wallaby exhibit is now finished and looks really good. Sadly having been promised 3 Wallaby's from a local collection, the other party went back on their word and they are now trying to source 2 or 3 Parma Wallaby's. The enclosure is great, and the plan is to keep them inside for a few months to a year and let them get use to their surroundings before allowing them to be free roaming around the park. They will then look to house another new species in the current Wallaby area. They were initially going to have 3 males from another park but after that park has now decided to keep them, they are on the look out for a male and a female or a male and two female's from other collections. They are hoping to have some within the month.
The park has also been given the all clear by the stud book to breed the Snow Leopard's again. Obviously there is no guarantee they will be successful but a few years ago they had two cubs, so they are hopeful that at some point this year they may have cubs if breeding goes well.
The Red Squirrel open top enclosure and new house is coming along very nicely and they hope to have it completed for Easter. They have already removed the tree tops from the adjoining tree's to prevent them from escaping and it will be good to see them naturally and not kept in a fully fenced exhibit. I believe it will be the only open top Red Squirrel exhibit in the UK which is great for a small park.
The former Lemur area has now been completely empty and cut back with plans to build a new exhibit here later in the year. The park had previously looked at Penguins or Otter's but given the area is prone to flooding they have gone against that as they wouldn't want a Penguin disappearing off onto the M6!
They have possibly considered Red Panda's (but the wait is a long one) and they are likely to go down a similar route. The chap I spoke to said it's a nice size area so they hope to get something which will bring people in. Another small carnivore or something along those lines will be possible.
Work is starting in the history area to add something into this area, whilst I was happy to see the Harvest mouse outside his bed for once! Such a cute little animal!
The Fossa's were inside as was a bit cold for them and the female is quite old now. The Park's male has very strong breeding lines and they will look to bring in a breeding female when the current female passes on.
The talks have now changed around for the winter schedule and the Potoroo's are fed at 12, and are cute little things and you get to see them fed worms and fruit. Now at 1pm the Meerkat's are fed, with the same sort of feed, and they allow the visitors to throw a piece of veg to the Meerkats to eat when it's quiet which is fun. There is then a gap until 3.30 for the Fruit Bat talk, but this is really interesting and gives you a chance to see them up close, rather than hanging from the sealing.
For only a tenner entry it's a cracking little place with some unique animal's (especially in the reptile house, as they are the only collection in the Uk to have Garter snake),
I took some pictures and they will follow.
bear in mind that there are many zoological collections which are closed at certain times.
