Yorkshire Wildlife Park YWP Review

[taun]

I had planned to write this months back but well life distracts you.

This was a summer a visit with fine weather, purposes of the trip to take my cousins child to see the polar bears and well have a first visit for me. I was looking forward to this visit, seeing everything up close are hand.

My purpose the of the visit being polar bears we headed down passed the baboons, baboons enclosure is good, very good. Good sized troop on display, been eaten down to bare earth, same that this has happened. Best baboon enclosure in the UK? Possibly only one I can think that comes close but is just a field is the one at Edinburgh (if they still keep them).

Wild dogs, confused as first as I didn't realise they also had the wooded area to the right. Ok for space but nothing fancy really (a common trend).

Lemur walkthrough the best I have seen, good to see that they utilized existing trees into it. If Chester can replicate this I will happy with the walk through enclosure but not a huge fan.

Polar bears, well it truly is stunning to see them given such space and is nicely landscaped. The bears were busy playing in a pond. Shame really that it would only be a few hardy souls that would visit on a wintry day. More could be done to provide hides covered areas for visitors. There was plenty of benches which was nice to sit and watch the polar bears from.

Tiger and Leopard enclosures, were boring, very bare but spacious (a common theme in most of the enclosures, one I can forgive in the polar bears because it would be like that in wild for them). Nice idea with the raised walkway over the wetlands to view the tiger enclosure let down massively by what was a field with a few tree in.

The big savannah exhibit, nice mix of species. Just a weird layout, all one dimensional by that I mean at better zoos you get different ways to view the animals this just looked like looking into a country side field with African animals.

Black rhino, looked so familiar....

Lion country (is that what is called I forget), nice but didn't get the wow factor I did from the Polar bear project. A good enclosure, nicely thought out to keep multiply groups.

This is what South Lakes should have been but a given a choice, I think I would rather visit South lakes (which I have said I wont go back too). South lakes offers a better variety of species, birds reptiles.

Facilities were ok, seem to remember the toilets were quite spaced out (pet hate of monkey world that there were only toilets open at either end of the park, horrendous if you are with children.)

Price, expensive for what is, rather pay to enter Bristol or London with much smaller sights.

Overall its a good collection of animals but one I could not visit every week, its too (dare I say boring) The exhibits are spacious, yep stuck, I want try and be positive but left disappointed. Maybe I was spoilt with my recent trip to Berlin, where not everything is rosy and great the collections are much more interesting as they are not mammal centered.

 

[Alfa male]

Reading the Taun comments above. Whilst I wont violently ( ) disagree, I would say that it is a very personal thing which makes a place right, or wrong, for someone. If it's 5 mins spent at an enclosure then move to the next, to see as many animals as possible in the day, then YWP isn't really for you. If it's big top of food chain carnivores you want to see, and to watch them for a long time to understand their [very different] personalities and behaviours....and like me, take photos, then YWP is the place to be.
You don't see polar bears like in my profile pic in a 5 min visit.

One of the criticisms I read of YWP on FB by someone is that the animals are "too far away to be seen". Well, I'm sorry to that person, but I think not seeing an animal because its snoozing in a corner somewhere in a big enclosure is perfectly reasonable. They're wildlife. Better luck next time.

When I go to YWP I get in 5 or 6 circuits and hence see the animals in all sorts of different scenarios, It's that which I like. At Chester, and again absolutely no complaints of the place, but I can barely see all the animals once in a day.

So as I say, no disagreement with your views, I'd say it's just a personal thing

 

[pipaluk]

What I will say is everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I disagree with most of Taun's comments!
The one I cannot understand at all is the price comment! I think the peak price was £17 last year, which is an average UK price for an above average ( in my opinion ) UK zoo.

£5 Cheaper than Banham or Africa Alive, cheaper than Marwell, Blackpool, Howletts or Port Lympne and not much more than half the price of Whipsnade or London ( or Longleat which I consider the worst value for money I've ever been to).
I think YWP is either better or not far behind the first six which are all relatively comparable zoos. YWP cannot reasonably be compared to Bristol ( a small urban zoo) which is more expensive . South Lakes may have been better once, but that's thinning out whilst YWP is only on the up!!

Maybe I'm biased, a zoo with Polar Bears in excellent enclosures will always get my vote over one with an invertebrate house! I don't consider that or an aquarium , reptile house, a necessity.

 

[gentle lemur]

Maybe I'm biased, a zoo with Polar Bears in exIcellent enclosures will always get my vote over one with an invertebrate house! I don't consider that or an aquarium , reptile house, a necessity.

I think you're right, that seems quite biased to me
I agree that none of them are necessities, but any of them would be an advantage: and having just a mere handful of birds seems almost perverse.
I visited YWP yesterday for the first time, with bongorob who had been before. I agree disagree with almost all of the comments above, although I don't think I could be bothered to do 5 or 6 circuits - I might manage 1½ if the weather wasn't too hot
In my opinion the baboons were best and the polar bears were impressive too. I admire the scale and ambition of the place and I particularly like the way that some fine mature oak trees have been incorporated in the design of several of the enclosures (for example the giraffes and the common marmosets). I was less enamoured with the lemur walkthrough in the pine trees
As we know, this is a work in progress, rather than a complete zoo. There is scope for more large mammals: wouldn't elk (moose) look well in the wetland area opposite the okapis? But the park could develope in other ways too: a warm indoor area might encourage more visitors in winter and even Yorkshire folk would appreciate some extra sheltered spots when the rain arrives.
However what I missed most were some proper zoo noises. I'm sure the lions roar from time to time, but we didn't hear them. The giant otters stayed silent as we passed. Only the squeals and grunts of the squabbling baboons had any real impact. I would love to hear some birds calling or some gibbons singing or even chimps screaming when I visit again in a few years time.