Longleat Safari & Adventure Park Cape Buffalo & other past animals

Zambar

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Deputy Warden Ian Turner concluded Animal Park last night with an amusing story, and one that also revealed something I never knew Longleat ever had. Apparentley they used to keep Cape Buffalo in the hippo paddock, but one day they swum the entire length of Half-Mile Lake and ended up grazing in Lord Bath's front lawn! They subsequentley had to be herded back across the lake.

So aside, from these, what other species used to be kept at Longleat and where. I know about the most obvious by the way, the elephants, and still think there was plenty of solutions they could've done to carry on exhibiting them at Longleat.
 
There used to be Chimpanzees on the Gorilla Island. It was on an Animal Park episode where they looked at old footage.
 
There used to be Chimpanzees on the Gorilla Island. It was on an Animal Park episode where they looked at old footage.

and wasn't there baboons aswell (not at the same time obviously:rolleyes:) on the gorilla island? i can't clearly remember the last time i saw that episode was a while back.
 
hmm, i pretty sure they had chimps and baboons, but i dont remeber orangs.

did you find out anything about animal adventure, dalek?
 
and wasn't there baboons aswell (not at the same time obviously:rolleyes:) on the gorilla island? i can't clearly remember the last time i saw that episode was a while back.

That is correct, but they all swam of the island. :rolleyes:
 
They still do! Before the rhesus macaques they had baboons, which were presumably moved there after their escape from the lake. You can see them in this video of Longleat in 1972, which also shows Ankole in the East African Reserve (and you can see people allowed to walk with the animals, which was the case until about 2000) White Rhinos in the area where the elephants used to be and a very different pets corner with bigger animals.

1972 - Longleat
 
hey,
from what i can remember from various sources they use to house:

masai giraffe
asian elephants
african elephants
one/two white lions many moons ago
cape buffalo
bengal tigers
baboons (they use to be resident in monkey jungle before the rhesus monkeys were introduced)
chimpanzees
cheetah/leopard (in the now wolf wood) will confirm when found the source again!
 
also orangs (sumartran i think)

Longleat have never had Orangutans of either species.

At one time the Chimpanzees lived on another island, not the Gorilla Island. It was/is at the Hippo end of the lake and was artificially created by digging out a water channel around a section of the lake bank. They might have lived there after Gorillas arrived, I can't remember exactly.
 
Were the elephants in the current big game reserve, or in the "valley" opposite their original house, which I think is where the Flamingos are now?
 
Though I think they were originally in the Big Game Park before moving to the valley.
 
Some type of monkey that they had on the island what they did was: Row across on a rowing boat with the monkeys, drop them off, put food down, row back. One day they went to put food down, turned round and the boat was halfway back with the monkeys rowing back so they had to get rid of them. Next they got th baboons and they swam back. Next was the gorillas and they dont like water and cant swim so they never escaped.
 
Some type of monkey that they had on the island what they did was: Row across on a rowing boat with the monkeys, drop them off, put food down, row back. One day they went to put food down, turned round and the boat was halfway back with the monkeys rowing back so they had to get rid of them. Next they got th baboons and they swam back. Next was the gorillas and they dont like water and cant swim so they never escaped.

The monkeys you are talking about were Chimps.
 
Duchess and Gay (Paignton zoo's eles) came from Longleat. If you google Longleat safari park elephants, then a pic of and Asian and African elephant comes up, along with a string of about 5 baby Africans. I'm pretty sure the two adults are Duchess and Gay.
 
Longleat never had orang utans or white lions and, to the best of my knowledge only Rothschild (possibly also zoo sub-specific crossed) giraffe not Masai, or leopards. Would be interested to be proved wrong on any of these!
They did have other species though, including King penguins - in the lake - and Brazilian tapir in the Children's Zoo.
 
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