Beale Park Beale Wildlife Park 2023

Had a great day out at Beale today.

The new tayra enclosure is excellent in person and just as nice as the photos suggest. Like the glass and the fact there is some wire at the sides for us photo nerds. Got some great views of Silas the tayra. One of the best exhibits I’ve seen for them. Hopefully will be conducive to some tiny tayra when the female arrives. The armadillos seem very happy with the old enclosure.

Enjoyed the new python and tomistoma exhibit too very easy to see both of them though the area is spacious. Shows the hard work that went into it and it’s paid off.

Quite a baby Bennett’s wallaby bonanza - saw 4 joeys with heads or legs out of the pouch. Haven’t seen so many young ones at the same time before. Lovely.

Enjoyed seeing the Berkshire pigs and indeed the rooting mess they have made of their enclosure! Thoroughly enjoyed the banded mongoose again.

The young Cuscus was a particular highlight - have never seen a young one before and it was all over the place and climbing up a branch right in front of the viewing area. Great. The whole twilight area is nice to be in - after 10 mins or so you can see everything really clearly.

Didn’t see the Binturong outside (bit cold I suspect) but they were indoors and nice to see. The Chacoan Mara were out having some food which was excellent as I only saw them sitting in their sleeping box last time.

Will be interesting to see what animals go in the former coati / raccoon exhibit.

Good coffee van and enjoyed a walk around the rest of the garden space.
 
Thanks for the kind words. Glad you're enjoying the stuff we've put loads of work into.

As for the coati enclosure, we've decided on a species and have our names down on some future youngsters....just need them to be born first! So it'll be much later on this year really. They'll be worth the wait;)
 
dillotest0 said:
So all the coatis have died already?
There were still a few when I last went ...
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They were ancient...really ancient! They also all had bad arthritis with daily medication and cataracts. The raccoons back legs were also going. Knowing that a tough winter was ahead and that we were lucky they made it through last winter, following months of health assessments, we made the difficult decision not to put them through that.
 
mrcriss said:
Thanks for the kind words. Glad you're enjoying the stuff we've put loads of work into.

As for the coati enclosure, we've decided on a species and have our names down on some future youngsters....just need them to be born first! So it'll be much later on this year really. They'll be worth the wait;)
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Following this with interest!
 
mrcriss said:
Thanks for the kind words. Glad you're enjoying the stuff we've put loads of work into.

As for the coati enclosure, we've decided on a species and have our names down on some future youngsters....just need them to be born first! So it'll be much later on this year really. They'll be worth the wait;)
Click to expand...

Meerkats ;)
 
I find that several aspects once considered trademarks of bird parks are, to varying extents, no longer suitable for the modern day - go back several decades many bird parks had their own flamingo lakes and parrot-on-stick exhibits - which, by modern husbandry standards are rather questionable. I do not believe Beale ever has had flamingos or parrots-on-sticks, but I think the reasoning still stands that for years, the management of the park was not completely on-point in keeping the park up-to-date. I recall also somehow that the ambiguity of the former name and perhaps the general environment too made it feel rather clunky as far goes an animal-dominated site - so I am greatful that there are people now working to update it. And if generalization means that older enclosures such as the bizarre 'New Zealand' or the out-of-place rabbit town have been phased out, I feel it's for the better ...
 
dillotest0 said:
I find that several aspects once considered trademarks of bird parks are, to varying extents, no longer suitable for the modern day - go back several decades many bird parks had their own flamingo lakes and parrot-on-stick exhibits - which, by modern husbandry standards are rather questionable. I do not believe Beale ever has had flamingos or parrots-on-sticks, but I think the reasoning still stands that for years, the management of the park was not completely on-point in keeping the park up-to-date. I recall also somehow that the ambiguity of the former name and perhaps the general environment too made it feel rather clunky as far goes an animal-dominated site - so I am greatful that there are people now working to update it. And if generalization means that older enclosures such as the bizarre 'New Zealand' or the out-of-place rabbit town have been phased out, I feel it's for the better ...
Click to expand...

What was "New Zealand"?
 
mrcriss said:
What was "New Zealand"?
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Where the reindeer are now - a field containing some New Zealand breed of goat and a species of wallaby. Neither of which are native to New Zealand ... but the field was still labelled as that
The rabbits were where the black-and-white ruffed lemurs are now
 
dillotest0 said:
Where the reindeer are now - a field containing some New Zealand breed of goat and a species of wallaby. Neither of which are native to New Zealand ... but the field was still labelled as that
The rabbits were where the black-and-white ruffed lemurs are now
Click to expand...

Interesting. The reindeer paddock has nice goat terrain, but the reindeer look spectacular stood on top of the rocky hills in there!
 
mrcriss said:
the reindeer look spectacular stood on top of the rocky hills in there!
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upload_2023-3-8_21-8-35.png
I recall taking this picture of the female reindeer in October of 2022 - earlier in the day the reindeer were nowhere to be found [in the stall, maybe? I saw antlers in the stall I think] but later on they were at an approachable level in their paddock. I quite like the framing of this particular picture - am quite happy with it ...
 

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