On Wednesday I paid my first visit to Yorkshire Wildlife Park in nearly 5 years. Obviously a LOT has changed in that time - the park has almost doubled in size, many exciting new species have joined the collection and the entrance has been relocated - so it almost felt like my first visit to a brand new zoo! I will try and do a run-through of what I saw, what I thought in relation to how things used to be and offer some other views too.
This will be in 2 or 3 parts by the way, sorry in advance for waffling on!
On arrival first you now have to negotiate a maze of bizarre shops at 'The Yorkshire Hive', most of which are extremely niche and I struggle to imagine them being of interest to more than 5% of zoo visitors. Has there even been a zoo with its own bridal shop before!? I'm guessing probably not... the Hive is effectively a boutique shopping area which can be visited alone without paying to enter the wildlife park, although with such niche interest shops and an excellent shopping centre located next to Doncaster's railway station I'm not sure how many people would bother to make the effort to visit this. There is also a large hotel and a big wheel. Loud music was playing around the complex. It all felt very strange and I wasn't keen on it at all - bring on the animals!
OK, so after reaching the admission kiosks (just basic kiosks, pretty underwhelming considering how grand everything around it looks) I was in! I made a dash for the 'Cloud Forest' area which was very quiet, no sign of the Bush Dogs, Tapirs in the distance and one Maned Wolf sat in the far end of their exhibit. The enclosures for all three species were very similar, which seemed a bit odd to me as obviously Bush Dogs are a lot smaller! Indeed, many of the enclosures at YWP are very similar in design; generally fencing around a large grassy area with some water, and a raised slope in the middle so that the animals can be viewed unobstructed, so long as they don't come right up to the fence. Generally speaking, it works very well although when animals come right up to the fencing it can be frustrating as viewing is not great from that angle, so unusually you want them to not come too close as you get a clearer view.
Nearby the Sea Lion area 'Point Lobos' was my next stop and its breathtaking. This is the kind of exhibit that shows what YWP is really capable of at its best - innovative, attractive and most important of all, offering plenty of space and the opportunity for the animals to behave naturally. I then took a steady walk through the new section, glimpsing Red Pandas, Spotted Hyenas and Geladas. The Binturong were sadly a no-show but I did see my first ever Smooth-Coated Otters relaxing near the fence; later in the day they were both very active. I skipped the gimmicky dinosaur area - it looked good for what it was, but model dinosaurs are of zero interest to me and I couldn't help but think of how much better the money spent on this area could have been! This was made more frustrating by the total lack of any shelter whatsoever in the new section. On the day of my visit it was dry and sunny but very windy, which made the walk a lot less pleasant than it might have been. Even one or two basic shelters would have massively improved the visitor experience but there was nothing at all, its all flat and very exposed; on a very hot or wet day I imagine it would be horrible. Add in the fact that there is a lot of walking but not that many animals, and to be honest my early impressions weren't great.
Happily, things got a lot better after I crossed the bridge connecting the new and old animal areas. I got a brief view of Drake the male Amur Leopard using his elobrate climbing structures. I wasn't totally sold on the leopard enclosure when it was first built but it has matured really nicely with more foliage and now looks really good. A walk down to see the Camels and 'Project Polar 2' was pretty much a waste of time as I only saw one bear bum, but it was a nice enough walk through the trees and the Masai Coffee House nearby is a very good stop for light refreshments. Past the Giraffe House and on to the Land of the Tiger, I always liked this exhibit with its beautiful waterfalls, raised wooden walkway and viewing shelter for visitors. Both Amur Tigers were seen on the prowl and one even posed by the water for the many gathered photographers. Nearby another species new to me, the Roloway Monkeys were an absolute delight with a family playing in the trees including a youngster. I saw a Dik-Dik at the back of the same enclosure but no sign of the Okapi.
Passing the building work at the site of the new 'Amazonas' exhibit and I reached the Giant Otters. Having seen the only two Giant Otters in the UK at that time at the Chestnut Centre many years ago, it felt quite emotional to see such a large group and to make the experience even more wonderful, the adult female otter brought one of her tiny cubs through to the indoor viewing area for a short time. There were a few people there who seemed to have been waiting for a while in the hope of glimpsing one of the babies, and to say we were all excited would be a bit of an understatement!
I walked up to 'Project Polar' and was delighted to get good views of four Polar Bears, a fifth bear (Sisu I believe) was shut in a smaller area, apparently he was on cage rest due to some rough playing! I can't really do justice in words to these bears and their exhibit... its absolutely wonderful, an awe-inspring experience and being that close to such beautiful yet powerful large beasts is a massive privilige I will never take for granted. Again, the one negative is that there is no shelter here and being rather slight I was nearly blown over a few times due to the strong winds, but I stayed as long as I could stand it and it was so worthwhile.
I'll aim to continue this review later today, if not then in the next few days. I hope it will be of interest!
This will be in 2 or 3 parts by the way, sorry in advance for waffling on!
On arrival first you now have to negotiate a maze of bizarre shops at 'The Yorkshire Hive', most of which are extremely niche and I struggle to imagine them being of interest to more than 5% of zoo visitors. Has there even been a zoo with its own bridal shop before!? I'm guessing probably not... the Hive is effectively a boutique shopping area which can be visited alone without paying to enter the wildlife park, although with such niche interest shops and an excellent shopping centre located next to Doncaster's railway station I'm not sure how many people would bother to make the effort to visit this. There is also a large hotel and a big wheel. Loud music was playing around the complex. It all felt very strange and I wasn't keen on it at all - bring on the animals!
OK, so after reaching the admission kiosks (just basic kiosks, pretty underwhelming considering how grand everything around it looks) I was in! I made a dash for the 'Cloud Forest' area which was very quiet, no sign of the Bush Dogs, Tapirs in the distance and one Maned Wolf sat in the far end of their exhibit. The enclosures for all three species were very similar, which seemed a bit odd to me as obviously Bush Dogs are a lot smaller! Indeed, many of the enclosures at YWP are very similar in design; generally fencing around a large grassy area with some water, and a raised slope in the middle so that the animals can be viewed unobstructed, so long as they don't come right up to the fence. Generally speaking, it works very well although when animals come right up to the fencing it can be frustrating as viewing is not great from that angle, so unusually you want them to not come too close as you get a clearer view.
Nearby the Sea Lion area 'Point Lobos' was my next stop and its breathtaking. This is the kind of exhibit that shows what YWP is really capable of at its best - innovative, attractive and most important of all, offering plenty of space and the opportunity for the animals to behave naturally. I then took a steady walk through the new section, glimpsing Red Pandas, Spotted Hyenas and Geladas. The Binturong were sadly a no-show but I did see my first ever Smooth-Coated Otters relaxing near the fence; later in the day they were both very active. I skipped the gimmicky dinosaur area - it looked good for what it was, but model dinosaurs are of zero interest to me and I couldn't help but think of how much better the money spent on this area could have been! This was made more frustrating by the total lack of any shelter whatsoever in the new section. On the day of my visit it was dry and sunny but very windy, which made the walk a lot less pleasant than it might have been. Even one or two basic shelters would have massively improved the visitor experience but there was nothing at all, its all flat and very exposed; on a very hot or wet day I imagine it would be horrible. Add in the fact that there is a lot of walking but not that many animals, and to be honest my early impressions weren't great.
Happily, things got a lot better after I crossed the bridge connecting the new and old animal areas. I got a brief view of Drake the male Amur Leopard using his elobrate climbing structures. I wasn't totally sold on the leopard enclosure when it was first built but it has matured really nicely with more foliage and now looks really good. A walk down to see the Camels and 'Project Polar 2' was pretty much a waste of time as I only saw one bear bum, but it was a nice enough walk through the trees and the Masai Coffee House nearby is a very good stop for light refreshments. Past the Giraffe House and on to the Land of the Tiger, I always liked this exhibit with its beautiful waterfalls, raised wooden walkway and viewing shelter for visitors. Both Amur Tigers were seen on the prowl and one even posed by the water for the many gathered photographers. Nearby another species new to me, the Roloway Monkeys were an absolute delight with a family playing in the trees including a youngster. I saw a Dik-Dik at the back of the same enclosure but no sign of the Okapi.
Passing the building work at the site of the new 'Amazonas' exhibit and I reached the Giant Otters. Having seen the only two Giant Otters in the UK at that time at the Chestnut Centre many years ago, it felt quite emotional to see such a large group and to make the experience even more wonderful, the adult female otter brought one of her tiny cubs through to the indoor viewing area for a short time. There were a few people there who seemed to have been waiting for a while in the hope of glimpsing one of the babies, and to say we were all excited would be a bit of an understatement!
I walked up to 'Project Polar' and was delighted to get good views of four Polar Bears, a fifth bear (Sisu I believe) was shut in a smaller area, apparently he was on cage rest due to some rough playing! I can't really do justice in words to these bears and their exhibit... its absolutely wonderful, an awe-inspring experience and being that close to such beautiful yet powerful large beasts is a massive privilige I will never take for granted. Again, the one negative is that there is no shelter here and being rather slight I was nearly blown over a few times due to the strong winds, but I stayed as long as I could stand it and it was so worthwhile.
I'll aim to continue this review later today, if not then in the next few days. I hope it will be of interest!
