Manor House Wildlife Park Manor House, has anyone been ????
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Visit to Manor House Wildlife Park
I visited yesterday , apparently it has been opened for about 8 weeks so I guess they met their deadline . On a lovely Sunday afternoon there were quite a few visitors . The zoo licence was for the period ending early October 2008 .
You pay £7.20 to get in and , having paid £6.95 to visit Folly Farm in the morning where a family could easily be entertained for a full day , I don't think you get a lot for your money .
There have been improvements to the enclosures still in use - new fencing and shelters in the paddocks , the grotty siamang cage has been given a make-over with a deep chipped bark floor , new ropes etc. and , best of all , a raised area of the cage meaning he can see over the 2 walls on either side of the cage . A new lemur walk-through ( 2 b&w ruffed , 6 ring-tailed ) is labelled as Europe's largest , the high surroundings are plastic mesh topped by sheets of clear plastic with a sort of overhang . Paddocks by the entrance have been converted to a walk-through for Bennett's and Parma wallaby plus a male muntjac .
All the old rides have disppeared , the Birds of Prey lawn , the building holding the very large model train lay-out is closed as is the Reptile House , lower walled garden , the whole area behind the walled gardens and the Barn . The Tropical House was closed but has been worked on and is shown on the map as a Butterfly House . Plans seem to be to restore the 2 walled gardens as gardens without animals - shame as it would be nice to see something like Cotswold W.P.
So what do you get collection-wise - the 2 walk-throughs , paddocks with 0.2 reindeer , 1.3 scimitar-horned oryx with llama and sika deer , male Brazilian tapir with llama , pair of Damara zebra ( labelled as only ones in UK apart from Colchester ) , pair Bactrian camel , the main large paddock with nice herd American bison and 2 female emu , on the islands by the paddocks a male squirrel monkey with common marmosets ( I could not see any electric supply to the small shelters on the island ) , 5 male Chilean flamingo in sunken pool which could be covered to make a lovely big aviary , an enthusiastically mating pair of sulcata tortoise , the male siamang , in the walled garden a couple of raccoon ,a group of meercat , a couple of macaws and touracos . There does not appear to be any way of managing most of the paddock animals - just open shelters in paddocks , including the zebras .
The House looks as if a lot of work has been done on it and the cafe sells quality food and drinks . Paths have been improved and the gardens tidied up . The site is attractive and still has lots of potential , will be interesting to see what develops .
I visited yesterday , apparently it has been opened for about 8 weeks so I guess they met their deadline . On a lovely Sunday afternoon there were quite a few visitors . The zoo licence was for the period ending early October 2008 .
You pay £7.20 to get in and , having paid £6.95 to visit Folly Farm in the morning where a family could easily be entertained for a full day , I don't think you get a lot for your money .
There have been improvements to the enclosures still in use - new fencing and shelters in the paddocks , the grotty siamang cage has been given a make-over with a deep chipped bark floor , new ropes etc. and , best of all , a raised area of the cage meaning he can see over the 2 walls on either side of the cage . A new lemur walk-through ( 2 b&w ruffed , 6 ring-tailed ) is labelled as Europe's largest , the high surroundings are plastic mesh topped by sheets of clear plastic with a sort of overhang . Paddocks by the entrance have been converted to a walk-through for Bennett's and Parma wallaby plus a male muntjac .
All the old rides have disppeared , the Birds of Prey lawn , the building holding the very large model train lay-out is closed as is the Reptile House , lower walled garden , the whole area behind the walled gardens and the Barn . The Tropical House was closed but has been worked on and is shown on the map as a Butterfly House . Plans seem to be to restore the 2 walled gardens as gardens without animals - shame as it would be nice to see something like Cotswold W.P.
So what do you get collection-wise - the 2 walk-throughs , paddocks with 0.2 reindeer , 1.3 scimitar-horned oryx with llama and sika deer , male Brazilian tapir with llama , pair of Damara zebra ( labelled as only ones in UK apart from Colchester ) , pair Bactrian camel , the main large paddock with nice herd American bison and 2 female emu , on the islands by the paddocks a male squirrel monkey with common marmosets ( I could not see any electric supply to the small shelters on the island ) , 5 male Chilean flamingo in sunken pool which could be covered to make a lovely big aviary , an enthusiastically mating pair of sulcata tortoise , the male siamang , in the walled garden a couple of raccoon ,a group of meercat , a couple of macaws and touracos . There does not appear to be any way of managing most of the paddock animals - just open shelters in paddocks , including the zebras .
The House looks as if a lot of work has been done on it and the cafe sells quality food and drinks . Paths have been improved and the gardens tidied up . The site is attractive and still has lots of potential , will be interesting to see what develops .
Upali
Well-Known Member
Do they still have penguins in the walled garden? When i visited a few years ago, they had a few, maybe 3, penguins in a tiny enclosure. The worst ive ever seen really.
I also remember the large paddock with the herd of bison with the emu, the zebra wre also in with them. Really nice, large herd.
I also remember the large paddock with the herd of bison with the emu, the zebra wre also in with them. Really nice, large herd.
The grotty penguin pool has been empty for some time , the section of walled garden the pool was in is now off limits . The zebra are no longer housed with the bison but in a separate paddock . When the big paddock first opened there were also ostrich , oryx and sitatunga in it - with just a large barn and no way to separate any of the animals .
The Park opened for the season on 4th April . Anna R-R was on Radio Wales this morning talking about developments . She said they have Przewalski's horses which is a new species . They are to receive 3 rhinos ( I assume white ) this summer - I wonder where these will be housed . No mention of a new siamang enclosure . Births mentioned were camel and wallabies .
zoogiraffe
Well-Known Member
Well they certainly have the space to do a decent Rhino enclosure as long as they don`t go down the Noahs route it should be ok,think they needed to get some thing like the Rhinos with Folly Farm getting the Giraffes hopefully they can both thrive despite how close they are.
zoogiraffe
Well-Known Member
Its the electric fence bit that i`m on about should have made it clear in my post soory about that.