South Lakes Wild Animal Park Visit on 1st June

Think i have said this before but when i was on work experience at blackpool zoo many of the keepers there said how they dislike south lakes and some of the keepers have come from there. I was also told that when first mixing the tapir and bears the tapir had several claw marks on them.

I take it because the bears are omnivours that the park can get away with legislation preventing predetour and prey being mixed together.
 
RTB1987 said:
Maybe they were stupid to think a predator and prey species could co-exist in peace just because they're captive-born animals. There is no need to put an animal in a situation like ya say where its fearing for its life just because its a good exhibit.
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I think you will find the situation with the Bears and Tapirs is they can be kept together without serious injury(so far) because each species is well matched as far as defending itself- so a sort of armed neutrality exists with the Tapirs as subordinates. It is very probably stressful for both species which would naturally not meet (or would avoid each other) in the wild and for that reason I would prefer not to see them have to share an enclosure like this. I'm a little surprised no other Zoo authorities or Animal welfare bodies have had anything to say about this either. Presumably because on the surface the animals seem to share amicably without actually fighting, that's good enough.

I have a rather similar feeling about the Pygmy Hippo/Mandrill exhibit too.
 
RTB1987 said:
I do think though that the feeding pole was the owners own idea and i think its been copied by other places. It was the first place i'd seen it done and from watching certain shows other places do seem to have started doing it aswell.
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Rubbish there are documents detailing the use of such feeding methods that are in circulation since way way way before south lakes even came into existance, written by Graham Law while he was at Glasgow
 
easytigger said:
Rubbish there are documents detailing the use of such feeding methods that are in circulation since way way way before south lakes even came into existance, written by Graham Law while he was at Glasgow
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Correct easytigger Glasgow zoo did it long before South Lakes was even thought about,people should be a bit more cautious about believing the hype from certain collections like South Lakes.
 
What did you think of South Lakes zoogiraffe?
 
According to the below article, South Lakes plans to treble in size and keep animals like elephants and jaguars.

Link
 
CZJimmy said:
London do (did?) it with their tigers, but i'm not sure if it predates South Lakes use of pole feeding.
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while south lakes has been around for a while, felid enrichment still preceeds it by a few years, late 80's i believe.

Yes they made it popular through publicity but, invent it they did not.

Sue me if I'm wrong Mr Gill!!
 
From what i`ve heard and read they will still be keeping a batcherlor group of Giraffes just that it will be a mixed Baringo and Kordofan,insted of a mixed Baringo and Retics they keep at present.
 
zoogiraffe said:
From what i`ve heard and read they will still be keeping a batcherlor group of Giraffes just that it will be a mixed Baringo and Kordofan,insted of a mixed Baringo and Retics they keep at present.
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The link which Marwell Dalek provided at the top of this page mentions the giraffes
 
CZJimmy said:
The link which Marwell Dalek provided at the top of this page mentions the giraffes
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I know thats one of the sources i have used to work out that they will still have a Batchelor group of Giraffes and not the breeding group that was mentioned at the start of the thread.
 
To the rhinos a second!

Ive always wondered how South Lakes have managed to keep 2 bull rhinos together with females??? I didn't think it was possible and bulls are usually kept seperate elsewhere. Or this may change if there are dominance changes
 
Yes, that's exactly what I wondered! It seems to work though, although I'm surprised that more of them haven't escaped. They're held in with a few strands of electric wire and a moat of about 3 feet deep.
 
Upali said:
To the rhinos a second!

Ive always wondered how South Lakes have managed to keep 2 bull rhinos together with females???
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Seems entirely possible with White Rhino- in some situations at least. Whipsnade used to have a very large group of White Rhino- 20+ which contained a number of males. One male tends to become dominant but can live peaceably with others in a large area.
 
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