The Only Ones In Britain

grantsmb said:
I imagine that in a captive 'Safari Park' situation, a group of lions would attack anything that triggers their hunting reflexes- so a tractor would stimulate that reaction. Because their hunting instincts are not utilised very much in captivity, I guess they would go for anything, be it a tractor- or a hyaena.

I've never been to West Midlands or Knowsley Safari Parks.(Longleat I have been to a number of times but not for many years). They both seem to have interesting collections though. After visiting Woburn, I'm now more interesting in seeing the other Safari Parks too(!!) so maybe I will do so in the coming months.
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Have visited all the Safari Parks in the U.K in the last 12 months and to me Blair Drummond just beats Longleat into my least favorite then Woburn and Knowsley are tied with West Midlands been the best,they all have their plus points,Blair Drummond is the fact the don`t care about zoo-graphical zones if the animals mix then thats fine.Longleats is the Giraffes,Woburn and Knowsley is their hoof stock herds,West Mids is the Reptiles and Aquarium,well at least it is for me.
 
Which ONE would you say is overall the best- in terms of general care and condition of the animals, fencing, displays- everything?
 
i agree with you about blair drummond as being my least favourite uk safari park zoographical housing can be a lot better and i did not like there area for birds of prey, very depressing i hate seeing birds of prey tethered, although there are signs of improvement with the new walk through lemur area and the newly born white rhino calf.
 
I've to them all except Blair Drummond and id rank them like this

1. Knowsley
2. West Middlands
3. Woburn
4. Longleat
 
longleat seems to be near the bottom of most posts i think they are poor on the zoograhical set up of there reserves i believe the east african reserve has llamas in it?, but they are opening new exhibits such as the flamongo and vulture aviaries and the arrival of amur tiger and warthog.
 
kiang said:
birds of prey, very depressing i hate seeing birds of prey tethered,
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Yes so do I. I don't much like seeing them sitting in their aviaries though I always more feel sorry for them when they are tethered on the low, almost ground level perches(falconry 'blocks') as it seems so unnatural for them to be so low down. I imagine they must find this stressful.
 
yes birds of prey being tethered is very depressing. It is totally un-necesary. The Welsh Mountain Zoo used to have a few hawks or falcns tethered put an aviary for Blue and Gold Macaws has replaced it.
 
grantsmb said:
Which ONE would you say is overall the best- in terms of general care and condition of the animals, fencing, displays- everything?
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Wouldn`t like to pick one to be best as they all have their faults,in Blair drummonds defence they have done some excellent work with the 3 miss fit Elephants that they have got,to get them living together as a herd also they have one of the best Sealion trainers that i`ve meet and the Lemur bit and Chimp house should be something else.
 
I think I'd like to go and see Knowsley. Their website is much better than all the others, no tacky publicity and the information on all the species they hold is very informative- more like a traditional zoo's.

Also its the place where the former Lord Derby had a fabulous collection of animals a long time ago- including Quaggas and Passenger Pigeons, and presumably Giant Elands too. Can anyone tell more about Knowsley S.P ?
 
Just thought i might get this forum back to its start point the Chesnut Centre in Derbyshire has the only Giant Otter in the U.K
 
grant, giant eland were never kept at knowsley, they are being bred well in america and south africa, i would love to see them in this country they are massive.
 
giant elands were named after the 13th Earl of Derby, but there is no evidence that he ever actually kept any at Knowsley. He did breed lots of passenger pigeons though.....
 
ZooMania said:
Is that Otter or Otters
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Its Otter they have only got a young male that came i believe from Dortmund Zoo this year,it was brought in to pair up with the old female they had but she passed away while he was in quaratine,would like to think they could pair it up with 1 the youngesters from Hagenbeck Zoo as the had 6 young when i was their 3 weeks ago!!!!
 
Chlidonias said:
giant elands were named after the 13th Earl of Derby, but there is no evidence that he ever actually kept any at Knowsley. He did breed lots of passenger pigeons though.....
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I sort of assumed he kept them as well as discovering them. I know that he kept(possibly bred?) Quaggas and bred Passenger Pigeons though.
 
Liverpool Museum had an exhbition about the 13th Earl of Derby in 2002 and published a book about him and his collections. This records that his agent in West Africa sent 2 skins to Knowsley in 1846, as he collected natural history specimens as well as living animals. The species was subsequently described as Taurotragus derbianus by J E Gray of the British Museum.
His menagerie bred a range of animals, including passenger pigeons, Hawaian geese, Stanley cranes (the family name is Stanley), Himalayan monals, brush-tailed bettongs, red-flanked duikers, common eland and ten species of deer. There were 2 quaggas, which probably did not breed. After the 13th Earl's death in 1851 the surviving female was sold to Amsterdam Zoo.
The specimen on display at the exhibition which I remember best was one of the first clutch of budgies bred in the UK (1848), which unfortunately expired when it was half grown.

Alan
 
gentle lemur said:
There were 2 quaggas, which probably did not breed. After the 13th Earl's death in 1851 the surviving female was sold to Amsterdam Zoo.
Alan
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Wow. I didn't know that. Was this the 'last' Quagga- or did Amsterdam have another female after that one? (Probably the latter...)

Speaking of Quaggas- Edinburgh Museum has a mounted Quagga which I deduced is actually the last one from London Zoo- the stripes on the neck match exactly with the live animal in the b/w photos... (The Tring Quagga came from somewhere else...)
 
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