West Midland Safari and Leisure Park A few queries...

mazfc

mazfc

Well-Known Member
Had an afternoon visit to WMSP yesterday. I quite enjoyed, thought it good value for around £15 with a free return visit.

Had a flying visit round the walking bit - though missed a lemur walk through? I think...

The safari bit was interesting:

Plus points - the number of cheetahs, a brilliantly active hunting dog pack (they were brilliant to watch), beautiful white lions (surprised myself by liking them so much), however they were over shadowed by their yellow cousins who were optimistically eyeing the hoof stock up through the fence (one day they might just get them!). Brilliant mating (well he was trying) rhinos!

Negatives - a lot of stock in the safari were fenced in or caged - is this always the case or was the weather a factor? Eg white lions kept from the road, as we're the rhino. The cheetahs and tigers were in enclosures.

Questions:

I saw 8 cheetahs in 2 groups of 4 - can anyone tell me anything of the make-up and history of groups.

The two elephants I saw looked very old and one was quite thin with running eyes. Can anyone tell me anything about them?
 
The cheetahs, tigers and Indian rhino's are always kept enclosed. The white lions and white tigers are always behind a 2 strand electric fence if that's what you're referring to?
The white rhino's have had the run of the African paddock since about 1992/3 but I have no information about the elephants, sorry. :(
 
There are 4.4 South African Cheetahs. Two of the males came from Paradise Wildlife Park they were born in 2005. There are two female sisters born 2007, there are two brother-sister pairings. The Cheetahs apart from PWP came from South Africa.

The two African Elephants are two females, named Five and Latabee. They both along with two young males named Tooth and Jack arrived from Kruger. Five was born in 1991 and Latabe 1992. Tooth moved to Holland in 2007 (?) and Jack moved to Hungary in 2011. There is plans for extension in the house and waterfall.
 
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Thanks Brum and Jordan. Jordan do you know if one of the elephants is ill, she was really thin and had an eye discharge.

It was the Indian rhinos Kafaru, though he wasn't having much success. :)
 
Had a visit recently was slightly disappointed by some of the animal housing which looks little more than sheds, no hard standing for gemsbok and other species and all the wire and fences. It seams they try to cram as much in as possible, especially with 36 lions listed on ISIS. Really liked the lemur walk through and African village though, maybe one of the best lemur walkthroughs i have seen.

Was talking to a keeper and she said they may phase out the wolves, then i noticed on the leaflet do not feed the carnivores including lions,tigers and Dholes!
 
camel leopard said:
Had a visit recently was slightly disappointed by some of the animal housing which looks little more than sheds, no hard standing for gemsbok and other species and all the wire and fences. It seams they try to cram as much in as possible, especially with 36 lions listed on ISIS. Really liked the lemur walk through and African village though, maybe one of the best lemur walkthroughs i have seen.

Was talking to a keeper and she said they may phase out the wolves, then i noticed on the leaflet do not feed the carnivores including lions,tigers and Dholes!
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Didn't know WMSP had Dhole?
 
Just jumping on the back of this thread as i went to WMSP on Sunday and also went a few months back also. I was just wondering if anyone could help me with a few queries of my own.

1) Does anyone know if there is anything in the enclosure in the middle of the african reserve which previously held i think some african dog pups?

2) Has breeding of the white lions now ceased as when the male tried to 'cover' one of the females the safari jeep was there in a second to chase him off

3) Does anyone know whats happening with the wild dogs as there seems to be less and on Sunday some looked a bit battered and bruised, plus two had been seperated off in the back enclosure.

4) Are the Indian Rhino's approaching the respective ages where breeding may start taking place? I know it has been mentioned before that the male was quite a lot younger and smaller when they first came to the park.

5) Does anyone know how long the park has had Lowland Anoas, how many and whereabouts they/it came from? I saw one on sunday munching on your hay.

6) What happened to the tail of one of the white tigers kept in the main enclosure in the Asian area? Its quite freaky how the stump moves as if it was swishing its tail :eek:

7) Any idea whats happening with the Hippo group down on the lake? As a bloke who got into WMSP around the times of a hippo being born most years it does now seem to have gone very quiet on that front.

Sorry about the amount but I think we have all had those times when you have left a collection with various questions on your mind :)
 
I can answer two of the questions, the anoa are 3 in numbers, two adults and a young one, and the park has 8 hippo's all female, so no new births likely in the near future.
 
RTB1987 said:
Just jumping on the back of this thread as i went to WMSP on Sunday and also went a few months back also. I was just wondering if anyone could help me with a few queries of my own.

1) Does anyone know if there is anything in the enclosure in the middle of the african reserve which previously held i think some african dog pups?

2) Has breeding of the white lions now ceased as when the male tried to 'cover' one of the females the safari jeep was there in a second to chase him off

3) Does anyone know whats happening with the wild dogs as there seems to be less and on Sunday some looked a bit battered and bruised, plus two had been seperated off in the back enclosure.

4) Are the Indian Rhino's approaching the respective ages where breeding may start taking place? I know it has been mentioned before that the male was quite a lot younger and smaller when they first came to the park.

5) Does anyone know how long the park has had Lowland Anoas, how many and whereabouts they/it came from? I saw one on sunday munching on your hay.

6) What happened to the tail of one of the white tigers kept in the main enclosure in the Asian area? Its quite freaky how the stump moves as if it was swishing its tail :eek:

7) Any idea whats happening with the Hippo group down on the lake? As a bloke who got into WMSP around the times of a hippo being born most years it does now seem to have gone very quiet on that front.

Sorry about the amount but I think we have all had those times when you have left a collection with various questions on your mind :)
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4) Bull is just coming upto five years old, so he should hopefully be mature enough to cover the female within the next 18 months

5) First female arrived in 2008 from Leipzig and was joined by a male in 2009. Don't know where the male or number three came from :confused:

6) Sure I remember reading somewhere that the Tiger had his tail bitten as a cub and it had become infected to the point where they removed it
 
Maybe now is the time to also ask a question....

- Does anyone know what the plans are for the elephants? They have 0.2 females of breeding age, but the fact the two bulls were sent to other collections suggested to me that they were either becoming unmanageable/unlicensable in the current enclosure (especially following the bull elephant escape at Woburn), or they were showing no interest in the two cows with the four young animals having been raised in isolation from other elephants (I assume they were cull orphans).

Is anyone aware of AI efforts/plans to bring in a new bull/plans to send the two cows on breeding loan?
 
Elephant cows.

johnstoni. said:
Maybe now is the time to also ask a question....

- Does anyone know what the plans are for the elephants? They have 0.2 females of breeding age, but the fact the two bulls were sent to other collections suggested to me that they were either becoming unmanageable/unlicensable in the current enclosure (especially following the bull elephant escape at Woburn), or they were showing no interest in the two cows with the four young animals having been raised in isolation from other elephants (I assume they were cull orphans).

Is anyone aware of AI efforts/plans to bring in a new bull/plans to send the two cows on breeding loan?
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When West Mid's started off with 2.2 it was pretty obvious that one bull would have to leave as both bulls wouldn't tolerate each other once they reached maturity.

The two females (Latabee and Five) are both around the same age and I think if I remember correctly that if a female reaches the age of 30 then she will probably not breed. However I'm not too sure.
 
RTB1987 said:
Just jumping on the back of this thread as i went to WMSP on Sunday and also went a few months back also. I was just wondering if anyone could help me with a few queries of my own.

2) Has breeding of the white lions now ceased as when the male tried to 'cover' one of the females the safari jeep was there in a second to chase him off

3) Does anyone know whats happening with the wild dogs as there seems to be less and on Sunday some looked a bit battered and bruised, plus two had been seperated off in the back enclosure.
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2) Even going back about 3 years the jeep would try to prevent the male covering any of the lionesses. I was on work experience in the jeep and we were constantly driving up and bobbing the horn. They have ALOT of white lions and the amount they paid for the first 4 was incredible. Ive been told that management are unwilling to sell to any other UK parks as they wish to keep the draw of "White Lions" although as white lions are getting more common perhaps this will change? I image that the house is very crowded even with the amount they have, but I will eat my hat if they ever castrate the male as they will want the opertunity to produce if money is needed.

3) Although I dont know what happened Sunday, the back part of the enclosure is set up to house a small seperate group of animals (although not ideal as quite small) At one point there was some (2 I think) handraised animals in there that couldnt be intergrated into the group.

My info is probably abit out dated but atleast gives some background.
 
Jordan-Jaguar97 said:
When West Mid's started off with 2.2 it was pretty obvious that one bull would have to leave as both bulls wouldn't tolerate each other once they reached maturity.

The two females (Latabee and Five) are both around the same age and I think if I remember correctly that if a female reaches the age of 30 then she will probably not breed. However I'm not too sure.
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there is truth in that statement....individual females differ but it is dangerous to get older (in captive terms) females to concieve. I believe its something to do with the pelvic bones hardening after a certain point.

Latabe and Five are 19 and 20 respectively.
 
johnstoni. said:
there is truth in that statement....individual females differ but it is dangerous to get older (in captive terms) females to concieve. I believe its something to do with the pelvic bones hardening after a certain point.

Latabe and Five are 19 and 20 respectively.
Click to expand...

Like at other facilities valuable time has already been lost. Exchanging bulls with Sweden is long overdue and I wonder if that would work after so long with no reproduction.

I have an inkling why ..., but am not sure ..., but does anyone have any clue to why the current set up or breeding programme for elephants is not on the go?
 
I would think with the relatively small size of the enclosure two adults plus a calf (if AI was successful) is probably their max
 
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