Longleat Safari & Adventure Park Longleat Safari Park News 2013
- Thread starter mazfc
- Start date
Good question, I was just thinking the same, also I wonder if there are any developments regarding the building of the new elephant facilities for Anne that were suggested when she moved to Longleat two years ago,also I wonder if Longleat still have plans to bring in additional Asian elephants to the park.
CambsVet
Well-Known Member
Siberian Tigers somewhere romping in the first snowfall of the year is almost as certain to appear in the Media as that other old chestnut- the New Year Zoo stocktake. I wonder how many other Zoos managed some exposure with their Tigers or other animals?
johnstoni.
Well-Known Member
The following has been posted on their Facebook page, although the note is from April of last year:
"We are delighted to announce that Anne the elephant today celebrates her first anniversary living at Longleat Safari Park. Since her arrival on 3rd April 2011 she has had a new lease of life and continues to enjoy her retirement under the care and supervision of her experienced keepers and dedicated team of experts. Her keepers and everyone at Longleat are extremely grateful for the public support and messages of goodwill Anne has received over the past year.
Her keepers have spent huge amounts of time over the past twelve months working with Anne to improve her wellbeing and physical condition. The difference and improvement in skin condition, feet, trunk, ears and general muscle tone is clear to see and she certainly doesn’t look like an elephant approaching 60.
Anne is an individual with an individual’s needs, some of which are general elephant needs, some of which are specific to Anne and to this end we have spent the last year attempting to understand her and what her needs are, both physically and mentally.
Anne dictates the level of exercise that she can cope with and then returns to either her stall or her sand pit for a rest. She has severe hip and possible stifle arthritis and this is a permanent disability that we are managing but will never cure despite all of the holistic and veterinary therapies we provide for Anne’s complaint. She actually spends the majority of her time resting and quite often she prefers to be indoors. This is her choice and not something that we determine for her.
The funds raised for the new elephant facility are secure and remain unspent as they are ring-fenced solely for the use in building the elephant facility and not for any other developments here at Longleat. Outside of this fund Longleat have spent a total of circa £200,000 on Anne since she arrived in 2011. Anne has a new paddock system that is about to be installed as we step up her physiotherapy under the guidance of an animal osteopath, we have a new hay barn dedicated to her food storage, we have a new shelter going in, she has elephant sized scratching posts and new feed facilities located within the current facility. These come at a price, which we are more then happy to spend on her well being. In addition she has a dedicated veterinarian, holistic animal healer, and other specialists that look after her needs including her dedicated animal care staff. She also has many enrichment devices and toys as well as human company.
She does not have the planned new facility yet but this is a lengthy process in the UK due to constraints of UK planning legislation as well as being a Grade 1 listed estate. In addition to these we have considerable conservation and heritage legislative issues to manage that include sites of specialist scientific interest and English Heritage conservation programmes that need to be developed as part of the planning submission due to the historic nature of Longleat’s Estate.
On top of this is the fact that any new elephant facility costs millions of pounds, and, whilst her fans have been extremely generous we only raised a fraction of the estimated cost for phase one of the new facility for her and other elephants like her in the EU.
This is a slow process and as such could be perceived as a failing by Longleat. However we need to get this right as we will never get another chance to build this facility or correct it if we get it wrong. We have spent a long time in the planning process on the new elephant facility and will be building a phased build to satisfy developments in elephant husbandry.
Visitors to Longleat will see that it is in a rolling valley with ancient woodland surrounding it. As such the facility that we propose is about complimenting the needs of Anne and her kin and that of the landscape. The safari park, for we are not a typical “zoo”, is about naturalistic enclosures utilising natural substrates and environments. Anne’s new home once completed will utilise the natural areas with both flat and hilly regions to allow physical development and exercise with the ability to use natural woodland and felled trees as enrichment systems alongside traditional zoo enrichment concepts such as feeders, play areas and pools.
We attempt to answer all correspondence from members of the public that have queries regarding Anne’s care. It is good that individuals or groups challenge what we do here at Longleat and ensure that we do not take things for granted. We understand that we will not meet all of the requirements that people expect Anne to have but we equally will not develop programmes that are determined to meet the needs of public perception. Rather we have chosen to have evidence based, structured and financially sound programmes that meet Anne’s needs and develop her physical and rehabilitation programmes. Whilst we are reaching a point where improvements are harder to achieve we have reached a point where Anne’s physically ability has vastly improved from when she arrived less then a year ago and we work hard each and every day to maintain this level of improvement for her to continue with a high quality of life. Rest assured it will be Anne that dictates the decision that Longleat, in conjunction with elephant experts and welfare groups, make to ensure her welfare and dignity is our principle objective"
Jordan-Jaguar97
Well-Known Member
Siberian Tigers somewhere romping in the first snowfall of the year is almost as certain to appear in the Media as that other old chestnut- the New Year Zoo stocktake. I wonder how many other Zoos managed some exposure with their Tigers or other animals?
Well, having seen some photos, I can confirm that Longleat, Whipsnade, Marwell, Colchester and probably Blackpool (Although I've not seen no photos) Tigers have been enjoying the snow.
Watching Anne walking made me cringe, when she puts weight on her leg you can see the hip kind-of 'give', hopefully it looks a lot worse than it feels!
The one thing they don't mention in the statement is the possibility of getting any company for her, at least before any new complex is built, and she could be dead before that happens. Just one elephant companion-provided they were compatable- would give her the one type of enrichment they can't provide for her any other way- company of her own species. A great pity that poor lonely 'temple' elephant in Wales can't join her.
Jordan-Jaguar97
Well-Known Member
I was also thinking the same, it was mentioned when 'Anne' first arrived that she would be getting company when the new complex is built. However, I haven't heard of anything new regarding that.
Thank you Johnstoni for the information, I remember the donations that the public gave at the time when Anne was sent to Longleat after the exposure of her ill treatment at Roberts farm, ranging from a substantial amount from Mr. Simon Cowell to kids sending in their pocket money, it looks as if it will be a very long time (if ever), that a new elephant facility will be built at Longleat, as was suggested when she first moved there, although I do appreciate that a large amount of the money that has been ring fenced for Anne's benefit has been used on her medical care and improving living conditions in her current home. As for the suggestion from Pertinax that Valli the temple elephant could perhaps join Anne as a companion, I suggested this on Zoo Chat at the time when Anne first went to live at Longleat,and we discussed this at some length, since then, I recall seeing new plans that Valli's Hindu owners have for a new facility for this elephant in Wales, so I would say it does not look like Valli will be leaving the temple. Finally, it has constantly been stated throughout the Anne story for some years that her age is (currently) 60, I have always maintained that she is ten years younger than this, perhaps the Roberts have become a bit confused over the years, I also have both written and photographic evidence, some of which is from Roberts own printed programmes over the years, that backs my claim that Anne is no more than fifty years old at present.
No, I wasn't holding out any real hope this will happen. But at present here are two singleton elephants missing the most important thing, company of their own kind. A new facility for the temple elephant won't improve things in that direction either.
I am not being critical of Longleat at all here- they have provided Annie with a good home and they obviously know what they are about with her management, while suitable companion elephants are not easy to obtain just like that, but until they could do something about that its less than ideal I feel.
Absolutely Pertinax, I am 100% certain that both Anne and Valli get the best of everything at Longleat and the Hindu Temple,but the fact of the matter is they both only have human company,at least when Anne was with the Roberts she had up to 2002 the company of other elephants when with the circus, Valli, I understand, has lived on her own since being an infant. Of coarse, it could be possible that they might not get on, as happened at Bristol when food loving Sheba was introduced to Wendy, I do think it would be worth a try, I would think Anne would be pleased to see another elephant after over a decade of being alone, it would also be interesting to see Valli's reaction to the sight of another elephant, I do think that Valli's current owners should at least consider this, and put the well being of the elephant before their own personal attachment to the animal, again, of coarse if the Longleat staff would be willing to at least try this integration, it's not as though Valli would have to travel a great distance, from Wales to Longleat.
Sorry, I meant Mya being sent to Bristol, not the late Sheba.
LovingLongleat
Member
Very interesting news: Exclusive: Theme Park Ride Plans for Longleat | News | ThemeParks-UK | ThemeParks-UK
The new development will be called 'Penguin Island & Stingray Cove' and was originally going to include lots of other species.
An area of amusement rides could be built in the future and possibly a 4D cinema too.
The new development will be called 'Penguin Island & Stingray Cove' and was originally going to include lots of other species.
An area of amusement rides could be built in the future and possibly a 4D cinema too.
All fine and dandy if you can choose not to go on the rides and not pay for them. Otherwise (for me) it'll become like all the other zoo/amusement park hybrids where I can't justify paying the entrance fee* to (typically) see a load of commonly seen zoo species I could see a lot cheaper elsewhere.
*cheap off-season zoo-only entrance deals (like Flamingoland & Drayton Manor do) excepted
I have to agree, i made my first visit to Longleat last summer and would say that it is already heavily overpriced for what it offers.
It's entrance fee is already almost at theme park levels anyway and to me much of it gave the impression of being an amusement park aimed largely at kids. I wont be rushing back and becoming even more of an amusement park will make that even less likely!
Indeed, this is why* Longleat is one of the very few significant animal attractions in the UK I've never visited. I can get a lot more animals elsewhere for significantly less than £25 (lowest current price if booked online). I'd always consider Whipsnade, which itself has one of the higher entrance fees, at £21 absolute maximum (including gift aid donation) a far better option -not that the two are really in direct competition for most people.
*Additionally it's one of those "geographically awkward" places for me in that it's too far away for a day trip and there are far better areas to arrange a weekend/holiday away around (from a zoo perspective). Accordingly If I'm anywhere near it's always "just passing" on the way to somewhere else. Monkey World suffers in a similar way.
Geographically awkward"?, you want to try living in this neck of the woods, virtualy everywhere is geographically awkward
,Yes, I agree the Whipsnade admission is about the maximum I would be prepared to pay, although these days with the high cost of petrol, what it used to cost to finance the whole day out to somewhere like Chester or Twycross,now costs that amount in petrol alone just to get there and back, although if you have never been to Longleat I would recommend you go, not only to cross it off your list but also to appreciate the magnificent grounds themselves. I remember my first visit to Longleat well, 1967, on a coach trip when on holiday in London with my two little cockney friends next door to our relations. The coach we went on, although new, was a Ford, I had it instilled in me from this very early age by my grandfather that Ford did not make very good coaches. This trip was to include visiting Stonehenge on the return, however, my grandfather's view of Ford coaches proved to be correct, en route from Longleat to Stonehenge it caught fire, we had to wait what seamed at the time virtually all night for a replacement vehicle to come from Greenwich, I recall arriving back at Surrey Docks in the middle of the night clutching one of those nodding lions that were sold in the gift shop,I haven't been to Stonehenge yet!. When Longleat first opened, admission was £1 per car, a pittance now but then I would think £20 a week would be a good wage, Lord Bath had the pleasure of taking the first pound note at the pay box which he later had framed, this arrangement was soon changed to individual admission charges as families were doubling up in one car and some were entering the park very overloaded, I haven't been to Longleat myself for some years now, I would like to get one day to see Anne the elephant and Boulas the gorilla, hopefully.