Longleat Safari & Adventure Park UK Safari parks

MARK

MARK

Well-Known Member
After looking today at the many photos in the gallery of the Longleat Safari park I was wondering which Safari park in the UK would be ranked number one with you UK members?, I know Longleat was the first and they used to have a good collection many years ago when I first visited there so I would be interested to hear your views from the UK, maybe Woburn maybe better?
 
I have only been too 3,

Knowsley
West Middlands
Longleat

So I cannot comment on the rest, but out of those lot I hated Knowsley (not sure why),

West middlands was good, lots of different interesting animals. However I didn't like how busy it got, basically I was stuck in a car not moving for long periods of time, usually thru the more dangerous animal enclosure (which I think is disgusting in most places because they usually have very little room to move away from the metal train!) Although I would visit again, because its a very nice collection.

Longleat, I don't know why I seemed to love this place maybe it was the fact that it seemed like I was there only one there ( and I visited in the middle of summer!) Starts of great with the east african reserve, quite a few different animals to see, then well it seems to lack something, until you get to the deer reserve. Buying feed and feeding the deer is fantastic there. Then comes the best bit for me the Lions, Tigers and Wolf reserves. They all seem huge compared to other safari parks (but then couple with the fact that the safari park seemed quiet might come into play there). Really spaceous and fantastic with lots of tree's and plant makes the experience of being able to spot them even better. One bad point is the price to get in only includes one time around, where's as it seems alot of the other safari park's allow multiple trips around the safari.
 
only ever been to Longleat but i have seen loads of pictures of Knowsley West Midlands and Woburn and i have to say they all look very good i like the fact that west Midlands does not seem to have any monkeys so no worries about the car being trashed lol
 
Intresting one this one which is my favorite safari park,having done all the ones still open in the U.K thought i would give you my ranking for them.
1 Woburn Safari Park reason good collection of animals in both drive through and walk round areas.
2 Blair Drummond Safari Park reason well its the smallest of them all but they use the space they have well and at present are spending alot of money doing improvements to most areas of the park,they also have a well balanced collection.
3 Longleat Safari Park reason the animals areas are spread out over a great distance and you have to walk quite away to get round the walk around areas.
4 West Midlands Safari Park reason well some place may as well be forth,seriously it just too tacky it looks like Blackpool sea front,which is a pity because it does have a great collection of animals here,and finally because Chester has still got those Bengal Tigers that they have not got the room to take back.
5 Knowsley Safari Park reason sorry cannot put my finger on any reason other than the place does nothing for me.
 
Like Taun, I have visited Longleat, Knowsley and West Midlands

Longleat:
It's setting is magnificent (in the grounds of a manor) and it does contain some great species (mostly standard safari types). There are some good enclosures too (flamingo and vulture aviaries as examples). The one thing that I would pull them up on is the very odd mixing (Rhino & bactrian camels, sealions & hippos).

Knowsley:
It was OK, a good amount of space and some very unusual safari park species (congo buffalo, bongo etc) Cape Buffalo are also a highlight. Another plus point is that the elephants have a very large area to roam around. I don't really like the fact that the giraffes have a seperate, small, paddock when the other two parks i mentioned keep them in the giant drive-thoughs (with no apparent problems).

West Midlands:
In my opinion, it is the best of the three. Sensible mixed reserves:
African - White Rhino, Giraffe, Zebra, Wildebeest, Eland etc
Asian - Water Buffalo, Philippine Deer, Banteng, Blackbuck
They also have a good range of the carnivores (lion, tiger, african wild dog, timber wolves, cheetah, leopards). A large hippo group, cape buffalo and elephants are also part of the impressive collection. WMSP also has a good nocturnal walk-through and very interesting insect and fish buildings. The only negatives are the amount of traffic and the white lions and tigers (which I'm not in favour of). Even the sealion show is well done!
 
I haven't been to Knowsley so can't comment(but their website is the best one I think)

West Midlands- probably the widest animal collection but very tacky.

Longleat/Woburn- both great locations in classic English Parkland.

I'm not really a fan of Safari Parks as the exhibits are usually just designed at getting visitors through in their cars and on a busy summer day the whole experience can be like an organised traffic jam while in winter they are either closed or very depressing.
 
I have been to 4 of the 5, Blair Drummond being the one i havent visited. I personally would rank the other 4 as this.

1. West Middlands
2. Knowsley
3. Woburn
4. Longleat

The top 3 are brilliant but i was extremly dissapointed with Longleat.
 
We haven't been to Blair Drummond or Longleat yet, but here are my views on the others:
No safari park in this country is 100% fantastic. They all date from the 1970s (except Longleat which opened in 1966 I believe), and were all co-owned by Jimmy Chipperfield and his organisation.Though the less said about him the better. They all started as African safari drive-throughs with an amusement park tagged on to it. I never have liked the mixture of animals and amusements, but I suppose that some of the revenue from the rides goes back in to the animal husbandry. Would as many people visit the parks if they were simply animal-based? I know everyone on this website would, but I'm talking about the average joe-in-the-street looking for somewhere to take the kids for an afternoon.
Anyway, they have all ditched the Chipperfield association, and have developed as animal collections in their own rights.

KNOWSLEY: We have spent many an excellent day at Knowsley, and they have a good, steadily increasing collection of animals (does any body know if they are still getting Spotted Hyenas?). I agree that the giraffes should be out in the park, not contained within their small enclosure, but Knowsley does have Cape Buffalo; Olive Baboons; American Bison; a fine herd of African Elephants; African Wild Dogs. The reptile house is very small and seems to be rapidly becoming an insect house that also happens to have a few reptiles in it. They have publicised a much-needed outdoor pool for the sealions.

BUT, your day out is what you make of it. I have never come away from a zoo or safari park feeling I had wasted a day. There has always been something that has got me excited or amazed.

WOBURN: We have been to Woburn twice now, and the safari drive doesn't seem to have the extra something that other parks seem to have. Don't get me wrong, we have enjoyed our days there. It's a nice little animal collection, but the only major draw for us seems to be the American Black Bears in the Wolf drive-through. All the other animals you can see in every other safari park in the UK, with the exception of the Bongos, which Woburn has successfully bred for many years.

WEST MIDLANDS: For me, this is the best. Ignoring the amusements,and the White Tiger/ Lion debate, it has the best animal collection - Cape Buffalo; Banteng; Addax; African Wild Dogs; Sambar; Barasingha; the largest herd of Common Hippo in the UK; one of the best reptile collections in the UK, with Nile croc; American Alligator; King Cobra; Frilled Lizard; Cantil; and new exhibits for Green Anacondas and Reticulated Pythons. Anyone who hasn't read Head Warden Bob Lawrence's book "My Wild Life" should. He gives an interesting account of the early Chipperfield-run days of a 1970s safari park.
 
Bwassa said:
They all started as African safari drive-throughs with an amusement park tagged on to it. I never have liked the mixture of animals and amusements, but I suppose that some of the revenue from the rides goes back in to the animal husbandry. Would as many people visit the parks if they were simply animal-based? I know everyone on this website would, but I'm talking about the average joe-in-the-street looking for somewhere to take the kids for an afternoon.
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Longleat has no real amusements like the other safari parks or are you just talking about the safari parks you have visited?

Bwassa said:
All the other animals you can see in every other safari park in the UK, with the exception of the Bongos, which Woburn has successfully bred for many years.
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The first bit is not accurate as longleat have had Bongo's for a few years now, I think its still a bachelor group thou.
 
taun said:
Longleat has no real amusements like the other safari parks or are you just talking about the safari parks you have visited?
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I didn't notice any amusements at Woburn either. There is a walkaround area which is pretty commercialised but its all animal orientated. They've managed at Woburn to keep the Safari Park totally out of sight of the Deer park and Abbey vistas, by clever use of the landscape contours.. I was surprised to discover the exit suddenly brings you out on the main road through the park too. When I went I couldn't help thinking it would all look better without the ugly fences and roads and returned to its pristine state as part of the deer park though!... but that's really not a useful thought in a discussion about Safari Parks.:rolleyes:

The best thing about Woburn is the Pere David's deer in the main park, I would rate them the single best animal spectacle in the UK...
 
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Unfortunately I cannot make a true comparison as I've only visited Knowsley. But compared to other zoos I've been to I thought they did a pretty good job. There are some things I would change like getting species in to some vague zoogeographic zones and alter the housing/display of tigers, hunting dogs and giraffe, but overall not to bad at all.

Personally their drive-through baboons was great. Okay the car has a few gnaw marks, but we still have an antenna and wiper blades...
 
So Knowsley have a good breeding herd of African elephants?, any idea of the numbers of adults/young?
 
MARK said:
So Knowsley have a good breeding herd of African elephants?, any idea of the numbers of adults/young?
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ISIS, list Knowsley as having 1.6 although from what I gather it seems the male is of different sub-species to the females.

Knowsley also have had some succes with White rhino's in recent years
 
taun said:
ISIS, list Knowsley as having 1.6 although from what I gather it seems the male is of different sub-species to the females.

Knowsley also have had some succes with White rhino's in recent years
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Did Knowsley send an Adult male elephant to Port Lypmne resently to help make up another herd of African elephants?.

Glad to hear they are doing ok with the rhinos :cool:
 
MARK said:
Did Knowsley send an Adult male elephant to Port Lypmne resently to help make up another herd of African elephants?.

Glad to hear they are doing ok with the rhinos :cool:
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Kruger comes to mind, but I wasn't sure if they sent him away or recieved in from Port Lypmne!

They are hoping all three females Rhino's will give birth this year, I know one has already given birth the calf is heathly and out and about already
 
taun said:
Kruger comes to mind, but I wasn't sure if they sent him away or recieved in from Port Lypmne!

They are hoping all three females will give birth this year, I know one has already given birth the calf is heathly and out and about already
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I seemed to remember reading something about a transfer on the Port Lypmne website so maybe Knowsley have another bull
 
Yes, Knowsley did send their adult bull Kruger to Port Lympne, as he had made 2 of the females pregnant. Unfortunately one calf was stillborn and the other died during the first few months of pregnancy.

Knowsley always had another bull within the herd, Nissim who is about 14 years old now, and was always going to be Kruger's successor, although as far as i'm aware, he hasn't tried his advances on the females yet. I'm sure one of the females is barren as well, and has never become pregnant.
 
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