Yorkshire Wildlife Park Yorkshire Wildlife Park News 2013

They hoping to have the anteaters in very soon and I'm pleased to hear the coatis are going in that area too as I've felt their current enclosure is small.

They are also building an enclosure for the young raccoon dogs.

They got some more young male squirrel monkeys from Edinburgh and one of the young males went there to breed (Hugo)

The eland calf didn't survive.
I think someone said the lechwe male is now vasectomised because they've bred loads (and loads)!

Last years hand-reared ankole calf is in with some zebu, not growing very fast.

Latest on Vlad/Sayan (Amur tigers) - seems to change whenever you ask - they hope to get a female in to breed with Vlad.

The ex-lechwe experimental enclosures were still partially under water - this was a couple of weeks ago so presumably they will be drying rapidly now.
 
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Good news about the coati moving into that area, will be quite a nice S. American "zone". I wonder if they'll move the macaws down that way? I believe they keep them off show and move them down to the education area if required. It would be nice to have a second bird species to bolster the S. American display.
 
Reporting on Facebook they are bringing a female leopard in for Drake.

AWARD WINNING Yorkshire Wildlife Park today reveals plans to bring an endangered leopard to the park to breed as an official report praised its efforts to save the species.

Eighteen-month-old Amur leopard Freya will arrive from Tallinn Zoo in Estonia in the Autumn.

When she is old enough she will be paired with current YWP resident Drake – potentially giving the most endangered big cat in the world a big boost.
 
Excellent, wonder what species they'll get.

I'm really surprised they've not got their eye on one horned rhino.
 
Come to think of it they did want to bring the bears from the zoo where the lions came from, I don't know what's happened there now.
 
Although I've taken the annual increase in visitor numbers as to be expected to some degree as the park grew, I think this is positive, I know they've added giraffes, baboons and the anteater since last summer but they're not exactly giant pandas in the crowds & publicity stakes!

Guest numbers to the innovative walk through park are up an amazing 25 per cent on last year's summer holidays - and 27 per cent up on the year to date.

It means Yorkshire Wildlife Park, the UK’s most acclaimed and fastest growing tourist attraction, is on track to have an incredible 400,000 visitors this year - up from 353,000 in 2012.
 
More details of the bear enclosure have been released on the councils website. There will be a bear rescue project, it will have 4 paddocks, about 11 acres total. Will be bears from the Americas.
 
The plans look great. I also noticed a African walk through exhibit on the plans, sounds interesting. Possibly a bird walk through which is something that YWP is lacking.
 
I noticed on the plan around the African walk through (currently the goat/sheep petting area) that the meerkat and mongoose enclosures are missing. Would these species be factored into a walk through exhibit? A few more bird species would be welcome though.
Overall the plans look very exciting.
 
YWP are again killing two birds with one stone here- creating another good series of exhibits and seemingly providing homes for more 'rescued' animals. They did it with the Lions while the Baboons also were pretty much surplus at Edinburgh too and needed a better home. I like what they do....
 
Visited today, they've already started the earthworks for the bears, it looks massive. Expecting both a female leopard and a female tiger within weeks.
The baboons were extremely active and entertaining everyone.
I finally saw Drake the Amur leopard in the big enclosure he's the one that is going to get the female and the other two will be leaving.
Also saw Cezar the lion who alternates with his two sons, not seen him for about a year.
Two of the giraffes, Jambo and Palle were sparing in fairly choreographed my turn/now your turn way but they got in a few fairly solid whacks.
 
Forgot, the raccoon dogs now have a nice enclosure, (pictures tomorrow when I got on computer) and the coati now have one of the new enclosures where the anteater is. The giant rabbit is by the anteater but I guess that's temporary as its old enclosure is being dug up. There was a sign that seems to suggest another play barn unless it is out of date.

A lot of the trees have gone from the lemur walk-through although I think it may have been a safety thing. It has made it lighter and there are still enough trees for the lemurs to be able to travel most of the length of the enclosure.
 
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Saw the sign/banner that mentions the new playbarn today - it also refers to new shops and an African village, so could well be in date. I haven't seen it before. There has been quite a lot of ground work done in the area before the Baboon/play house, including some footings.
Maybe the "African village" ties into the African walk through that can be seen on the recently submitted plans for the bear enclosure. The plans seem to show redevelopment of the contact area (sheep and goats) and the current meerkat/mongoose enclosures.
 
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