Woburn Safari Park A visit report

mazfc

mazfc

Well-Known Member
I visited Woburn Safari park today for the first time in at least 10 years. It's the last day of the full season today.*

We went around the Road Safari first. Highlights: a great white rhino collection. Lovely to watch. The largest rhino appeared to have a skin problem and was also being harassed by one of the male ostriches who kept pecking at his wounds and his tail! The youngest had a snooze with his head on mum in the outdoor shelter.*I really liked the selection of animals in this area. The eland are very impressive - I didn't realise how large they are!*

The lions are amazing! We were parked up for about an hour watching them (it wasn't too busy so we weren't blocking anyone). There are over 10 in the pride. The youngsters (still huge though) were chasing a large plastic ball round like over grown kittens :-) and the pride were being fed a deer carcass (sign up saying it was killed on the roads accidentally) - it was really interesting to see. Not for the fainted hearted, but when has any zoochatter been called that. The male looks an old lad (does anyone know anything about him?), but still an impressive animal. After having his fill of the carcass he went around the fence line spray marking. Some of the females were enormous, and one seemed to be being kept on the periphery of the pride and they definitely weren't letting her have any deer!

The tower of giraffes are great as well. A real mixed age group of rothschilds. They came right up to the fence line, until some people stuck their heads out of their sun roofs and scared them off!*

Not so highs:
We missed the drill monkeys in the monkey drive through. They were no where to be seen. Though I can't blame them it was freezing and quite wet at points of the day.

We went round the road safari twice and both times one of the tigers was pacing the fence line. I really don't like to see this.*

Viewing of the wolves is quite restricted as well - though the weather didn't help.*

Walk Around Safari:

The squirrel monkey walk through was great. They seem to have had a lot of youngsters this year, and they were a joy to see. The keepers in there were great as well and did a really good talk.*

The lemur walk through was very much like the Dudley one I thought (or vice verse :-) ) the red bellied lemurs were lovely, their grunty noises are so sweet to listen to. We were pretty taken back when we were told it was ok to stroke the black and White ruffs! Not used to that at all.*

There was also a very young Pygmy marmoset that took a shine to my friends toy key ring that it saw hanging on her bag, then it panicked and ran back to mum. The biggest shock we had were the free roaming common marmosets - quite a shock to see them sat on the fence at the side of us!

Sorry my reports not very technical, but i hope it's gives my general impressions..*All in all I had a great day, and would love to go back again, the park and staff were welcoming, and the collection was interesting and well cared for. I would like maybe sone kind of commentary, as the downside of the road safari is that there was no one to answer my myriad of questions! The food was great and my cottage pie was home made. A good way to spend a Sunday
 
I thought, by the sturdy nature of the 'lions fed deer killed on the road' sign, that there must be a lot of terrible drivers round Woburn way! ;-)
 
anidude said:
i went on sunday mazfc
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I hope you weren't the one sticking your head out of a sun-roof and ruining the lovely giraffe moment! :)

Or the one going off-road, parking right by the bear and opening the window to put the camera out! :)
 
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The pride male Shane was born at Knowsley 16th June 1997, he arrived at Woburn with his elder half brother Sly early 2002. Since then they had a very rough time, within the first year or so, four out of the seven old girls had died, and had not gone without a fuss! Many obviously did not like the idea of new and particuarly agressive ones (particularly Sly) and gave them what for!
Sly and Shane always had many scars, and Sly was covered in them, his face even seeming very black due to them, He had lost half his tail within the first few months.
Sly died around 2006-7, but i am really unsure, and trying to contact Woburn they have no given me a date or any information at all.
Sadly it seems like Shane has had to bare all of the boisturous youngsters including the young males, and a split has allready occured, this was resolved when the 3 in question Bailey,Malika and Naja where moved to Colchester when their male Subu (coinsidently also born at Woburn, so probably a relative of some sort) had died.
However when Shane dies and what with atleast 3 castrated males and all related females the future of the pride may just be a complete clear out, and then a fresh start.
Hope this helps.
 
That's really interesting, we did comment on Shane's scars when he came right past the car. Several others were at the carcass but left when he went to it and drifted back when he left.
 
OrangePerson said:
I thought, by the sturdy nature of the 'lions fed deer killed on the road' sign, that there must be a lot of terrible drivers round Woburn way! ;-)
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There is a main road running through the main Woburn estate/deer park and a noticeboard that lists the number of deer killed 'so far' annually. Despite the speed limit, with the big herds of deer in the park there are bound to be accidents, mostly at night I presume.
 
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