Rajang-GOAT
Well-Known Member
For me it has been very interesting to see how the reboot polls have been going so far compared to the 2020 versions, with some stark differences between current and past results (this poll and the gorilla poll especially!)
In 2020, Howletts took a comfortable win in the Best UK African Elephant enclosure, with over 59% of the votes (of a total of 22 on the poll), with Noahs's Ark (22%) and Colchester (13%) trailing behind, followed by Blair Drummond in last.
In the Best UK Safari Park Elephant enclosure, out of the 17 votes, 9 went to Woburn while Longleat and West Midlands took 4 each making WMSP joint second.
It is worth noting that the only major changes to an enclosure came in the form of the brand new exhibit at WMSP, while other potentially notable happenings include the Howletts herd being announced to be planned for rewilding (though I believe they plan to take on older/non breeding females after if the aforementioned move goes ahead), and Colchester moving their cows to protected contact.
Individual wise, WMSP have lost Latabe and Noah's Ark the bull M'changa. Breeding bull Coco went from Howletts to West Midlands and NAZF have gained two more bulls including Sutton who was born at WMSP, who will in turn receive two post reproductive retired circus cows from Pairi Daiza this year.
As for my opinion on the poll (the only exhibits I have seen in person are Colchester and Howletts), I agree that Noah's Ark do have the best enclosure, for all the reasons mentioned above, it is a great home for the bachelor herd that they have and I am sure it would be just as good for a breeding elephant herd (of either species) if things should go that way in the future. Overall the quality between the 5 exhibits is very good and something to be proud of, but I think Noah's Ark triumphs above due to the size, number, and quality of the outdoor areas, as well as a complex indoor area to match. Shoutout to Blair Drummond, it is the enclosure that I am the least familiar with, but the house and paddock look very nice and well furnished seem like a great home for their cow Mondula.
Also, I respectfully disagree that African Elephants are objectively underrepresented as a species in the UK, with 5 holders compared to the 6 of Asian Elephants not bad considering the more prominent breeding success of the latter in this nation. In terms of number of individuals, it adds up to:
African Elephants: 11:13 (24 total)- although maybe worth pointing out 13 of these are at Howletts
Asian Elephants: 5:22 (27 total)
this also points towards African Elephants not being terribly underrepresented compared to their Asian cousins, but I will admit that it does feel that way sometimes, maybe due to the unequal spread of individuals and lack of continued breeding success outside of Howletts.
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