Best UK Wolverine enclosure

Best UK Wolverine enclosure?

  • Total voters
    49
  • Poll closed .
B

britishzoofan

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
This is just a bit of fun to judge the general consensus on the best enclosure for Wolverine's in the UK. I have added a few photos from the gallery to make it easier for members to compare the different exhibits. If anyone wants to make an argument for a particular enclosure, please feel free to do so. Also, I would encourage people to perhaps list the enclosures in order of what they determine to be the best.

Wild Place

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Cotswold

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Whipsnade

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Highland

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britishzoofan said:
This is just a bit of fun to judge the general consensus on the best enclosure for Wolverine's in the UK. I have added a few photos from the gallery to make it easier for members to compare the different exhibits. If anyone wants to make an argument for a particular enclosure, please feel free to do so. Also, I would encourage people to perhaps list the enclosures in order of what they determine to be the best.

Wild Place

full


Cotswold

full


Whipsnade

full


Highland

full




Click to expand...

This is an interesting one. I like either the Cotswold or Wild Place exhibit best, and I reckon I just prefer Wild Place because it has some nice undergrowth vegetation as well as tall trees. For once, HWP might not win on a contest over a Northern species :D
 
britishzoofan said:
This is just a bit of fun to judge the general consensus on the best enclosure for Wolverine's in the UK. I have added a few photos from the gallery to make it easier for members to compare the different exhibits. If anyone wants to make an argument for a particular enclosure, please feel free to do so. Also, I would encourage people to perhaps list the enclosures in order of what they determine to be the best.

Wild Place

full


Cotswold

full


Whipsnade

full


Highland

full




Click to expand...
I seem to remember the Whipsnade enclosure being far more dense and attractive than it appears in the photo.There are more plants, and an additional (very) small enclosure.
 
This is one that I think will be well spread across the 4 candidates and will depend on the individual voter's definition of 'best enclosure'!

For a start I would suggest all 4 are more than adequate sizewise, so I don't consider biggest is necessarily the best. I haven't seen Highland WP's exhibit, but do many visitors actually see the Wolverines? Likewise I got a brief glimpse of one on the ground at wild place, but the other one was asleep high in a tree at the back of the other enclosure.
I am surprised how well Cotswold is doing as I think that is probably 4th on my list. Although it has a lot of trees it is fairly flat and bare apart from that, but you can get good views from the platform looking down into the enclosure.
Whipsnade is my choice as it is good both from an animal and visitor viewpoint. Plenty of hiding places, well planted, but not so much of these that you can never see them.
 
britishzoofan said:
Yes, you are right, I believe it is. This is the best photo I could find in the gallery.
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Indeed-this photo must’ve been taken shortly after the wolverine arrived nearly 10 years ago now I believe. The photo doesn’t do the enclosure justice! It’s very much overgrown now (in a good way) with plenty of climbing opportunities and undergrowth. Also, it’s made good use of a once (pretty much) redundant enclosure that once held a mix of stork and white wallaby!
 
Panthera1981 said:
Indeed-this photo must’ve been taken shortly after the wolverine arrived nearly 10 years ago now I believe. The photo doesn’t do the enclosure justice! It’s very much overgrown now (in a good way) with plenty of climbing opportunities and undergrowth. Also, it’s made good use of a once (pretty much) redundant enclosure that once held a mix of stork and white wallaby!
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I seem to remember the Stork and Wallaby living in an enclosure opposite the Wolverines(by the current Hunting Dog enclosure)but that may have been more recent or even longer ago.The enclosure is currently in a much better position and I will certainly be voting for it!
 
Can anyone explain why Cotswold has 11 votes and is currently joint 2nd and just one point off the lead? I must have missed what makes this the best somehow as I would place it comfortably last!
 
pipaluk said:
Can anyone explain why Cotswold has 11 votes and is currently joint 2nd and just one point off the lead? I must have missed what makes this the best somehow as I would place it comfortably last!
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This could always be an issue with these time-filling quizes, but might it be that voters are just voting on pictures and have not actually seen what they are voting on?
 
Andrew Swales said:
This could always be an issue with these time-filling quizes, but might it be that voters are just voting on pictures and have not actually seen what they are voting on?
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You could well be right, the Cotswold photo is flattering but Whipsnade's photo makes it look nothing like as good as it is in reality several years on, if people voted on that picture it would be last!
 
Yes I would be interested to hear arguments in support of the Cotswold and Highland exhibits as we haven't heard any so far. That isn't to say voting for them is wrong it is just interesting to hear peoples reasons behind for selecting their choice as it may help persuade others.
 
pipaluk said:
You could well be right, the Cotswold photo is flattering but Whipsnade's photo makes it look nothing like as good as it is in reality several years on, if people voted on that picture it would be last!
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In the same vein, as @ThomasNotTom pointed out, the picture of Wild Place's exhibit shows one of three paddocks which allow for separation of individuals (including potential future offspring) and more flexible management.

The same is true of the Komodo dragon poll - where London's photos did not actually show any areas currently inhabited by Komodo dragons, and Paignton's only showed around 50% of the total exhibit.
 
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Rajang21 said:
In the same vein, as @ThomasNotTom pointed out, the picture of Wild Place's exhibit shows one of three paddocks which allow for separation of individuals (including potential future offspring) and more flexible management.

The same is true of the Komodo dragon poll - where London's photos did not actually show any areas currently inhabited by Komodo dragons, and Paignton's only showed around 50% of the total exhibit.
Click to expand...

Perhaps the title of these threads should be changed to
'Best (or most flattering) Photo of a UK Wolverine Enclosure' This is just a bit of fun to judge th.... etc
 
Rajang21 said:
In the same vein, as @ThomasNotTom pointed out, the picture of Wild Place's exhibit shows one of three paddocks which allow for separation of individuals (including potential future offspring) and more flexible management.

The same is true of the Komodo dragon poll - where London's photos did not actually show any areas currently inhabited by Komodo dragons, and Paignton's only showed around 50% of the total exhibit.
Click to expand...

Yes you are right the photos often don't show the full extent of the exhibit. That's why its extremely useful when members who have visited point out what the photo does or doesn't show as you have above.

The Komodo Dragon poll is a good example where it wasn't a particularly good photo of the Colchester exhibit yet it still won due to opinions voiced by several members.

Of course this reliant on people being prepared to change their vote after hearing the arguments of others, which is crucial for the format to work and something that there could be more of.
 
Are the wolverines at HWP allowed access to the tall trees in their enclosure?
 
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Benosaurus said:
Are the wolverines at HWP allowed access to the tall trees in their enclosure?
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They are indeed :)

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amur leopard said:
I like either the Cotswold or Wild Place exhibit best, and I reckon I just prefer Wild Place because it has some nice undergrowth vegetation as well as tall trees. For once, HWP might not win on a contest over a Northern species
Click to expand...

pipaluk said:
I haven't seen Highland WP's exhibit, but do many visitors actually see the Wolverines?
Click to expand...

britishzoofan said:
Yes I would be interested to hear arguments in support of the Cotswold and Highland exhibits as we haven't heard any so far.
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The exhibit is a fair bit more vegetated than the images in the gallery - all uploaded in the early years of the exhibit - suggest, although none of my 2016 photographs are decent enough quality to upload unfortunately :( it is also pretty big, at 2.5 acres in total.

As regards visitor viewing of the Wolverines at HWP, I had no problems whatsoever in this regard either in 2013 or 2016 (my two visits since they arrived) as the animals were very active, running around the exhibit, climbing trees, occasionally sheltering in the thick (gorse?) bushes dotted through the enclosure and - in 2013 - swimming in their pool. The exhibit also contains a small and much-more vegetated annexe, which I believe is used to separate the breeding pair when they have cubs.

A few other images of the exhibit to give a better idea of what it looks like, with the aforementioned caveat about vegetation being a bit thicker now:

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So the HWP enclosure:
  • is larger than the others (wolverines have very large territories in the wild)
  • has good viewing
  • has a large naturalistic pool (wolverines are good swimmers)
  • gives the wolverines access to the tall trees (wolverines are good climbers)
  • has dense ground vegetation
  • has a separation area
  • and the Scottish highlands where it is located more closely resembles the animal's natural habitat.

I've never seen a wolverine enclosure in person, but going off the points listed above I don't know why anyone would vote for any of the others* if they were voting for the best enclosure (rather than their favourite one or just one that they've seen).

*not that the rest aren't good quality.
 
Score update. It is very close, Whipsnade and Highland are currently tied for the lead and Cotswold are only two votes behind. There have very recently been some strong arguments put forward by @TeaLovingDave and @Benosaurus for the Highland enclosure which may swing the vote in their favour.

Whichever collection does win I think it can be agreed that all 4 exhibits are of an extremely high quality and I would suggest this is the species which perhaps has the highest standard of enclosure across collections so far.
 
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