Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens Cotswold Wildlife Park news 2016

A new exhibit has opened called "Little Africa".it is housed in the old zebra stable block and yard .As you enter via the yard to the side of the block there are Kirk's Dik Dik and singleton of East African Crowned Crane and Stanley Crane.Upon entering the stable block there is a small nocturnal exhibit with Lesser Bush baby and Malagasy giant jumping rats.This is followed by a herp section with Peacock frogs,Tiger Beetles and Elecric Blue Gecko..There are then large exhibits for Neumann's Grass Rats, Naked Mole Rats and an excellent exhibit of a large group of Gundi complete with artificial rocks.

The Eastern Crown Cranes have two new chicks and the singleton from last years brood has moved to Little Africa

This sounds like an imaginative display, presumably put together at a fairly low cost. Some of those zoos that seem to have abandoned the idea of interesting, small exhibits might learn from this.
 
Sounds a great new exhibit, surprised they haven't been advertising it. Can I ask where abouts is the old Zebra block is? Only visited the collection once! Shame it wasn't open when I visited a few weeks back.
 
Sounds a great new exhibit, surprised they haven't been advertising it. Can I ask where abouts is the old Zebra block is? Only visited the collection once! Shame it wasn't open when I visited a few weeks back.

It's at the corner of rhino paddock nearest the camels and porcupines.
 
Lovely day out at Cotswolds today - I very much enjoyed the new Little Africa section. I like how Cotswolds have managed to use the empty space with a diverse little collection of interesting species. I think Marwell could learn a lot from Cotswolds in this respect. We were very lucky seeing the cubs too - one of the keepers walked by and commented on how hidden they usually are but we got a full display of little cats larking about.

Other higlights - always enjoy the Sifaka and there were some new species for us in the (excellent imo) reptile house. Most notably the crocodile monitor.
 
News From CWP

The Scimitar-Horned Oryx have left CWP .This is because of parasites in the ground of their paddock and they were having to be continually medicated.Believe they have moved to Marwell (?) A pair of ostrich now occupy their paddock as you enter the park.
As the Canadian wolves are becoming quite old there are plans to replace them with European Wolves.
Only one Crowned Crane chick has survived ,one quickly became ill and the other died after a month due to joint problems.
The warty pigs consist of the original male (now castrated) and his son.The father was over represented however when the mother moved to Thrigby Hall Zoo she was already pregnant by him!
 
The warty pigs consist of the original male (now castrated) and his son.The father was over represented however when the mother moved to Thrigby Hall Zoo she was already pregnant by him!

This is another species, like the Red River Hog, that is fast approaching the situation where it will breed itself out of any demand as saturation point is reached- resulting in birth controls being necessary to stem the flow.
 
The Gundi have bred and a male (nominate species) Binturong has arrived. The latter is housed in the former Lar Gibbon enclosure near the Reptile house
 
The Eurasian Wolves have arrived - 1.1 from different collections in Sweden

Other new arrivals include a small group of White Backed Pelicans
 
Is it true you can take your dog into the zoo (but not into the houses)?
Yes you can, I've taken my dog each time I've been. There is alot of places they can't go in (wolves wood, lemurs, giraffe walkway, all buildings etc), so I would definitely recommend going with at least one other person, then you can take it in turns going in places, otherwise you'll miss a lot.

On another note, I visited on Wednesday and noticed there's now three Clouded Leopards in the front enclosure, have they moved the mother in there too? Does anyone know how many they hold now?
 
Due to UK wide precautions against avian influenza -bird walk through areas are all closed at CWP including tropical house,bird walk through in walled gardens and all of lake area - so new wolves and Pelicans can not be viewed.
Gundis in Little African have had two further young this week.
 
Guessing, given the presence of birds within, that the Malagasy Walkthrough is also closed?
 
Guessing, given the presence of birds within, that the Malagasy Walkthrough is also closed?
No, the Madagascan Lemur Walkthrough was still open I visited tiday but only saw one Ring-Tailed Lemur, the only parts I saw closed in the zoo today due to the Bird Flu where the waterfowl area (Where the Magpie Geese are ) but you can still see the Tapirs & Giant Anteaters, the Tropical House and the Walkthrough in the walled gardens. It was a really great second visit for me, highlights for me where the Asian Lions, Pallas Cat, Crowned Sifaka and Binturong. I saw the binturong being fed, the enclosure has been well transformed from a former Lar Gibbon/Purple Langur enclosure (Does anyone know what happened to the Lar Gibbon, I think they where an old pair so possibly passed away). The zoo has a very good Rodent collection and Lemur collection, I never knew you could actually go threw the door with the Siamang sign on but saw the Siamang which didn't venture out in the day. They have a very large group of Mouse Lemur there are definitely more than 10. I will defenitly be visiting again in 2017, and hopefully see the Magpie Geese!
 
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