Two baby porcupines born at CWP.
Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens Cotswold Wildlife Park news 2020
- Thread starter trachycarpus
- Start date
I visited yesterday for their first day back. Busy for a weekday but not as busy as I have seen it at weekends. Glad to see a good turnout.
Indoor areas, the cafe, shop and the lemur walkthrough are shut. There are a couple of one way systems in operation where the paths are narrower. The pathway from the giant anteaters all the way down to the flamingos is one way in that direction. Also the area with the wolverines and nearby aviaries are one way starting with the wolverines and exiting the section by what would normally be the entry for the train (which is not running at the moment).
Because of the open layout I found social distancing easy most of the time and the majority seemed to be observing the rules. There was a noticeable minority who were not though but it was usually easy to keep out of their way. The only potentially problematic areas are the narrower one way sections, particularly when a family of six decides to go through them in the wrong direction as I saw on one occasion.
I didn't notice any new species or any that had gone but there were a couple of moves. There are now emus in the small paddock next to the wolves that used to hold the warty pigs. This is in addition to the main emu enclosure near the car park. The coscoroba swans have moved from the mixed South American area to the flamingo and waterfowl lake.
Also heard another example of animal mis-identification that surprised me. Somebody was sayng the maras were kangaroos.
Indoor areas, the cafe, shop and the lemur walkthrough are shut. There are a couple of one way systems in operation where the paths are narrower. The pathway from the giant anteaters all the way down to the flamingos is one way in that direction. Also the area with the wolverines and nearby aviaries are one way starting with the wolverines and exiting the section by what would normally be the entry for the train (which is not running at the moment).
Because of the open layout I found social distancing easy most of the time and the majority seemed to be observing the rules. There was a noticeable minority who were not though but it was usually easy to keep out of their way. The only potentially problematic areas are the narrower one way sections, particularly when a family of six decides to go through them in the wrong direction as I saw on one occasion.
I didn't notice any new species or any that had gone but there were a couple of moves. There are now emus in the small paddock next to the wolves that used to hold the warty pigs. This is in addition to the main emu enclosure near the car park. The coscoroba swans have moved from the mixed South American area to the flamingo and waterfowl lake.
Also heard another example of animal mis-identification that surprised me. Somebody was sayng the maras were kangaroos.
The cassowary are still there just up from where he warty pigs used to be. I don't remember them being anywhere else.
zoomart
Member
I visited Cotswold Wildlife Park today and if I'm being honest, it was a horrendous experience. I had expected it to be very busy and appreciated that many people would take advantage of the first weekend since opening to pay a visit to the collection and get out of the house. CWP had also given forewarning on their Social Media platforms yesterday that they expected the park to be very busy this weekend.
I personally believe that it has been frustrating that CWP have not offered visitors a chance to book a designated day and time to visit and continue to sell e-tickets which are valid for any time/date within a 30 day period after purchase. In all of the twenty-five years or so that I've been visiting the park, today was probably the busiest I have ever seen it.
The park had announced that they were supposedly capping admission at 30% of capacity therefore it would be astute to arrive early to guarantee entry. We arrived in Burford at around 10am and there was a queue all the way from the 'Starbucks Roundabout' to the zoo, it took about 35 minutes to complete the final two miles of the journey. Upon arriving in the visitor car park, we had to park all the way towards the back of the Bactrian Camel enclosure due to the vast amount of cars that had already arrived. The main car park was basically full before 11am, even with annual pass holders/members being parked in a fenced off area immediately opposite the Ostriches. Cars were spaced further apart than normal to allow visitors to try and get out of their cars safely, but the blatant disregard for the efforts by Joe Public was already quite scary.
Judging by the amount of people we could already see, I decided it would be best to wear a face mask for the duration of the visit. I could see a huge number of visitors already encircling the White Rhino 'lawn' and it did not look like there was any sort of social distancing being enforced. I appreciate that we as individual households have a civic duty to ensure social distancing and we can't solely pin blame on the zoo for the lack of social distancing, but I did think that Dudley Zoo had good social distancing systems nailed and suitably enforced when I visited them earlier in the week.
Due to where we had parked most visitors headed straight towards the Camels/Lions/Rhinos, but I decided to head towards the Walled Garden. By the Emu paddock opposite the shop, there is a sign that outlines the efforts that the zoo were taking to try and ensure that they were Covid-Secure but in reality, most guests did not see this sign because they were cutting over the grass to head straight to the exhibits rather than entering the park through the 'main entrance' area by the ticket booths.
The shop remains closed, but food kiosks are open. They had evidently hired in some temporary food outlets similar to those seen at fairgrounds to help cope with the extra demand. The queues were long and became an obstacle for guests trying to navigate to other parts of the zoo. There were no markings on the floor to illustrate two metre distance and I witnessed many people standing together with less than a single metre between households. The zoo has also been flooded with portable toilets and these were really busy. I found this odd, because even though people were queuing for the portable toilets, the main toilets were open and the doors were permanently open with urinals taped off and alcohol rub available upon entering/exiting the facilities.
Upon entering the walled garden there are literally four or five spray painted paw prints which are 2m apart (will put pictures in gallery). These markings don't seem to have any purpose and there is no distancing markings anywhere else within the zoo. Immediately glancing over to the Humboldt Penguin enclosure, there was a huge crowd of people all stood shoulder to shoulder (picture will be uploaded to gallery). The walled garden was really difficult to navigate and even when I did try to leave a distance between myself and another visitor at any of the exhibits, it was immediately filled by an ignorant member of the public who had no concern for social distancing. I preferred the system at Dudley where they have spray painted boxes next to the Tiger enclosure with a member of staff advising when guests can proceed to an empty box to view the exhibit.
The new Otter enclosure doesn't seem too dissimilar from the old one, albeit some slight improvement in the size of the pool. It will certainly look better when the planting has had more time to establish.
The lemur walk-through remains closed as does the reptile house and invertebrate house.
The highlight of the whole visit came in the Walled Garden where the Tamandua were very active in their outdoor enclosure allowing for some half decent photographs.
We found it really difficult to socially distance and the system for the Wolf/Lake walk-through was bizarre. A member of staff stands on the gate and allows one household group to enter at a time, reminding people that it is a one-way system. It would have been great if they could have also reminded households to stay two metres apart because immediately upon entry people were then sandwiching together to making social distancing impossible. I actually felt very uncomfortable in this exhibit and we walked through quite quickly despite the Tapirs being active. It was heartbreaking to see a mask thrown on the path and a child's dummy as well. I appreciate that dummy's are easily lost, but how do you drop a face mask and not realise?
We decided that we had had enough and it was time to leave, albeit a quick diversion to get a glance of the Clouded Leopards. I am actually worried that CWP's handling of this situation and believe that it could be brand damaging in the short run. On their social media they have received a lot of criticism for their current booking system and although they obviously have a lot on their plate at the moment with trying to be compliant with brand new government regulations, I think sorting the booking system out should be a priority. I overheard a lot of other families complaining about the behaviour of other guests and the complete lack of staff presence and enforcement of the guidelines.
I really love this park and I feel like I have ranted on, but when I compare the effective systems in place at Dudley Zoo which I visited on Tuesday to the complete lack of organisation at CWP, I really would hesitate to visit again until there is something more sufficient in place to control guest numbers and guest behaviour. The lack of staff presence and insufficient signage/distancing measures is concerning and as a result we didn't spend any time by the Penguins, Lions or Giraffes.
I will add my photos to the gallery of the measures that have been put in place and would be happy to clarify any of the points made above. I've just tried to be honest.
I personally believe that it has been frustrating that CWP have not offered visitors a chance to book a designated day and time to visit and continue to sell e-tickets which are valid for any time/date within a 30 day period after purchase. In all of the twenty-five years or so that I've been visiting the park, today was probably the busiest I have ever seen it.
The park had announced that they were supposedly capping admission at 30% of capacity therefore it would be astute to arrive early to guarantee entry. We arrived in Burford at around 10am and there was a queue all the way from the 'Starbucks Roundabout' to the zoo, it took about 35 minutes to complete the final two miles of the journey. Upon arriving in the visitor car park, we had to park all the way towards the back of the Bactrian Camel enclosure due to the vast amount of cars that had already arrived. The main car park was basically full before 11am, even with annual pass holders/members being parked in a fenced off area immediately opposite the Ostriches. Cars were spaced further apart than normal to allow visitors to try and get out of their cars safely, but the blatant disregard for the efforts by Joe Public was already quite scary.
Judging by the amount of people we could already see, I decided it would be best to wear a face mask for the duration of the visit. I could see a huge number of visitors already encircling the White Rhino 'lawn' and it did not look like there was any sort of social distancing being enforced. I appreciate that we as individual households have a civic duty to ensure social distancing and we can't solely pin blame on the zoo for the lack of social distancing, but I did think that Dudley Zoo had good social distancing systems nailed and suitably enforced when I visited them earlier in the week.
Due to where we had parked most visitors headed straight towards the Camels/Lions/Rhinos, but I decided to head towards the Walled Garden. By the Emu paddock opposite the shop, there is a sign that outlines the efforts that the zoo were taking to try and ensure that they were Covid-Secure but in reality, most guests did not see this sign because they were cutting over the grass to head straight to the exhibits rather than entering the park through the 'main entrance' area by the ticket booths.
The shop remains closed, but food kiosks are open. They had evidently hired in some temporary food outlets similar to those seen at fairgrounds to help cope with the extra demand. The queues were long and became an obstacle for guests trying to navigate to other parts of the zoo. There were no markings on the floor to illustrate two metre distance and I witnessed many people standing together with less than a single metre between households. The zoo has also been flooded with portable toilets and these were really busy. I found this odd, because even though people were queuing for the portable toilets, the main toilets were open and the doors were permanently open with urinals taped off and alcohol rub available upon entering/exiting the facilities.
Upon entering the walled garden there are literally four or five spray painted paw prints which are 2m apart (will put pictures in gallery). These markings don't seem to have any purpose and there is no distancing markings anywhere else within the zoo. Immediately glancing over to the Humboldt Penguin enclosure, there was a huge crowd of people all stood shoulder to shoulder (picture will be uploaded to gallery). The walled garden was really difficult to navigate and even when I did try to leave a distance between myself and another visitor at any of the exhibits, it was immediately filled by an ignorant member of the public who had no concern for social distancing. I preferred the system at Dudley where they have spray painted boxes next to the Tiger enclosure with a member of staff advising when guests can proceed to an empty box to view the exhibit.
The new Otter enclosure doesn't seem too dissimilar from the old one, albeit some slight improvement in the size of the pool. It will certainly look better when the planting has had more time to establish.
The lemur walk-through remains closed as does the reptile house and invertebrate house.
The highlight of the whole visit came in the Walled Garden where the Tamandua were very active in their outdoor enclosure allowing for some half decent photographs.
We found it really difficult to socially distance and the system for the Wolf/Lake walk-through was bizarre. A member of staff stands on the gate and allows one household group to enter at a time, reminding people that it is a one-way system. It would have been great if they could have also reminded households to stay two metres apart because immediately upon entry people were then sandwiching together to making social distancing impossible. I actually felt very uncomfortable in this exhibit and we walked through quite quickly despite the Tapirs being active. It was heartbreaking to see a mask thrown on the path and a child's dummy as well. I appreciate that dummy's are easily lost, but how do you drop a face mask and not realise?
We decided that we had had enough and it was time to leave, albeit a quick diversion to get a glance of the Clouded Leopards. I am actually worried that CWP's handling of this situation and believe that it could be brand damaging in the short run. On their social media they have received a lot of criticism for their current booking system and although they obviously have a lot on their plate at the moment with trying to be compliant with brand new government regulations, I think sorting the booking system out should be a priority. I overheard a lot of other families complaining about the behaviour of other guests and the complete lack of staff presence and enforcement of the guidelines.
I really love this park and I feel like I have ranted on, but when I compare the effective systems in place at Dudley Zoo which I visited on Tuesday to the complete lack of organisation at CWP, I really would hesitate to visit again until there is something more sufficient in place to control guest numbers and guest behaviour. The lack of staff presence and insufficient signage/distancing measures is concerning and as a result we didn't spend any time by the Penguins, Lions or Giraffes.
I will add my photos to the gallery of the measures that have been put in place and would be happy to clarify any of the points made above. I've just tried to be honest.
This is not good and could be damaging for all collections, not just Cotswold.
Just how
I remember you saying this ages ago, how does this even happen though?
I was surprised you didn't have to specify a date when buying a ticket. The website does say they will limit numbers (the amount of visitors on Wednesday were manageable) but it sounds like this has gone out the window. When I went on Wednesday there were markings on the ground to the side of the kiosks showing people where to queue.
Heaven alone knows. One's a mammal, horizontal and grey/black. The other is a bird, vertical and pink! Never overestimate the Great British Public!
But this is straying off-topic.
Wow... that is dreadful. Have you sent any of this to the zoo for their consideration? I feel like they need to know how you feel - as that was clearly a really bad experience and they just aren't doing enough!
This is really sad to hear. Yesterday evening I was looking on-line for a collection to (possibly) visit. All the websites have COVID news, mitigation measures and announcements that they're "Back open!", except Cotswold's, which I thought was really strange. Also strange was the lack of any booking system - many have implemented the same code - but Costwold just seemed to be selling regular tickets. It's like the whole pandemic never happened.
A quick trip to social media and the situation was clear, and much as you reported here. Basically a free-for-all, and the result being a zoo that was actually far busier than normal. One has to wonder what on earth they are thinking, and how their LA is actually allowing it to continue.
zoomart
Member
I see that their Facebook page has been updated almost daily stating that there are huge queues to get in to the park - they are reporting twenty minute queues this morning. I would have thought that the volume of traffic alone that is backing down the main road would normally make the LA take action, never mind the fact that there seems to be carnage in controlling crowds of visitors within the park itself.
When I spoke with them on the phone I was told that they have 160 acres of parkland and at the currently reduced capacity, each visitor would have an excessive number of square meters available to them to make social distancing easier. I genuinely think they forgot that a significant number of those acres are taking up by animal exhibits, off show areas and the car park. In the Walled Garden for example, you would need to cap capacity at around 40 people and install a one way system to have any chance of complying with the current regulations.
One of my colleagues visited on Sunday and her report was very similar to that which I gave above. I really do love Cotswold Wildlife Park and I hope that they can get a new booking system sorted as soon as possible.
zoomart
Member
It's even more annoying when they are standing right next to the exhibit signage. Something similar to this happened at CWP this weekend, with everyone calling the Cassowary either a vulture or an emu..