Devilfish's Yorkshire visit

devilfish

devilfish

Well-Known Member
Hi everyone,

I'm planning a brief trip to Yorkshire in the near future. Ideally it'll take place next week but might have to wait until later in the year. I'll be driving up from Warwickshire and spending the night just north of Hull, but I visited Hull last month so I probably won't be going back this trip. I've otherwise not visited any animal collections in Yorkshire.

Potential itinerary:

Day 1:
Yorkshire Wildlife Park
Lotherton hall
Harewood house
+/- Another Leeds collection

Day 2:
Sea Life Scarborough
A couple of bird places (e.g. Filey, Betton)
Maybe Sewerby too?

I've got a sea life annual pass which hasn't really been used, hence the addition of Scarborough.

I tend to be waiting outside the gates in the morning and can be among the last to leave at closing time. I'd still like each visit to be a proper one, and ideally fairly comfortable too.

Any suggestions/tips? Is this too ambitious? How long does it take to visit most of these collections? Am I missing anything major?

Thanks :D
 
Also, I'd appreciate a PM from anyone who knows the current situation with Harewood's Lear's macaws, or with tips for paying them a visit. :)
 
devilfish said:
Also, I'd appreciate a PM from anyone who knows the current situation with Harewood's Lear's macaws, or with tips for paying them a visit. :)
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Forget it they are kept on a seperate site from the rest if the collection,and last time I visited the staff wouldn't even confirm,if they were still alive or that they even kept them.
 
devilfish said:
+/- Another Leeds collection
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Tropical World in Leeds is worth a visit. It has a good nocturnal section with Bolivian douroucoulis and Pygmy slow loris. I took lots of photos on one of my recent visits and uploaded them all here. You can view them in the Tropical World gallery.
 
If you planned on visiting Harewood House,Tropicalworld in Leeds and Lotherton Hall,I would say that it is very easy to do all 3 of those in a day together,if done in that order without rushing them.Wouldn't like to say what its possible to do with Yorkshire Wildlife Park but wouldn't say what you planned on doing is possible with it.
 
Thanks guys. So I'll probably limit day 1 to those Leeds collections, and YWP will have to wait til the next visit unless a free afternoon pops up somewhere.

zoogiraffe said:
Forget it they are kept on a seperate site from the rest if the collection,and last time I visited the staff wouldn't even confirm,if they were still alive or that they even kept them.
Click to expand...

I know, it's not even worth thinking about how close I might be to them.

But: extremely rare birds, uncertain location, unconfirmed existence... who can resist that challenge? ;)
 
Ponderosa in Heckmondwike is another collection which rarely gets mentioned (probably because most people from outside West Yorkshire don't know about it!) but it would probably be difficult to travel to being quite a distance away from the other collections listed in your itinerary. Some of the enclosures are abysmal too and certainly must rank highly in the list of the UK's worst animal enclosures. When I visited I expected only domestics but I was surprised to find raccoon dogs, tapir and civets, among a dozen other exotics not listed on the Ponderosa website. In fact, I'd say about two thirds of their entire collection is not listed on their website -- go to Zootierliste.de for a more accurate species list.

I uploaded plenty of photos of Ponderosa to the gallery, here.
 
Thanks Mr. Weasel, I did have a look at Ponderosa but wasn't sure whether it was worth doing. Both the palm civet and their ethos seem particularly attractive to me - I wasn't too keen on going far out of the way to be greeted by the cluster of poor animal enclosures which you mention. I'll definitely keep it in mind if I get the time though.

I was also looking up information about Pudsey Park and Springhead Park. Does anyone know if either of these might be worth visiting? I should be up in Yorkshire again in the near future so even if I can't visit a collection this time I'll bear it in mind for my future trips.
 
Not sure how much there is at Harewood now as when it offered Sewerby a variety of things it said it was reducing the collection by 80%. I am a big fan of Filey, but there is a lot more at Sewerby (also a big fan of course, and it was the site of my career as the worst zookeeper in the UK) albeit in a smaller area not counting the paddocks outside of the actual zoo. Just south of Bridlington there is Park Rose Birds of Prey and Animal Park; again Sewerby has a much bigger collection though. Lotherton is my favourite bird garden (since the demise of Rode) and I happily spend all day there, although I suppose most people would not. I am waiting for a dry Friday to visit! A couple of years ago Lotherton was holding a collection of British finches destined for Pudsey Park, but I have not visited the latter place.

I have not forgotten about my species list from East Park - I am looking for my photos in the hope of identifying a few more things.
 
Thanks. I'll probably get down to Filey and hopefully Sewerby too, but I'll probably be able to visit them again later in the year. I came across news of an aviary in Filey's Memorial Garden - do you know if that's worth visiting?
 
Only to have a quick look at if you happen to be in the middle of Filey. It's really just a garden aviary with two sections for Budgerigars, Zebra Finches etc (I had a look last year and there may have been one or two other things, but I'm afraid I can't remember). Filey Bird Garden does not have a zoo licence, so it is limited in what it can display, i.e. common aviary birds, but I like it and it is a peaceful place other than for the road to Scarborough next to it. Sewerby is comfortably the best collection around here.
 
If you're looking for zoos to pair up with YWP in the future, the best bets are the Tropical Butterfly House at North Anston (which is rather more than just a butterfly house) or Wetlands Wildlife Park (more of a general small zoo). The TBH is probably better quality overall but Wetlands is a bit more substantial. For YWP's first 18 months or so it was quite possible to do all three in a day - nowadays I think the expansion of YWP makes it trickier, particularly if it's a first visit to all three - but I haven't tried in some time.
 
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