New Forest Wildlife Park Does anyone remember 'Nature Quest'?

Zambar

Zambar

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I managed to find this interesting article about New Forest Nature Quest, which was the New Forest Otter, Owl and Wildlife Park before it was taken over by the Heap Family, dated 1996.

Shy mammals take a walk on the wild side - The Independent

It only lasted from 1995 to 1998, which is quite sad considering the ambitions it had. It also appears to have been the first park dedicated to truly British Wildlife (HWP aside), so perhaps it has a strong legacy if it was followed by the likes of the British Wildlife Centre and Wildwood. So did anyone visit it in this incarnation?
 
I went there, and to the New Forest Butterfly Farm which is what the place was originally. To be honest, except for the addition of the otters and owls, the site and layout is not dissimilar to that in its Nature Quest days.
 
Back in 1964 a small municipal zoo specialising in British fauna - the Verulanium Wildlife Zoo - was established in St Albans , Hertfordshire . The nucleus of the collection was provided by Grahame Dangerfield , the naturalist who was a regular on television in those days .

I do not think it lasted too long and I never visited it .

The source of the information is 'The Penguin Guide to British Zoos ' by Geoffroy Schomberg , published in 1970 - now a fascinating historical record .
 
Another UK specialist I heard of was one set up by David Chaffe in the sixties in Bristol, mentioned in his book 'Stormforce'. He mentioned that didn't last long due to the proximities of Bristol Zoo and Longleat, but did anyone remember that?

I guess when Nature Quest was created the country hadn't seen a UK specialist for years, so the claim was more valid. I also read that they made the first reintroduction of captive water voles to the wild in 1994.
 
Yep; Vardon plc, who owned Sea Life, the Dungeons and Gweek Seal Sanctuary back then. The park was sold off to the Heaps around the time Merlin Entertainments came into the picture.
 
Zambar said:
Another UK specialist I heard of was one set up by David Chaffe in the sixties in Bristol, mentioned in his book 'Stormforce'. He mentioned that didn't last long due to the proximities of Bristol Zoo and Longleat, but did anyone remember that?

/QUOTE]

Yes , I had forgotten about the Westbury-on-Trymm Wildlife park and did visit it once - and still have the small guidebook . It had quite a variety of British species in very basic housing and had problems from flooding at the site . The road sign to the place stayed in place for many years after it had closed .
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Many of the animals and some staff from NatureQuest transferred to the newly established Wildwood, after the change of ownership.
 
That makes sense, given it opened around the same time. From what I've read, Nature Quest's collection was much broader than it is now, with brown rats, a lot more small rodents, amphibians, water voles, freshwater fish, tufted ducks, rabbits, bats, reptiles and red squirrels, though the latter stayed at the Park after the changeover for a few years but always seemed invisible. I do hope they can increase their British Wildlife collection further, which seems to be happening steadily at the moment.
 
Bele said:
Back in 1964 a small municipal zoo specialising in British fauna - the Verulanium Wildlife Zoo - was established in St Albans , Hertfordshire . The nucleus of the collection was provided by Grahame Dangerfield , the naturalist who was a regular on television in those days .

I do not think it lasted too long and I never visited it .
Click to expand...

I didn't visit there either but reports I got were that it was very 'basic' to put it mildly. Not sure if it was officially open to the public.

Westbury on Trym certainly was and I visited once. My only memory is of a three legged & tame Red Deer hind, taken from the Quantocks as a calf after it had been injured by a hay mower.
 
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