Howletts Wild Animal Park Howletts questions

[al222]

Hello

I finally went to Howletts this week, ive always wanted to go there as heard good things and thought I would write a little review and ask a few questions to those who are regulars:

Seemed a nice little zoo, the Elephant heard was very impressive. Even though I though the paddocks were basic. I saw the newest calf who was very active around mum and family.
Have they lost one recently as on the signage said their was 13 individuals plus the baby??? But website now says there is 13?

I was a little disappointed with the gorilla enclosures, not a fan of the big bars, and they seemed a little compact and cluttered. How many are there in them enclosures as could only see a couple in the new ones at front and old at the back of the park???

The deer paddock to was impressive, and was good to see a few different species.

I thought the old cat enclosures in the wooden walk part were a bit old and run down too.

Saw a few of the tigers, they all seemed bit over the place, how many have they got there??

Surprised there is not more birds/reptiles etc there and more feeds.


Thought overall was a nice zoo, shame you have to walk quite far around to get to the top part of the zoo as the house area is closed off. Some of the enclosures though I thought were a bit too old and cagey.

What's port Lympe like? Better or worse?

 

[banham.tiger]

I think the collections are mainly the same I agree on most of the things you say but personally I prefer portlym.

 

[Communityzoo]

In response to your elephant question, Howlett's recently lost 2 breeding cows, Stavit and Swana, in 2013. Stavit leaves one calf (aged 3), plus a young bull at Port Lympne. Swana leaves two calves (aged 3 and 6) in the herd, plus a young bull at Port Lympne. Howletts has a prolific, but not especially long-lived herd. According to the elephant database, Masa the matriarch is the only animal that has lived into its forties, and only two individuals have lived into their thirties. I would disagree that the paddocks are basic compared to other zoos, but feel they really need to upgrade the elephant barns to where the current benchmark is for elephant housing in temperate climates.

The Howlett's breeding herd is really now only comprised of 1.2 animals (Jums, Masa and Tammi).
With the exception of one older, non-breeding cow (Shibi), the other individuals all seem to be young animals under 10 years old and all fathered by Jums), the majority of them being female. This does bode well for a second bull to be mixed with them in 5-10 years time, as it has been said on here that the two breeding cows wouldn't allow Kruger (from Port Lympne) to dominate them when it was attempted to mix them with him.