It's also been rumoured they were getting Spotted Hyena's over 7 years ago,and they still haven't arrived!It would be nice to see them add something different to the park,to improve it as it seems to be the safari park that time forgot,if you discount Blair Drummond which just have a unique charm all of its own.Given what West Mids,Longleat and Woburn have done over the last few years Knowsley does appear to have stagnated,over the period that the others have been expanding and improving.
To be fair to Knowsley they have started to change things around and add species in the past 2 years (since the ' dead animal photo incident'). Since this they have added Roan's, Blesboks and a male Cape Buffalo (just from the top of my head).
The main improvement in this period is the management of what was already actually their in my opinion, this includes sorting out the herds of the following species that where too dense in population and probably inbreeding too much, these are Blackbucks, Ankole, American Bison, Pere Davids Deer and Fallow Deer to name a few from the top of my head. Also within this period they have been very successful with breeding of White Rhino (again), Scimitar Oryx, Pere Davids, Chital, Nilgai (again to name a few).
Away from the Safari drive and to the 'Zooey area or walk around area' this has improved within the last two years also with the Giraffe outdoor area being re-floored and not just grass and soil, a much needed improvement, also the Elephants outdoor area have been altered with new flooring in areas, new features within (up-right logs similar to Chester’s). The children’s play farm is going to be replaced with a bird of prey display of some type - I see this as a step forward myself. I also believe that Warthogs will be on display soon, again in the zoo area rather than the Safari Drive.
With regards to Hippos, I would love to see them develop the Mizzy Lake (the lake that the little train drives around) into a Hippo area, it is a good size and space is available.
One of Knowsley's advantage's over other Safari's and Zoo's is that they do have more space to play with which is a massive advantage and seem in recent times to be using it more wisely than they did previously.
All in all I would say that they are developing and improving now and have been doing so for sometime, but I must agree it was probably left a bit stagnant for too long before these more recent events have taken place and maybe they did fall behind the likes of WMSP and Woburn, but it seems to be all going in the right direction for now.
Hyena's - maybe one day...
