Longleat Safari & Adventure Park Lack of signage/info

[Devi]

Does anyone else think there's a lack of signage or any info at Longleat? I saw nothing telling me what was in each enclosure in the safari park bit and in a lot of the zoo, no parrots were labelled, nor domestic species like rabbits and pigs, I know we all know what they are, but other zoos at least give some info on species etc.
The map was very little help, for example the Rhesus Macaques were labelled 'monkeys', similarly with animals that come in a few species like giraffe I had to guess. Eventually got zootierliste up on my phone!
Very little of the usual stuff you see at the zoo, maps to show were the animals come from, info on what they eat and behaviour. Maybe I missed bits, but there was definitely a lot less than I'm used to.

 

[Maguari]

The combination of Zootierliste and full Internet access on a mobile is one of the greatest achievements of humankind. It's proved very handy on a number of occasions!

Safari parks often struggle with signage because it's much harder to give info over to people in cars. Do Longleat do a CD guide, I forget?

 

[Devi]

They do, but with kids in the car it wasn't really worth trying! I'll check it later when I have a quiet moment to see if there's any info on there.
WMSP is my local and they have signs at the entrance with the theme and what you'll find in there, full names of species, they then put signs on each species through the enclosure that you can read while driving. Something on the maps would have been nice too, it's not like 'macaques' is a much longer word than 'monkeys' for example.
Just led me to think that they weren't massively bothered about the educational part of zoos, which I found a bit sad.

 

[Maguari]

Those WMSP lsbels are probably the best I've seen for roadside signage in a safari park.

For those who haven't seen them: http://www.zoochat.com/219/barbary-sheep-west-mids-nov-08-a-50949/

 

[Pertinax]

Just led me to think that they weren't massively bothered about the educational part of zoos, which I found a bit sad.

I think that's a fair assessment. Going on the websites, Knowsley's seems more informative than the others about their animals, so maybe that extends to signage in the Park too?(I have never been there)

 

[Pootle]

Having been to all 3 (WMSP, Longleat & Knowsley) recently(ish) with regards to Longleat, I found by a mile with regards to signage that WMSP is way ahead, but I don’t necessarily (personally) think that is a good thing for a safari park.

The Safari drive at Knowsley is without any signs (apart from don’t feed baboons and car friendly option routes etc, ie non species informative signs). Anyone (1 per car) buying a day ticket at Knowsley receives a guide book and CD as part of the entrance, this has all the information in you need and gives more information than signs do, so for example..... want to identify that species of deer staring at you, you just find its picture in the book and read about it there and then. Longleat is much more like this in the safari drive. I personally prefer it this way as on a safari in the wild you would not get a sign!, but you can purchase a guide book. I seem to remember Longleat having decent signage around the walk around sections (although it has been a while). At Knowsley’s walk around section, the Elephants have excellent signage with photos and their names for ID purposes and their Zoo movements over their lives. The Giraffes too have info about the species and the individuals names and their individual history in zoos. The Bug House give a brief description of the species and its wild global location via a map for most species.