Longleat Safari & Adventure Park Longleat trip

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Dom

Well-Known Member
Well today we went to Longleat, which is the first time in about 10 years for me.

When we arrived we we're pleasently surprised by the changes to the East African reserve. Noteably you can no longer walk around in close contact with the giraffes and camels, but i did like the way you can get close to the giraffe and view the animals from a sort of cliff face.
I saw my first ever awake warthogs, which were not at Longleat the last time i visited, and i was very impressed by the tapir house, even if there was a little hotwire.

We managed to see at least 6 sitatunga/nyala (i cant remember what species they were!) which are new to the East African reserve, but were puzzled as to why there were llamas in there too! The monkey jungle is still closed, but we had a good view of the huge troop. We managed to see all the hoofstock in the "big game reserve" and all the carnivores.

We took the boat round the lake, and had a perfect view of Nico the gorilla as he came and sat down right in front the boat! Saw all the sea lions, and the new pups on the beach. Saw both hippos for the first time.
Also walked round pets corner.

All in all, it was a good day. But i have a critisizm, we paid our entrance fee to go round the safari park and see the animals, but were a little peeved that there was a charge to go in pets corner, and the bit with the bats (which we didnt go in). It seems a little exsecive.

A few questions.....

What has happend to the water buffalo herd? We only saw 2 animals.
Have there always been blackbuck in the monkey jungle?

Didnt see anything about "animal adventure"

Thanks
 
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Animal Adventure has been delayed until Autumn 2009. The butterfly house is open though.
 
Dom said:
What has happend to the water buffalo herd? We only saw 2 animals.
Have there always been blackbuck in the monkey jungle?

Didnt see anything about "animal adventure"

Thanks
Click to expand...

I believe the blackbuck are quite recent additions and where placed in there just before one of the monkeys tested positive.
 
The Blackbuck were in Monkey Jungle when I visited last summer - not sure how that ties in to the positive test result.
 
How where the lion prides looking?
Any idea about the swapping of the lions as the two young males (Mr Dudley and another) may have to move soon or some sort of contraception soon to prevent inbreeding.How was Charlie looking in the first group?
I last went in 2001 and Mafui was one of the best looking lions i have ever seen sadly he is probably long gone by now.
Thanks,
 
Rizikii'm assuming charlie is the dominant male in the first pride? If so, he was looking pretty healthy and well, as far as i can tell...

Oh and one more question, what sort of tigers do they have now?
 
Ah right, thanks. we couldn't tell becuase they were in typical cat positions, lieing down!!
 
I think all of the females in pride B must now be on contraception as Mr Dudley and Nooky are still in with them all. I don't think there are any plans to move them or any females in the near future.
 
I didn't realise Longleat had sitatunga, when did they arrive, or could they in fact be the nyala?
 
Ah, you could quite possibly be correct and me wrong. I did read what they were, and from then on thought they were sitatunga.

So they could've been nyala....
 
One of the males, either 'Mr Dudley' or 'Nookie' went to Blackpool Zoo last August, and has recently fathered 3 daughters. The other 3 males in the pride surely aren't mature enough for breeding yet. They will most probably be vasectamised, as there are no other safari park systems ready for new males yet
 
Paulkarli08 said:
One of the males, either 'Mr Dudley' or 'Nookie' went to Blackpool Zoo last August, and has recently fathered 3 daughters. The other 3 males in the pride surely aren't mature enough for breeding yet. They will most probably be vasectamised, as there are no other safari park systems ready for new males yet
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A male did go from Longleat's pride B to Blackpool but I don't think it was either of those 2. Longleat had another littler in 2007 from Kabir. I think it was one of these that now resides in Blackpool.
 
The litter born in 2007 was 3 males and 1 female, and are still in the pride

On the Blackpool Zoo website, the male lion there 'Wallace' is aged 2.5 years old at time of arrival from Longleat in August 08 so therefore is either Mr D, or Nookie
 
Maguari said:
The Blackbuck were in Monkey Jungle when I visited last summer - not sure how that ties in to the positive test result.
Click to expand...

I think there has been Blackbuck in the Monkey Jungle for years now. There were additions to the herd to boost the numbers just before the positive test result.

I remember because there was speculation that the Monkey Jungle was only closed to allow them to settle in... then we heard the much more grim news.
 
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Paulkarli08 said:
The litter born in 2007 was 3 males and 1 female, and are still in the pride

On the Blackpool Zoo website, the male lion there 'Wallace' is aged 2.5 years old at time of arrival from Longleat in August 08 so therefore is either Mr D, or Nookie
Click to expand...

I stand corrected :o
 
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