Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens Plans for Cotswold wildlife park

Cat-Man

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Does any one have some personal things they would do the cotswold WP
For starters i would place giraffe and antilope (Kudu, Nayala roan and Sable, gemsbok, waterbuck and gazzele) the African area, move the ostrich an Scimitar horned oryx in there to. I would also make an asian Plains reseve (similar to one at chester) which will include Blackbuck, Nilgai, Axis, samber, Hog, munjack, Pere davis, Philipene spotted and Barashinga Deer, antilope, Guar, Water buffalo, wild boar, babirusa, bangten and indian rhino. Elephant enclosure and some more carnivores (Cheetah, Dhole, Maned wolf, bush dog and more cats).:cool:
 
What you would be doing is transforming a conventional quiet wildlife park into a major collection on a parallel with Howletts or Port Lympne. Nice idea but I doubt that it will ever happen as I don't think Cotswold are zoologically ambitious in that direction.
 
I i've been visiting there for many years- I reckon they have developed more in the last five years than the previous thirty but I can never seen it expanding on the scale you suggest.

Sorry but I actually think it would spoil the setting rather if they did- its really peaceful and I particularly like the walled bird garden area etc. On the other hand I understand it rather frustrating if your local wildlife park is rather short on impressive species- it never takes me more than an hour or two to see Cotswold's collection, whereas I can easily spend a whole day at somewhere like Whipsnade, Chester or Howletts.
 
I think the paddocks at Cotswold are vastly under used, yes the rhino are getting a new house and giraffe are on there way perhaps next year.
But surely a couple of rarer antelope species, rare deer and maybe vicuna for example could be brought in to fully utilise the space.
 
What you would be doing is transforming a conventional quiet wildlife park into a major collection on a parallel with Howletts or Port Lympne. Nice idea but I doubt that it will ever happen as I don't think Cotswold are zoologically ambitious in that direction.

do i remeber correctly that we have already had a thread on this?

i totally agree i like the park as it is.
 
Indeed. There are already quite large collections relativley nearby, such as Marwell in Hampshire and Whipsnade in Bedfordshire so I don't think it needs to become Chester no.2. It's a very peacefuL and calming setting as it is.
 
It's a very peacefuL and calming setting as it is.

Indeed it is. Cotswold and Cricket St Thomas to me are both 'classic' Wildlife Parks and still represent very relaxing places to visit, unlike some of our bigger and more popular zoos!!
 
Indeed it is. Cotswold and Cricket St Thomas to me are both 'classic' Wildlife Parks and still represent very relaxing places to visit, unlike some of our bigger and more popular zoos!!

Although I wouldn't always have described cricket st. thomas as a typical wildlife park, certainly the only one in recent decades to have elephants long after many larger zoos gave up keeping them.
 
Although I wouldn't always have described cricket st. thomas as a typical wildlife park, certainly the only one in recent decades to have elephants long after many larger zoos gave up keeping them.

Yes, but since the elephants left its reverted to being a rather 'sleepy' place, viz. it hardly ever gets a mention on this Forum. Beautiful setting though- maybe the best in the UK?
 
Ah yes, CST. They're lake/sloping paddock setting is ingenious, and the lemur wood is simply fantastic.
 
Although I wouldn't always have described cricket st. thomas as a typical wildlife park, certainly the only one in recent decades to have elephants long after many larger zoos gave up keeping them.

they had elephants, wow

how long ago was that?
 
I'm not sure but i think they were asian - the one that died in 1996 (Millie) was anyway.

are you sure because they are not in the asian elephant database that i use. maybe they havent been told about them.
 
CST's elephants were deffinately asian, I saw them quite a few times when I was younger, if I remeber rightly they were kept outside the park in a big field, and returned to their enclosure opposite the fairground, which was a terrible, out of date concrete yard.
 
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