Port Lympne update.
Have been to PL.
Drills; Gorbi died a few months ago. There are currently 1.5, they are; the castrated male Kasalo, the female Bibundi and four daughters- none are younger than about three years so probably there has been no successful birth/breeding since about 2009. But there have been three born at PL(either all to Bibundi unless possibly one of them from a daughter?).
A new male is coming shortly from Valencia to replace Gorbi, but two females will leave and move to Munich. This will leave Bibundi, Kasalo(if compatible with the new male) and two(probably the younger) daughters staying at PL. At least two or three of the females had sexual swellings. Bibundi currently seems to be the boss- she chased Kasalo all around the cage after he took some food she wanted.
The distinctive b/w individual animals' names labels (such as the Drill one in Gl's above photo, and for nearly all the other smaller species) have disappeared now(at both parks)- there are still some on Big Cat and Gorilla cages but that's about all.
General-Port Lympne has IMO, sunk even lower.
as the whole park can really only be accessed now by using the 'safari' trucks and even the smaller walking area is not a circuit or loop in its own right. There are 'no access' signs blocking off the former paths in the woodland, the original Gorilla house is off limits and you can only walk around the perimeter of the wooded area and down past the Tapirs. On the other side you can go from 'Base Camp' down past the open Gorilla enclosures but that is a dead end and does not link up. After the truck 'safari' you are dropped off below the Bison paddock, to walk on the new path through the new Pallas Cat enclosure and then up past the Tapirs and Djala gorilla group, Drills, baboons etc. The lowest path past the Barbary Lions is also blocked off so that group is virtually unviewable also. It again struck me how ideal the low-lying areas where the half dozen Water Buffalo are, would be for Indian Rhinos- its absolutely perfect!
The small Pine tree woodland area behind the Gift shop/entrance where the Wolves and Tigers/Lions are must now be completely missed out by most people as they head in the other direction towards the Base camp pick-up station.
The whole 'African Experience' concept, as a way of marketing Port Lympne and transforming its fortunes is IMO a good idea, but very poorly executed- they simply haven't got the infrastructure- proper roads, decent transport, suitable flat terrain etc to do this properly. On the trucks the excruciating 'African' style taped commentary is embarassingly bad, while the trucks slowly grind their way around the bumpy roads and steep hills and many animals aren't commented on at all and the occupants of the trucks miss some things altogether. Visitors also seemed to have to waste a fair portion of their day waiting at the pick-up points for the trucks to arrive, and getting on and off etc which is all very time-consuming and a struggle for people with small children, buggies etc. and the elderly or unfit. But it feels as if nobody at the park really cares too much about any of that, they just take the entrance fee and go through the motions of providing a result with what was there already..
The best of the animals in this safari section IM0 were the Wildebeest- I counted 27 + 5 more in a seperate section. I hope they continue to let them multiply. I would recommend the tour more for the billiant views of the Channel Coast afforded from the top of the hill- this is more impressive really than the animals and seems to rather work against them by reducing their impact. It was interesting to see this whole area(which is the old 'Coombe Farm') for the first time though.
Species not seen at PL; any smaller cats(due to hot weather?) Spanish wolves; Brown Hyaena (the latter I never even saw an enclosure- presumably they are off limits to walkers nowadays.) But the golden-bellied Mangabeys have been moved back to where they were originally, in one of the cages above the Tapir House so they can now be seen on the walking section.
The contrast between the two parks as far as visitor-friendliness goes seems even greater than ever, I would now rate Port Lympne at about 1 out of 10 compared to Howletts which still gets 9 or 10 out of 10.
IMO Port Lympne nowadays is just a mess, they don't know what they are anymore. So sad.
Have been to PL.
Drills; Gorbi died a few months ago. There are currently 1.5, they are; the castrated male Kasalo, the female Bibundi and four daughters- none are younger than about three years so probably there has been no successful birth/breeding since about 2009. But there have been three born at PL(either all to Bibundi unless possibly one of them from a daughter?).
A new male is coming shortly from Valencia to replace Gorbi, but two females will leave and move to Munich. This will leave Bibundi, Kasalo(if compatible with the new male) and two(probably the younger) daughters staying at PL. At least two or three of the females had sexual swellings. Bibundi currently seems to be the boss- she chased Kasalo all around the cage after he took some food she wanted.
The distinctive b/w individual animals' names labels (such as the Drill one in Gl's above photo, and for nearly all the other smaller species) have disappeared now(at both parks)- there are still some on Big Cat and Gorilla cages but that's about all.
General-Port Lympne has IMO, sunk even lower.
as the whole park can really only be accessed now by using the 'safari' trucks and even the smaller walking area is not a circuit or loop in its own right. There are 'no access' signs blocking off the former paths in the woodland, the original Gorilla house is off limits and you can only walk around the perimeter of the wooded area and down past the Tapirs. On the other side you can go from 'Base Camp' down past the open Gorilla enclosures but that is a dead end and does not link up. After the truck 'safari' you are dropped off below the Bison paddock, to walk on the new path through the new Pallas Cat enclosure and then up past the Tapirs and Djala gorilla group, Drills, baboons etc. The lowest path past the Barbary Lions is also blocked off so that group is virtually unviewable also. It again struck me how ideal the low-lying areas where the half dozen Water Buffalo are, would be for Indian Rhinos- its absolutely perfect!The small Pine tree woodland area behind the Gift shop/entrance where the Wolves and Tigers/Lions are must now be completely missed out by most people as they head in the other direction towards the Base camp pick-up station.
The whole 'African Experience' concept, as a way of marketing Port Lympne and transforming its fortunes is IMO a good idea, but very poorly executed- they simply haven't got the infrastructure- proper roads, decent transport, suitable flat terrain etc to do this properly. On the trucks the excruciating 'African' style taped commentary is embarassingly bad, while the trucks slowly grind their way around the bumpy roads and steep hills and many animals aren't commented on at all and the occupants of the trucks miss some things altogether. Visitors also seemed to have to waste a fair portion of their day waiting at the pick-up points for the trucks to arrive, and getting on and off etc which is all very time-consuming and a struggle for people with small children, buggies etc. and the elderly or unfit. But it feels as if nobody at the park really cares too much about any of that, they just take the entrance fee and go through the motions of providing a result with what was there already..
The best of the animals in this safari section IM0 were the Wildebeest- I counted 27 + 5 more in a seperate section. I hope they continue to let them multiply. I would recommend the tour more for the billiant views of the Channel Coast afforded from the top of the hill- this is more impressive really than the animals and seems to rather work against them by reducing their impact. It was interesting to see this whole area(which is the old 'Coombe Farm') for the first time though.
Species not seen at PL; any smaller cats(due to hot weather?) Spanish wolves; Brown Hyaena (the latter I never even saw an enclosure- presumably they are off limits to walkers nowadays.) But the golden-bellied Mangabeys have been moved back to where they were originally, in one of the cages above the Tapir House so they can now be seen on the walking section.
The contrast between the two parks as far as visitor-friendliness goes seems even greater than ever, I would now rate Port Lympne at about 1 out of 10
compared to Howletts which still gets 9 or 10 out of 10. IMO Port Lympne nowadays is just a mess, they don't know what they are anymore. So sad.
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