South Lakes Wild Animal Park South Lakes 2011 news

Pertinax said:
I am also intruged by the idea of a Zoo owner running a Zoo from a long distance away while living in America. I guess he must do a lot of commuting, or is the zoo nowadays run by a complete team in his absence?
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Thanks for the clarification. It is just that it might have given the wrong impression to somebody not as familiar with the Durrell story as I imagine both of us are.

I guess at one level most zoos are owned by governments, charities or corporations, so the ultimate "owners" usually don't have anything to do with running the zoo at all. Most personally-owned zoos are smaller businesses, that require the involvement of their owner if they are to survive, so the owner has to be involved whether they like it or not (but why you would own a zoo if you didn't like it is beyond me).

I agree this is a strange case, not so much from the practicalities of running the zoo but from the emotional disenchantment this shows. Most zoo founders maintained very close links with their creations, usually living, as has been pointed out, on the property even post retirement. And even in the case of Durrell, while he did spend a lot of time in France, he maintained an apartment in the Manor which I think he would definitely have considered "home". I doubt Durrell would ever have issued a press release stating he had left Jersey to live in another country.
 
I am not sure if you are aware but the owner of the park, David Gill, has a house on the same site as the park and does live there. He may spend time away from their but I imagine that his personal 'address' would be in Dalton-in-Furness. He may be the owner of the park but that doesn't mean he has to be there all the time, has it not occurred to you that he may have a good team behind him who are more than able to cope in his absence? I doubt he goes off to America and doesn't communicate with his staff while he is away.

Also you compare him to Durrell and say it was ok for Durrell to be absent because he was writing books to help fund the zoo. Do any of you know exactly what Mr Gill is doing in America? Probably not.
 
Mr T said:
has it not occurred to you that he may have a good team behind him who are more than able to cope in his absence? I doubt he goes off to America and doesn't communicate with his staff while he is away.
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I presumed that was the case as I suggested in the previous post above.
 
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I am sure Mr. Gill has a good management team to run the zoo when he is residing in America and I am also aware that he has a house in the zoo grounds, I have had the pleasure of visiting this zoo virtually since it first opened and have been impressed by its growth over the years in a home made sort of way, in fact in its earlier days it almost inspired me to go away, buy a bit land and start something similar here in the North East, however I did not do this and have remained what Clinton Keeling used to refer to as a "glorified pet keeper", and that is how I will remain where as Mr. Gill had the courage and conviction to do it and the South Lakes has certainly been a success story. I suppose it must be most zoo enthusiast's dream to start their own zoo, however if you do this does the novelty of mixing business with pleasure eventually after a while start to wear off to a certain extent?, as running a zoo large or small cannot be easy, it must at times be a headache, so perhaps you may be grateful to have somewhere to retreat to when you want to take a breather from it
 
Mr T said:
I am not sure if you are aware but the owner of the park, David Gill, has a house on the same site as the park and does live there. He may spend time away from their but I imagine that his personal 'address' would be in Dalton-in-Furness. He may be the owner of the park but that doesn't mean he has to be there all the time, has it not occurred to you that he may have a good team behind him who are more than able to cope in his absence? I doubt he goes off to America and doesn't communicate with his staff while he is away.

Also you compare him to Durrell and say it was ok for Durrell to be absent because he was writing books to help fund the zoo. Do any of you know exactly what Mr Gill is doing in America? Probably not.
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However David Gill has previous form - he has left behind a zoo and relocated to a different continent before. I'm not saying that is what he is doing now and I'm sure he has his reasons, but it does seem a little odd.
 
Just to stop some rumours David Gill has confirmed Kadi the young Sumatran tigeress is to stay at the park and a male will arrive in a few years when they have built the new Tiger complex.
 
Jordan-Jaguar97 said:
Just to stop some rumours David Gill has confirmed Kadi the young Sumatran tigeress is to stay at the park and a male will arrive in a few years when they have built the new Tiger complex.
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So what exhibit are they going to get rid of to be able to build a new Tiger exhibit,or are they going to build on the extra land that David Gill says he doesn't own????
 
Jordan-Jaguar97 said:
Just to stop some rumours David Gill has confirmed Kadi the young Sumatran tigeress is to stay at the park and a male will arrive in a few years when they have built the new Tiger complex.
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Well I hope the construction of the second tiger enclosure starts soon, as today I saw Kadi as happy as could be outside in the lion enclosure, the lions of coarse inside, two asleep, one lioness pacing waiting to be let out, when they were let outside, Kadi inside, in not a very spacious indoor enclosure, I would describe as a bare cage, pacing, I do like the large outside enclosures for the big cats, unfortunately I cannot say the same for their indoor accommodation.
 
TARZAN said:
Just looking through the 2011 guide book, it states spectacled bears arrived in 2002, and the male arrived in 2007,
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As the females were at least partly grown when they arrived, they must be 10 or 11(or more) years old now and the male (at least) six.
 
I was amazed to see Asian short clawed otters in this mixed bear exhibit, the bears do not appear to have any interest in them, and the otters no apparent fear of the bears.
 
At Jersey some years ago, a Speccie Bear killed one of the otters that share(d?) the enclosure- it must have got in its way.
 
South Lakes have announced via facebook that they are doing the 'free entry over winter' initiative again. It will be free entry until the 10th February 2012 :)
 
Fantastic news about reapplying the free entry over winter this year. From what I heard last year it worked really well and the zoo remained busy and made the same if not more money than when they charged for entry the previous year.

Good work South Lakes!
 
Its a clever marketing move. Visitors are far more likely to come in winter/bad weather with the lure of free visiting, and will still spend money while they are there. I wonder if more places may follow their example?
 
Ntombi the white rhino gave birth to a female calf at 10.20 this morning and has been named Indianna.
 
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