South Lakes Wild Animal Park South Lakes Safari Zoo News 2023

[ZooTripper365]

I've seen a couple of mice at Blackpool. I saw multiple rabbits at Blackpool, Chester and YWP.

 

[Jambi]

Yeah, last time I went to Safari Zoo, saw about 2 or 3 rats. It seems to be much more noticeable than others zoos around the U.K and the only time I’ve seen another wild rodent at a zoo was a mouse at Paignton.

As far as rats go, South Lakes is the only zoo I can think of where I've seen them out in the open, there were at least five or so on my last visit. I've also seen a fair few squirrels at both Edinburgh and Telford Exotic Zoo, but that's about it.

 

[ZooTripper365]

The worldwide safari exhibit probably attracts them with so many resources, food and indoor spaces for them to use.

 

[Jambi]

The worldwide safari exhibit probably attracts them with so many resources, food and indoor spaces for them to use.

Most of the rats seem to live in the Tambopata aviary as I mentioned above, they all seem to nest under the same bush, which I noticed they all scurry to when someone approaches, and the food they take advantage of is mostly from the dishes that are meant for the pheasants and other ground-dwelling birds. The fact that the aviary was closed for several months and therefore fewer humans coming in and out probably made the rats feel more at home there as well.

 

[Strathmorezoo]

If you think about it zoos are the perfect environment for vermin. There's plenty of food ,either for the animals in the enclosures and or food discarded by humans plus all those lovely warm animal houses. You then have the added problems of how do you control vermin without harming the zoo animals or offending the public

 

[Pertinax]

If you think about it zoos are the perfect environment for vermin. There's plenty of food ,either for the animals in the enclosures and or food discarded by humans plus all those lovely warm animal houses. You then have the added problems of how do you control vermin without harming the zoo animals or offending the public

I did a thread on here once on 'Rats in Zoos' after some previous discussion about them. In the UK South Lakes seemed to come out tops back then too...I've seen rats at Colchester and few other places too. Slimbridge comes to mind, plenty feeding around bird feeders located outside some of the hides in the reedbed areas. I think if you waited quietly around aviaries etc in most zoos sooner or later you would see one or two.

 

[Lafone]

I see rats now and again as you say if it’s quiet they are a bit more visible. Saw a couple at Trentham monkey forest (the ground feeding attracting them) where they were very bold and in the open.

I guess the key is in controlling them so they don’t take over. I’ve never seen more than one in a zoo. Lots would indicate a problem.

Caught a few mice dashing back and forth to the feeders in the CWP tropical house the other day.

 

[ZooTripper365]

I also forgot to mention the countless rat families that dwell on the ground in the World Of Wings Aviary at Blackpool Zoo. The birds are almost always found at the tops of trees or flying making the bushes and shrubbery the perfect place for these rodents.

 

[JonWild]

I also forgot to mention the countless rat families that dwell on the ground in the World Of Wings Aviary at Blackpool Zoo. The birds are almost always found at the tops of trees or flying making the bushes and shrubbery the perfect place for these rodents.

To be fair, there are quite a bit of rats around the world of wings aviary, but I’ve seen a lot more in the children’s farm

 

[Jambi]

The zoo's Humboldt penguins have now been moved to Dudley Zoo, and some of the posts over on the Dudley Zoo thread have got me thinking:

It seems as though a fair few species have left in the last year like the flamingos & wolves and with singletons of nyala & wildebeest it probably won't be long before they are gone as well. I do wonder what the plan with South Lakes is currently due to a recent ish rebrand

Not to derail the thread, but, they have an elderly pair of lions and bears, non-breeding tigers, jaguars, giraffe. The rhinos seem to be the only major species to be breeding currently, the comment itself isn't a criticism, but, as you say, have to wonder where the collection is going.

I have started to wonder what exactly the future holds for this zoo. Granted, the wolves, flamingos and penguins did not have great enclosures and are all most likely in better homes now, but between all of that and the recent death of their giant anteater, that's a lot of species to leave the collection in a short amount of time. Add to this the zoo's social media doesn't actually talk all that much about the zoo itself, almost like they don't want to bring attention to it. Most of their Facebook posts focus on anti-poaching and conservation work in Africa.
I suspect that the current collection is being gradually phased out and will eventually be replaced with new species in a full "everything and the kitchen sink" re-development. The thought that they may be preparing for permanent closure did cross my mind at one point, but the acquisition of the honey badgers last year makes me think perhaps not. We shall see.

 

[Prochilodus246]

I feel they may be downsizing to a smaller collection but surely that's a lot of space that's going to be unused. No to mention the costs of demolishing enclosures won't be by any means cheap.

Interesting that they post about conservaton work in Africa even though they have a small number of species that are actually classed as Least Concern with the vast majority of their species being somewhat of conservation concern.