The Stepaside Bird and Animal Park was a small Pembrokeshire collection open during the 1990's . The owner was Eugene Granat Msc.(Zoo.) , Doc. DR. a continental ( at a guess either French or Belgian ) in his late 50's . The leaflet says he had worked as a zoologist in Africa , South America and Asia .
The Park had a general collection of small mammals , owls and other birds , ratites , reptiles , blackbuck and deer , amongst others . Some of the housing was rather eccentric ( e.g a pagoda-like aviary housing a ruffed lemur with domestic poultry ) . The owner had lived with the African Central African Pygmies and had a recreation of their village in the park wood and gave demonstrations of ' crocodile taming ' ( get it flat on it's back and it goes into a trance as can be done with chickens - when I saw it the crocodile was not at all keen on being tamed ) . Mr Granat was quite a show-man !
I wonder if anybody else visited the Park and knows anything about it . It is a mystery to me how Mr Granat ended up in West Wales and I do not know exactly when the Park closed ( my last visit was September 1999 ) and what happened to him and his animals .
The Park had a general collection of small mammals , owls and other birds , ratites , reptiles , blackbuck and deer , amongst others . Some of the housing was rather eccentric ( e.g a pagoda-like aviary housing a ruffed lemur with domestic poultry ) . The owner had lived with the African Central African Pygmies and had a recreation of their village in the park wood and gave demonstrations of ' crocodile taming ' ( get it flat on it's back and it goes into a trance as can be done with chickens - when I saw it the crocodile was not at all keen on being tamed ) . Mr Granat was quite a show-man !
I wonder if anybody else visited the Park and knows anything about it . It is a mystery to me how Mr Granat ended up in West Wales and I do not know exactly when the Park closed ( my last visit was September 1999 ) and what happened to him and his animals .
