Tayto Park Tayto Park

GoldenLeopard

GoldenLeopard

Member
Hi everyone!

Just wondering if anyone has been yet and what the place is actually like?
I'm planning on going as soon as I get the opportunity but to be honest I don't have the highest expectations! Hopefully I'm wrong! :)
 
As mentioned in the WMSP thread they have received a couple of Amur leopards from the safari park, i also believe they have got hold of some carnivores from the now closed RSCC.
 
I have been recently. It certainly is developing fast, the enclosures mostly are large and adequate for the species concerned. But understandibly for any infant zoo it needs time to mature, planting around enclosures etc. Its collection currently includes,

amur leopard
puma
fishing cat
jagurundi
ocelot
aardwolf
corsac fox mixed with crested porcupine
short clawed otter
coati
skunk
raccoon

white-lipped peccary
guanaco
american bison (a massive herd)
squirrel monkey
rhea
bennets wallaby
Japanese crane
various pheasants


a lot of domestics, cattle, sheep poultry etc

May be more but I cant remember of the top of my head. They also have a lot being planned. Its facilities, catering etc are of a very high standard and they have alot of play areas and other attraction for kids.
 
Al said:
I have been recently. It certainly is developing fast, the enclosures mostly are large and adequate for the species concerned. But understandibly for any infant zoo it needs time to mature, planting around enclosures etc. Its collection currently includes,

amur leopard
puma
fishing cat
jagurundi
ocelot
aardwolf
corsac fox mixed with crested porcupine
short clawed otter
coati
skunk
raccoon

white-lipped peccary
guanaco
american bison (a massive herd)
squirrel monkey
rhea
bennets wallaby
Japanese crane
various pheasants


a lot of domestics, cattle, sheep poultry etc

May be more but I cant remember of the top of my head. They also have a lot being planned. Its facilities, catering etc are of a very high standard and they have alot of play areas and other attraction for kids.
Click to expand...

Having read ALs review i paid a visit and was pleasantly surprised by a really interesting collection. i agree with all points made and the animal list is as above plus reindeer and a small kangaroo species?. It is very new and the signs are not in place yet on most exhibits so most visitors had no idea what some of the species were but they are working on this. All animals look healthy and well cared for.
It is the best view and photos I have had of aardwolves and fishing cats at any zoo and for that alone it was worth the admission price. The huge herd of bison, corsac foxes, pheasants and cranes were other highlights.
Everything is new and all the buildings and housing are wooden lodge type. There are nice water features and it is obvious that they are not pennypinching with any aspect of the park. Catering is good and reasonably priced.
I was talking to a staff member and was told that the head keeper and some other staff are ex dublin zoo and the owner is an animal loving fanatic with huge plans. Maned wolves and raptors are expected soon as well as loads of other developements. It is in a country area and there is no shortage of space for future expansion if required.
I loved it and intend to return soon for a longer visit and at the speed they are moving, there will probably be a lot more to see.
Only real criticism is the website needs to be improved and updated more often but this could be said of all zoo websites.
 
KB. I only had a quick visit on the way to Dublin zoo. I remember seeing golden pheasant, Temminks tragopan and a few other but nothing that struck me as very rare. They were mixed together in quite a large aviary with the japanese cranes in one half. Personally I have never seen a mixed aviary with several pairs of different pheasant species together before. Is this a common practice? All seemed in good condition. I know they hope to expand on this collection and get monals and other species.:)
 
Are they going to keep the funny name:D ? I do find it amusing but if its moving towards the emphasis of a serious Zoological collection maybe its not so suitable as its been up to now. Perhaps 'Tayto' Wildlife Park or Zoo or something?
 
I think they will keep it! The park will have a large animal collection but will also have a lot of amusements and play areas including zip lines, climbing Walls etc, more like a theme park/zoo!
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
As a bird fanatic: please elaborate on some pheasants.
What species?
Click to expand...

There were no signs on most of the aviaries, but the ones I remember and could id were, Reeves, Lady Amhurst, Cheer and two strains of Golden. There were also some Cape barren, Russian Redbreasted and Nene geese and loads of fancy domestic breeds.
 
I visited Tayto Park last week, for the first time, and I was nicely surprised as well.
It was during the week and the weather wasn't nice so there was just a few visitors and we had a great day.
It is a work in progress, but you can clearly see that they have money to improve things and they are working on it as we speak. I was surprised by the huge number of emploees, (all of them very nice and friendly), lots of new enclosures are being built there. If they keep it up, I won't probably recognize it next year.
What I loved the most is that they have number of species not present in Dublin Zoo collection. It was great to see Amur Leopards, Mountain Lions, Aardwolves... even Raccoons... American members will probably laugh, but I haven't seen a raccoon in ages and they are one of the cutest things ever! :)

It was a bit surprising to see Corsax Foxes and Porcupines together in one enclosure... But I guess it's just temporary, until the new ones are built...

For those who haven't visited yet - I've uploaded picture of Amur Leopards and Mountain Lions enclosures to "Ireland-Other" Gallery.
 
thanks for the report stefka, were there any new animals besides the ones listed above on the earlier posts. among others they are due to exhibit servals, lynx and birds of prey soon.
 
dublinlion said:
thanks for the report stefka, were there any new animals besides the ones listed above on the earlier posts. among others they are due to exhibit servals, lynx and birds of prey soon.
Click to expand...

I can´t think of anything else...There were no servals, lynx or birds of prey yet.
I think our list here is complete.

Except maybe some fishes in a small aquarium next to the restaurant, but I don´t know, what they are, there were no signs.. they were big... ;)
 
they had 300.000 visitors in first year and are hoping to push it up to 500.000 with a further two and a half million euro investment and eventually the aim is a million visitors a year according to an irish times interview. the plan is to put in more animals and activities.
they certainly work fast when building enclosures, which are quite basic and more early howletts or marwell type than big expensive concrete edifices which take ages to plan or build.
 
Pheasants in Tayto Park

Kifaru Bwana said:
As a bird fanatic: please elaborate on some pheasants.
What species?
Click to expand...

I´ve visited Tayto park again and took a picture especially for you ;)

 
I visited a few weeks ago, looks like it has lots of potential! Some signage missing and little things, but I mean they look to be developing a lot at the minute so not realy a big problem. It definitely reminded me of Howletts walking around, similar styled enclosures as someone already said. I look forward to seeing what they do with the place, interesting little collection as it is and apparently lots planned for summer 2012.
 
As for other species - Tayto park is really growing. It was just one month from my first till the visit last week and since then there was lots of new things and animals.

New arrivals:
Meerkats
Banded Mongoose
Serval
and some squirrel, but I didn´t see it.

New enclosures are still being built, for example the Fishing Cats were moved to much bigger and nicer habitat.

And now the biggest news:

White Lions will arrive in March.

Unfortunately, I don´t have much information about that, I´ve only heard that the´re coming from a private breeding station in South Africa.
I don´t know the details, so I can´t really judge, but I can´t wait to find out more. Certainly hope that they don´t come from one these "Cub cuddling and canned hunting" breeding stations... I was definitively surprised by this choice, can´t think of a reason why bring White Lions to Europe. In this case, I am more on the side of The Global White Lion Protection Trust, which is trying to return these lions to the wild, integrate them with the tawny lion population and allow the white gene occur naturally again. Anyway, the most important thing will be how these lions will be displayed in Tayto Park and what information will be given to visitors.

There is one thing I miss in Tayto Park - they are not supporting any kind of conservation organization. (Or maybe they are, but not openly) You don´t see any "donation boxes" or informational panel about these organizations, as you can see in other Zoos.

It would be great if they could, together with the White Lion enclosure, build some kind of educational panel about the history of White Lions, their situation now and support their integration back to the wild. I surely hope it not gonna be the "Look, we´ve got lions and they´re white, how cool is that!" kind of thing....

But still, if you haven´t visited Tayto park yet, definitively give it a shot, there are some pretty interesting things to see.
 
thanks for posting that stefka and the pheasant photo. they have obviously added a few new pheasant species, are they all housed together with the cranes? have they any other new bird species?
it is interesting that tayto and dublin are both getting new lions this year.

did you take any other photos as i would love to see them if you have.
 
I didn´t notice any new bird species and yes, all the pheasants, together with the cranes, are placed together.

Unfortunately, the weather was pretty bad so I didn´t even take my camera, only did the picture of pheasant panel with my phone.

But I´m planning to go next month again, so I definitively keep you posted.
 
A pair of very active tayra have been added and they soon hope to add european lynx and/or maned wolves, and have plans to improve current enclosures with more planting. The fishing cats have kittens and the serval have been temporarily seperated as they were fighting. They have two pairs of corsac fox and they were very busy chasing each other and are fast becoming one of my favourites.
I love going to this zoo as there is always something new and the staff are very helpful and friendly. They are working on setting up a new and better website.
 
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