Ark Wildlife Park & Rescue Zoo
After a pleasant hour and half at Wolds it was time to jump back into the car and head towards the village of Stickney and Ark Wildlife Park, fifteen miles away in terms of distance but quite a lot further away in terms of exhibitry...
The big draw for the enthusiast is the species line-up with five species of Vivverid, three Mongoose, five small cats, Arctic Foxes and some more familiar species. The big downer is the ramshackle style of the place, unfortunately the price (£10.95 compared to Wolds £9.50) is also a bit off-putting. I'll be honest, if I'm back this way anytime soon I'll struggle to justify a return visit!
Anyway, on to the collection proper. First impressions aren't great with the first enclosure being situated outside the entrance and was a low cage decorated with children's toys and an unseen raccoon. Next enclosure is situated behind the counter in the cafe/shop/entry building and was home to a Savannah Cat which had outside access to a cage that was furnished in a similar style to the raccoon cage pre-entry. Not a great first impression if I'm honest but it did get better in places.
After going into the zoo proper the first port of call was the "Tropical House" and those inverted commas are justified as there is nothing tropical about this converted farm building other than having some reptiles in. The species list is a mix of the mundane and outstanding and includes a pair of Meerkats in a small enclosure, three species of genet (Rusty-spotted, Hausa and Common) mixed in an enclosure that leaves a lot to be desired - there's plenty of enrichment but it's too small and both the indoor and outdoor enclosures just look a bit of a mess, there's a too small Common Palm Civet enclosure with one animal, and some unseen Common Marmosets as the most tropical mammal species.
Reptiles are represented by a few common pet shop pythons, Common Boa, Plated Lizard,a few turtles and tortoises, Knob-tailed Geckos, and two species of crocodilian (singles of Morelet's Crocodile and Spectacled Caiman) which are housed in decent sized enclosures with adequate pools but artificial grass. None of this is particularly easy on the eye unfortunately.
Once back outside things are all pretty much the same as the tropical house, wood and wire enclosures that look past their best despite being relatively new. From here the collection is in two parts with the bulk of it being housed in a roughly rectangular area and a seperate loop around the lake. I'll cover the rectangle first and lake second as that's the order I assume most visitors do it.
The main bulk of the collection is housed here and includes African Civets in a small exhibit that has climbing opportunities but is rather bland (Seeing a pattern?), and opposite them is a pair of coati. There's an enclosure for Raccoon Dogs that would be a decent size if 30% of the area wasn't taken up with an algae filled pond. There's another raccoon enclosure called
Trash Panda Towers, this is larger than the exhibit at the entrance but the furnishing is interesting to say the least, consisting of a fair few toys. There's a collection of enclosures for cats with a Eurasian Lynx coming out the best in an open-topped and fairly large enclosure, the fence of which is very low and I assume the lynx is only in there as a gesture of goodwill... There are also converted polytunnels that have been meshed over and these house a Bobcat, Jungle Cats, and a Serval, with another Serval held in a small open-topped enclosure by the lynx. The polytunnels work but do not look pretty and don't give the animals a lot of space unfortunately. Opposite these are some paddocks for goats, pigs and Llamas, a big hit with kids but not so much with me.
The other part of this area is an open-fronted barn that has small exhibits for Meerkats & Yellow Mongoose, Crested Porcupines, Azara's Agouti, and Banded Mongoose. At the far end are some even smaller pens for domestic rabbits and guinea pigs. This area isn't terrible but I thought a major welfare issue was the pigeons nesting (and crapping) above the pens, surely that must be a hygiene concern?
Leaving here the last part is
Lemur Lake which is a rather well planted island with a small climbing structure for Ring-tailed Lemurs. Also in this area are two large cages for two pairs of Rhesus Macaque, probably some of the best stuff here and it still isn't great, and next to these are another set of similar cages awaiting new arrivals.
The other draw in this area are a couple of adequate enclosures for domestic Red Foxes which look okay and are decently planted, and a decent sized but fairly bare enclosure for a group of Arctic Foxes with the main feature being a boat in the middle, no water mind you, just a boat.
And that rounds out Ark, not a place I'll be rushing back to despite missing a genet and failing to find the Jaguarundi enclosure at all. If you're in the area or you really like Vivverids then I'd recommend a visit, but don't go out of your way and don't expect to want to rush back!
) for (unseen) Short-clawed Otters.
Seriously though, you're not missing a great deal but it is worth a look if you can justify tearing yourself away from birding. 