West Midland Safari and Leisure Park Trip

Hey there, new to the site, must say it's pretty awsome. Well, visited West Midlands Safari Park Monday and had a great time. Been there about 6 times now, usually go every year whilst on family visits. Was impressed with their new souvenir books but noticed the price of entry had gone up from what i remember last year. All worth it though.

Was a shame that the giraffe weren't allowed out, the roads were wet so i assumed it was due to fear of one falling and injuring themselves that they had been kept in their holding pens. They have a healthy, large herd of Eland, and noticed a very small young eland curled up near a feeder. Four rhino were on display, and the gnu herd seemed to have grown in numbers from my last visit.

Moving on a little through the white wallabies and reindeer to the wolves. Didn't really stop much to view the wolves, all of which were sleeping in the bottom corner of their exhibit.

They still have a very large herd of blackbuck, and there have been two new aditions to the asian buffalo herd. Also spotted a very tiny, young philippine spotted deer along with the rest of their group in their pen.

White tiger ridge held a tiger trio. Two of which were sleeping on their platform. We were highly entertained as the third stalked the water buffalo on the other side of the fence.

You then move onto the new cheetah reserve where the white wallibies were once housed. I was suprised as i always remember it being a small enclosure but they seemed to have two spacious fenced arease (personally I thought they could have had more)... From what I could see there were seven cheetah in one of their two enclosures, four of which looked younger (flufflier) and smaller than the other three. The 8th cheetah could not be seen.

The park has a large pack of hunting dogs, all were asleep next to the fence line which separates them from the white lions... the African lions look very healthy and the cubs that I saw on my last visit have grown up into their teens and were lounging round with the adults.

Also doing well are the white lions. Seems like they have had a baby boom - there must have been around 13 lions in their main enclosure, and i could see a young male and female locked in another cage at the back of the exhibit. There were two very young cubs keeping us entertained play fighting as we drove passed. No idea if they plan on moving some lions away, as i can see that living conditions for them will become cramped if they continue to breed.

Addax and a very large group of red lechwe can be seen in their own drive through exhibit, then you go into the Eurasian reserve. On the left you can see orange bengal tigers. 4 being in one exhibit. Next to them in a smaller fenced area was another white tiger, and in the end i believe i could see 3 more orange tigers.
As always the Bactrian camels were causing traffic. There were two younger camels from my last visit. The Pere davids deer herd has grown also from what i could see.

Moving onto the elephants (my favourite)! I've never found out but there are only 3 African elephants on view now. Does anyone know if the other bull has been moved? I believe they used to have two bulls and two cows. Not sure whether they alternate the bulls on different days, but my last two visits now there has always been the two females and one male on show. The bull was shut in the smaller pen outside whilst the females had the larger open space. Every time i've visited i've never seen them in distress (swaying, head bobbing etc...) so i guess theyre enjoying life at the park.

Anyway, they still house the two bull cape buffalo - not sure if they're going to get some females in. One bull seemed to be having a battle with the solid wooden fence around the trees in their square enclosure. The herd of ankole cattle weren't very active which they usually are. They just stood in a group near the gates that lead to the holding pens.

Walking around discovery trail I noticed that they now house two Amur Leopard. I couldn't tell you where their origonal leapord went, and I don't remember seeing her in the netted enclosure in the african reserve. The two new leopards seemed pretty happy, but later in the day one took to pacing up and down.

We didn't go and watch the sealion show as we've seen it so many times before. When looking in their pool 3 fur seals were swimming round and round, one being their big male.

I counted nine hippo (i think) in their lake/pond. very smelly indeed, but the hippo seemed happy enough. Very entertaining when one grunts and the rest start vocalising to.

Well that's it from me, sorry for the poor spelling if any, and anything else which is wrong with it. Just thought some people would be interested to see whats happening in the park at the moment.:)
 
Hello michaelreyno
Thanks for the interesting review - good to see another Welsh member on Zoochat . The second African elephant bull was moved to another collection some time ago , I cannot remember where now . If you look on the web-site Elephants Encyclopedia - facts and information about elephants since 1995 you will find out - it had a very detailed list of past and present elephants by country , including circus animals .

If you check out different threads on this site you will find lots about the white lions and hippos at WMSP .
 
Hey Bele, thanks for the site link - and info on the other bull.

Hopefully a bit later I'll add some photos in the gallery of the trip, if i find some time.
 
i love west midlands
as well as the fur seal the also have a group of calafornia sealions ,a single female pantagonian sealion and Harbour and Grey seals.
consider me as YOUR first freind
 
Hi michaelreyno and welcome to the site

We usually visit once a year too but havent been this year!

I cant believe they have fitted 8 cheetahs in to the wallaby bit doesnt that back onto the wolves?

And having 2 Amur leopards in that awful glass box seems a little cramped! Does that mean they now do not have the big 5 ? (excuse my ignorance if iv got it wrong but dont they need a leopard not an amur leopard :confused: )

There is so many good points about west midlands but they do seem to be trying to hard to attract as many visitors as possible by having as many animals crammed into the park!

The hunting dogs are always asleep which is a shame because the last time we went a man in the car behind us actually got out and went to the boot of his car :eek: spent what seems an age rummaging around then came back with a drink opened the back door and gave it to his child and casually stood there then got in :rolleyes:

The keepers in the jeep hadnt even stopped yacking to each other long enough to notice :D well we could have beeped the horn to alert them but NO instead we had the camera ready and the video camera ready just incase he got savaged :D well could have got £250 for the video and flogged the pictures to the sun :D
 
Although very near, the new cheetah exhibit doesn't actually meet the fenceline where the wolves are. As you drive through the cheetah are on the left, then on the right theres a grassy space then the fenceline for the wolves exhibit.

Understandable about the amur leopards. On the parks map handout they still class them as one of the big five, which I couldn't understand either! They have added to the enclosure some shrubs and i think it looked like bamboo, but still doesn't change the fact that they have hardly any space! They should really consider enlarging their exhibit instead of, like you said, cramming more animals into the park each year. That's the only disappointment for me, is that the sealions and leopards are cramped.
 
Thanks for your very interesting report - and also, welcome to ZooChat! It's always nice to have more UK members on board, hopefully you'll find plenty here to keep you interested. :)

I've only been to West Midlands once, it was fairly soon after the first white lions had arrived, and I can see what people mean about them cramming things in a bit. That said, I enjoyed my visit, it's a nice place and although they come in for some criticism I think they have a superb animal collection. When I went I actually saw the Hunting Dogs active - I guess I was very lucky!!! :D
 
i'm going to wmsp this weekend, when i went their last (early summer) the amur leopards paced all day, i didnt think the elepahnt area was quite big enough, neither was the leopards and the sealion area. i still can't get over the white wallabies which don't seem to have any conservational or educational value at all! the hippo area was clean enough although the space was certainly large neough. luckily i saw the hunting dogs really active (i presumed this was usual), most of what i've said is also on other threads
 
Good review

Cat-Man, are you sure that they have 4 species of pinniped? I only remember the South African Fur Seals. I definatley don't remember Harbour or Grey :confused:
 
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Cat-Man, are you sure that they have 4 species of pinniped? I only remember the South African Fur Seals. I definatley don't remember Harbour or Grey :confused:

i was thinking that, maybe hes confused it with another collection.
 
They definately have african fur seals, and i think they do have californian sealions but I wasn't aware that they housed harbour or grey seals. Oh and i found from the elephant database that their second male, Tooth, moved to Rhenen Zoo
 
I asked the keeper about the pinnpids, because some looked different to others.
he said we have a group of calafornian sealions and south african fur seal, 3 harbour seals, 2 grey seals and the feamale pantagonian sealion.
P.S
the pantagonian sealion gets on well with the calafornias, so she is not lonley.
 

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last time i went they had two female california sealions in a pen, a male cali who sopent his ime in the show arena and two female south african fur seals that were part of the show
 
Having read the review went yesterday with my girlfriend and had an excellent time. Hadn't been for 15 years but was very impressed with the safari park. The predators were all active, as where the eles and rhinos. Only downside (from a bird keepers view) was no birds:(, they used to have Ostrichs but no sign of them.

Reptile house and discovery zone were good, if a little small.

Only saw the Cali Sea Lions but didn't go into the show tank area
 
Good review

Cat-Man, are you sure that they have 4 species of pinniped? I only remember the South African Fur Seals. I definatley don't remember Harbour or Grey :confused:

maby he was refering to what they had kept in the past
 
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