West Midland Safari and Leisure Park West midland safari park

[Pertinax]

I would find it unlikely that there is no where that Barbary lions could be released. North Africa is a large area. Is the myth with most zoos just keeping large lions with luxurient manes, and not actually connected to the royal Ethiopian group?

1. I think one or two possible sites for a reintroduction scheme have been identified, but the general impression is that, as you say, the lions couldn't be released to live wild as there is nowhere remote enough nowadays to allow this.

2. The 'myth' is because DNA testing has shown at least some lions from the Rabat Zoo/Moroccan Royal group, previously regarded as the most 'pure' are in fact descended from SubSaharan lions, not North African ones.

 

[foz]

i went to the safari park a few weeks back and counted 9 hippo's, all female (according to the keeper)

The cheetah's were all really active (they were being fed) and both paddocks were in use. I counted at least 6 cheetah's two of which still looked really young.

why do they keep the tigers behind the electric fence and away from the road?

there were two amur leopards when i visited one of which was pacing up and down the enclosure

 

[Bele]

Where did the extra cheetahs come from ? I think they originally had 2 males .

 

[foz]

i haven't a clue but there were at least 4 in 1 enclosure and 2 in the other one, the 2 pairs of mature adults were hissing and swiping at the fence towards each other. two of the cheetah's were quite oyung as they were smaller with grey fluffy bits.

 

[tetrapod]

...why do they keep the tigers behind the electric fence and away from the road?

I haven't been to West Midlands, but funnily enough Knowsley does the same thing. You would have thought that a drive-through tiger exhibit would make sense (Longleat manages it).

 

[James27]

I asked this whilst doing work experience there. Apparently they're too dangerous to be let loose amongst cars, but Longleat and Woburn do it, so I really don't know why West Midlands does.

 

[tetrapod]

I asked this whilst doing work experience there. Apparently they're too dangerous to be let loose amongst cars, but Longleat and Woburn do it, so I really don't know why West Midlands does.

Thinking about it, I believe that West Midlands did display their tigers in a drive-through and changed it. Maybe it had more to do with animal management issues or individual animal personalities. I cannot see that tigers are any more dangerous than lions in a drive-through situation.

 

[CZJimmy]

Thinking about it, I believe that West Midlands did display their tigers in a drive-through and changed it. Maybe it had more to do with animal management issues or individual animal personalities. I cannot see that tigers are any more dangerous than lions in a drive-through situation.

I can vaguely remember normal tigers (and then white ones) being in the white lion area (without the hotwire at the side of the road).

There was also a 2nd tiger group in the fenced enclosure, where they normal coloured ones still live and the White Tigers were given "White Tiger Ridge" a couple of years ago.

 

[foz]

when i went there, there was two areas for tigers, white tiger ridge and a drive by which had 3 or 4 enclosures 1 of which was occupied by a pair of coloured tigers and the rest by whites

 

[CZJimmy]

Cheetahs

foz was right about the cheetahs. WMSP has now got 8 cheetahs.

http://www.wmsp.co.uk:8080/safaripark/WebObjects/safaripark.woa/wa/displayArticle?articleId=1000050

West Midland Safari Park have introduced a further six Cheetah to their Cheetah Plains Exhibit creating the largest group of Cheetah in the UK.

The six new Cheetah - 2 males and 4 females - range between 7 and 15 months old and have been re-homed from a captive breeding facility in South Africa. They have joined the Park's original two Cheetah - Munya and Bulika - that were introduced at the beginning of the Park's main season in February 2008.

All eight Cheetah have settled in well together and can regularly be seen playing and exploring the caves and rocks that form part of Cheetah Plains - the UK's largest and unique drive-by quarantine facility.

 

[Bele]

Thanks for finding that CZ . A lot of new cheetahs have come into the country recently .

 

[Bobby_21]

it sounds like they will be keeping all 8 together which will either be a breeding success or a waste of 8 perfectly good cheetahs for the breeding programme. Coming from a person with a non-zoological background it seems that by keeping all of them together it may give the females more chance of picking the male they'd like to mate with.

 

[James27]

It may give the females more chance of picking the male they'd like to mate with.

Or the males might fight over the females.
Won't keeping them in a big group like that be stressful, since they're usually solitary?

 

[johnstoni]

"the UK's largest unique and drive-by quarantine facility"......just if you weren't sold on the 8 cheetahs, you can check out a 'unique' quarantine facility from the comfort of your car to boot!