After making my first ever visit to Woodside Wildlife Park today, I wanted to offer a review and my own first impressions of this collection, particularly as there isn't much about it on ZooChat. The main reason for my visit was to see the white wolves, but its nice to see a different zoo and I have a soft spot for smaller collections generally, so... here we go.
Once you have passed through the entry building, some of the first animals to be seen are a Green Winged Macaw outside the cafe, a group of Meerkats (of course!) in a pretty standard exhibit and Asian Short-Clawed Otters. There are a few Caracaras and Eagles in small aviaries, and a new walk-through lemur enclosure which is home to Red Ruffed and Ring-Tailed Lemurs. Apparently today the Ring-Tails were a bit under the weather today, but the Red Ruffs were very showy and one in particular seems to enjoy posing for visitors! The enclosure itself is pretty small and quite a bit of it is taken up with a water feature, however it looks nice and is fine for the small number of animals it houses. One word of warning though: as the enclosure is staffed it is only open at certain times, on this day only between 11:30am and 1:30pm, although you can see the lemurs from outside when it is closed.
Some other species in this vicinty are Red Pandas in the usual open top enclosure with a large tree which they stayed high up in all day, Pied Tamarins in an aviary-style cage, and a single Geoffroy's Cat which is pretty elusive but I did briefly see manage to spot it. There is also a mixed exhibit for Common Raccoons and Raccoon Dog which to be honest I wasn't very impressed with and looked in need of a refresh at least, or ideally replacing.
For many visitors the highlight will be the large carnivores and the park is home to a sibling pair of Siberian Lynx (apparently the only ones in the UK; can anyone confirm or deny?), at feeding time they can be seen taking meat through the mesh on a stick. Facing this enclosure is a paddock housing Julia, an ex-circus "Bengal" Tiger with viewing from a variety of angles, including the indoor house which looked basic but adequate. The park is temporarily home to a second tiger; Amur Tiger Alyona from Blackpool Zoo who is 'on holiday' in Lincolnshire whilst her own enclosure is being replaced. Unfortunately there is only one outdoor area meaning that Alyona was shut in for the duration of my visit, although she had full access to the paddock in the morning. A big lake behind the tiger enclosure is quite easy to miss, but it is home to some White Storks and is well worth seeing.
There's a very tall aviary for Stellar's Sea Eagles which are extremely impressive to see in flight, and another walk-through area with free-flying Inca Terns and a decent sized and attractive Humbdolt Penguin exhibit complete with underwater viewing through a large window. Nearby there is a bit more land which I understand will be used to expand the park, hopefully in the not too distant future, and a new perimeter fence is already in situ.
The bottom end of the park takes you along a rather narrow path, past a paddock housing Capybara and Brazillian Tapir, to the group of three Hudson Bay Wolves (all siblings, 1:2:0). You can get a good close view of the wolves if they come up to the fence and they are absolutely beautiful, and their howling can be heard all over the park! A small hill in the middle of their enclosure does limit viewing a bit and like many of the enclosures here, its functional but not especially generous. Photography was a challenge but I did think it was worth visiting just to see them though.
There are two large greenhouses which house a variety of tropical species, including Sloths, two very impressive Siamese Crocodiles and some Geoffroy's Marmosets, plus there is indoor viewing of the lemurs.
That is pretty much Woodside Wildlife Park in a nutshell! Its a very small place, but the space they have is well used and despite its size I feel it could be easy to miss something as it is a bit of a maze, with paths wrapped around the enclosures and heading in lots of different directions. I felt that a park map or more signs would have been useful. Visitor facility wise, the entrance building also serves as a modest gift shop offering the usual stuff such as cuddly toys, notebooks and magnets, and the cafe is quite nice with some delicious home-made cakes which I can highly reccommend! I should also mention that there are lots of talks throughout the day, including the 'Amazing Animals' show which includes a few species not otherwise on show to the public - I didn't actually see this, but I did watch the Big Cat and Wolf feeding talks and found them to be interesting. Probably the best thing about Woodside is the people - it seems to be a small team of staff running the place who all seemed very friendly and talkative, one young lady I spoke to about the Geoffroy's Cat was very happy when I saw her later on and told her that I'd managed to see him. The friendly, welcoming atmosphere really elevates the zoo and gives it a very intimate feel that is sometimes lacking in larger collections, I got the impression that everyone wants the visitors to enjoy their visit as much as possible. I would say you could do the park in a couple of hours, but the talks spread across the day encouraged most visitors on this day to stay longer than that.
Woodside Wildlife Park is a good, if not outstanding, small zoo with a few particularly interesting animals alongside the usual mix of species. It certainly isn't perfect but if you're in the area I'd suggest you give it a try, particularly if any of the species kept are of particular interest to you. Please feel free to ask if you want to know any more and I'll try to help if I can!
Once you have passed through the entry building, some of the first animals to be seen are a Green Winged Macaw outside the cafe, a group of Meerkats (of course!) in a pretty standard exhibit and Asian Short-Clawed Otters. There are a few Caracaras and Eagles in small aviaries, and a new walk-through lemur enclosure which is home to Red Ruffed and Ring-Tailed Lemurs. Apparently today the Ring-Tails were a bit under the weather today, but the Red Ruffs were very showy and one in particular seems to enjoy posing for visitors! The enclosure itself is pretty small and quite a bit of it is taken up with a water feature, however it looks nice and is fine for the small number of animals it houses. One word of warning though: as the enclosure is staffed it is only open at certain times, on this day only between 11:30am and 1:30pm, although you can see the lemurs from outside when it is closed.
Some other species in this vicinty are Red Pandas in the usual open top enclosure with a large tree which they stayed high up in all day, Pied Tamarins in an aviary-style cage, and a single Geoffroy's Cat which is pretty elusive but I did briefly see manage to spot it. There is also a mixed exhibit for Common Raccoons and Raccoon Dog which to be honest I wasn't very impressed with and looked in need of a refresh at least, or ideally replacing.
For many visitors the highlight will be the large carnivores and the park is home to a sibling pair of Siberian Lynx (apparently the only ones in the UK; can anyone confirm or deny?), at feeding time they can be seen taking meat through the mesh on a stick. Facing this enclosure is a paddock housing Julia, an ex-circus "Bengal" Tiger with viewing from a variety of angles, including the indoor house which looked basic but adequate. The park is temporarily home to a second tiger; Amur Tiger Alyona from Blackpool Zoo who is 'on holiday' in Lincolnshire whilst her own enclosure is being replaced. Unfortunately there is only one outdoor area meaning that Alyona was shut in for the duration of my visit, although she had full access to the paddock in the morning. A big lake behind the tiger enclosure is quite easy to miss, but it is home to some White Storks and is well worth seeing.
There's a very tall aviary for Stellar's Sea Eagles which are extremely impressive to see in flight, and another walk-through area with free-flying Inca Terns and a decent sized and attractive Humbdolt Penguin exhibit complete with underwater viewing through a large window. Nearby there is a bit more land which I understand will be used to expand the park, hopefully in the not too distant future, and a new perimeter fence is already in situ.
The bottom end of the park takes you along a rather narrow path, past a paddock housing Capybara and Brazillian Tapir, to the group of three Hudson Bay Wolves (all siblings, 1:2:0). You can get a good close view of the wolves if they come up to the fence and they are absolutely beautiful, and their howling can be heard all over the park! A small hill in the middle of their enclosure does limit viewing a bit and like many of the enclosures here, its functional but not especially generous. Photography was a challenge but I did think it was worth visiting just to see them though.
There are two large greenhouses which house a variety of tropical species, including Sloths, two very impressive Siamese Crocodiles and some Geoffroy's Marmosets, plus there is indoor viewing of the lemurs.
That is pretty much Woodside Wildlife Park in a nutshell! Its a very small place, but the space they have is well used and despite its size I feel it could be easy to miss something as it is a bit of a maze, with paths wrapped around the enclosures and heading in lots of different directions. I felt that a park map or more signs would have been useful. Visitor facility wise, the entrance building also serves as a modest gift shop offering the usual stuff such as cuddly toys, notebooks and magnets, and the cafe is quite nice with some delicious home-made cakes which I can highly reccommend! I should also mention that there are lots of talks throughout the day, including the 'Amazing Animals' show which includes a few species not otherwise on show to the public - I didn't actually see this, but I did watch the Big Cat and Wolf feeding talks and found them to be interesting. Probably the best thing about Woodside is the people - it seems to be a small team of staff running the place who all seemed very friendly and talkative, one young lady I spoke to about the Geoffroy's Cat was very happy when I saw her later on and told her that I'd managed to see him. The friendly, welcoming atmosphere really elevates the zoo and gives it a very intimate feel that is sometimes lacking in larger collections, I got the impression that everyone wants the visitors to enjoy their visit as much as possible. I would say you could do the park in a couple of hours, but the talks spread across the day encouraged most visitors on this day to stay longer than that.
Woodside Wildlife Park is a good, if not outstanding, small zoo with a few particularly interesting animals alongside the usual mix of species. It certainly isn't perfect but if you're in the area I'd suggest you give it a try, particularly if any of the species kept are of particular interest to you. Please feel free to ask if you want to know any more and I'll try to help if I can!
, but regardless, very enjoyable 30 minutes.
