Yorkshire Wildlife Park Yorkshire Wildife Park news 2024

Embu

Embu

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Some sad news to start with regarding the lions

We would like you to join us in celebrating the life of Julie who was peacefully put to sleep surrounded by her animal rangers this morning.

Julie has recently been contending with progressive age-related illnesses and after careful consideration, the team made the difficult decision to put Julie to sleep.

Julie was a much loved individual and will be missed by all of us at YWP ♥️

We welcome you to share your fond memories of Julie, who was one of our original Lions rescued from Romania back in 2009

( : Photoscoper )
 
How many lions does this leave at the park exactly? I know they’ll be down to the last one or two.
 
Julie was the one who was mixed with Simba before his death, and then she was reintegrated with Carla & Crystal. Her death leaves the two.

When I done the carnivore experience last Autumn, the keeper spoke how they wanted to do some changes to the outdated housing the lions had access to, but would wait until the older lions had passed away. Since then 2 of the four had passed away.

There are a mother and her cubs due to come from Ukraine, so I wonder what will go on with the house. I suppose now there is two and they occupy only one of the outside exhibits, you could at least keep them one end of the house, and word on the other side and swap once done.

But any changes would need to be done quite soon, as the other Lions are meant to arrive in the spring aren't they?

I would personally be a little surprised if they had two prides when the new ones arrive.
 
Fallax said:
Impressive, too bad they were a no show on my visit. :p Is this a thing with giant otters in general? I also struggle to see them at Chester... or am I just unlucky?
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From my experience, definitely the most inactive otter species in captivity - missed them at Chester and Hagenbeck despite spending quite some time at their enclosure in the case of the former, and required a lot of patience to see them at Longleat (although once they revealed themselves, they did have a ten or twenty minute spell of incredible activity making full use of the pool). Thankfully, they were very much active at New Forest Wildlife Park, which marked my first encounter with the species. :)
 
Fallax said:
Impressive, too bad they were a no show on my visit. :p Is this a thing with giant otters in general? I also struggle to see them at Chester... or am I just unlucky?
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Definitely agree they are the least active of the otters I've seen. I only saw the back end of one at Chester!

I have found them most active at YWP in the hotter weather. I visited midweek on one of the hottest days of the year on the way back from a meeting in Yorkshire, expecting nothing to be out and the giant otters were all super active, playing in the water and sunbathing right at the edge of the enclosure. A real treat and I hadn't seen them wet and dry before to appreciate the colours. I think I've seen them outside at YWP maybe one in four visits. Got some nice views of the previous pup and family then. But they are so much harder to see and indeed photograph compared to smoothed and short clawed otters in particular imho.

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Fallax said:
Is this a thing with giant otters in general? I also struggle to see them at Chester... or am I just unlucky?
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Kalaw said:
definitely the most inactive otter species in captivity
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Lafone said:
Definitely agree they are the least active of the otters I've seen. I only saw the back end of one at Chester!
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Thats very interesting, as in my experience they are the *most* active otter species ive seen!! I think they have only been no shows twice at chester and once in zlin, eurasian otters seem to be the least active from my experienceo_O
 
pangolin12 said:
Thats very interesting, as in my experience they are the *most* active otter species ive seen!! I think they have only been no shows twice at chester and once in zlin, eurasian otters seem to be the least active from my experienceo_O
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Second most active in my experience - sea otters are the most active I’ve seen!
 
Had an enjoyable few hours at YWP this afternoon, had a meeting near Hull so took the afternoon off on the way back and wandered around before closing. Was very quiet visitor wise which was unsurprising as it had rained heavily all day, though it did then hold off for a couple of hours.

The EV charging provider has changed from Vend Electric to Monta if anyone is preloading payment via apps etc.

Couldn't get around everything in the time so went to specific enclosures which worked well enough.

The Gelada enclosure was partly fenced off to lay some new turf, put in some new plants and add reinforcements / frames in the banking. Guess they are looking for the area to establish itself before they do the other half. The enclosure was pretty bare and getting quite muddy when wet and dusty in summer (with the big hills deteriorating) so hopefully will help and give the Geladas new things to destroy.

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Lots of active animals about including the otters (after I said I hadn't always seen them!) playing in their pond which now occupies most of their enclosure after the heavy rain. Great to see them.

The top end of project polar was blocked off (from the gate near the otters and from the house) The paddock gates were standing open and some drainage work was going on in the lake, some landscaping going on on the banks and also in the wood on the other side of the path. The only access was from the end near the Amazonas walkthrough. The bears were in the other enclosures or the house though and lots of playing going on with their canoes.

Was nice to get some good views of the tigers as it was their turn to be the carnivore feed. The sealions were also having some training and whizzing in and out of the water up their ramp so that was fun to see.

The Mara were now all in the Amazonas walkthrough which made for nice views of them.

And on the way out as a final treat of the day there was a lovely little flock of wild tufted ducks in the lake near the red pandas.
 
Lafone said:
The Gelada enclosure was partly fenced off to lay some new turf, put in some new plants and add reinforcements / frames in the banking. Guess they are looking for the area to establish itself before they do the other half. The enclosure was pretty bare and getting quite muddy when wet and dusty in summer (with the big hills deteriorating) so hopefully will help and give the Geladas new things to destroy.

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Nice Gelada hill but I guess they will pick it clean again in a short time once they have access. Gelada are the worst of the baboons for this as they are natural grass/grain feeders. Do you know the approx size of their group?
 
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