Yorkshire Wildlife Park Yorkshire Wildlife Park

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Gentle Giant

Well-Known Member
Brockholes Farm will open a new wildlife park outside Doncaster in April 2009, visitors will be able to walk through 'Lemur Woods' and meet three different species, brown, ring-tailed and black & white ruffed. There will also be a 'Wallaby Walkabout', 'World's Farm' - which will feature domestic animals from around the world - and other creatures such as African Wild Dogs and zebra.
 
Sounds pretty good, lemurs and wallabies are a great public draw and the world farm sounds a great idea.
 
It doesn't sound like it will be anything very original unfortunately. Whats the betting there'll be Meerkats, Prairie Dogs, Mara, Llamas, Rheas maybe even Short Clawed Otters. Same old same old.

The place is still seeking zebras but unless is buys them or brings them in from abroad the chances are pretty slim.
 
there are african wild dogs though, quite suprising species for a new park isn't it?
 
I was surprised too when I saw the advertisement in Yorkshire Tourist Board. I suspect they may purchased the animals from private breeder.
 
Always interesting to see a new collection opening up though, gives us zoo enthusiasts another reason to visit a new collection. Who knows they may do something different to the norm. Lets wait and see first before we criticise them!!!. Probably won't be any different but who knows???
 
I'm VERY excited about this development - the species list may not be anything spectacular, but this is an area that is very poorly served by zoos. The nearest I've got to a 'local' collection is Cleethorpes, followed by Mablethorpe, and the nearest major zoo is Twycross. So I'm really looking forward to seeing how this pans out... especially seeing as I love lemurs!!! Hunting dogs will be great to see too. :D
 
Sand Cat said:
I'm VERY excited about this development - the species list may not be anything spectacular, but this is an area that is very poorly served by zoos. The nearest I've got to a 'local' collection is Cleethorpes, followed by Mablethorpe, and the nearest major zoo is Twycross. So I'm really looking forward to seeing how this pans out... especially seeing as I love lemurs!!! Hunting dogs will be great to see too. :D
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Im guessing your planning to visit? please bring us some photos back!
 
jacks zoo said:
Paradoxurus said:
Whats the betting there'll be Meerkats, Prairie Dogs, Mara, Llamas, Rheas maybe even Short Clawed Otters. Same old same old.

You forgot to mention raccoons lol :)
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Yes Meerkats, mara, llamas. They dont have raccoons anymore, neither do they have short clwed otters or Prarie dogs. You see, i actually work there for my college course and let me tell you, its no same old, same old.

Theyre wanting to do something new that people have never seen before and they are working damn hard.
The hunting dogs are coming soon so thats really exciting.
Theres 2 black and white ruffed lemurs, 3 brown lemurs and 2 ring tailed at the moment.
Theres also racoon dogs, 2 cows, the livery yard, ostridges and a red deer.

It will be good and DIFFERENT!
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ChazBob said:
jacks zoo said:
Yes Meerkats, mara, llamas. They dont have raccoons anymore, neither do they have short clwed otters or Prarie dogs. You see, i actually work there for my college course and let me tell you, its no same old, same old.

Theyre wanting to do something new that people have never seen before and they are working damn hard.
The hunting dogs are coming soon so thats really exciting.
Theres 2 black and white ruffed lemurs, 3 brown lemurs and 2 ring tailed at the moment.
Theres also racoon dogs, 2 cows, the livery yard, ostridges and a red deer.

It will be good and DIFFERENT!
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Well the only thing you mention in your post that is remotely diffferent is Hunting Dogs all the Lemur species are the usual suspects that you can see in most small collections.
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Raccoon Dogs are none too common, either, to be fair.
 
Yeah, we have two raccoon dogs.
We dont know where the dogs are coming from, i mean they havent actually told us because were just students.
Yeah small collections, but the new owners have had it about 6 months? and in that time they have done a hell of a lot of work.
I mean, i was working there all day today and theyve already sorted out the section where the lemurs are going to go, and weve been working on the new walaby enclosure and theres Rhea, two Zebu's, plenty of goats, 3 sheep, lots of chickens etc.
Over the next few years, when it closes in the winter, they will be extending it.
They were trying to get a pack of wolves but the pack they were offered were very unstable and were too dangerous
 
It's a new collection and it's got to start somewhere. It's no surprise that most of the species that have been mentioned are common in captivity - easy to acquire, easy to keep and likely to pull in a few punters. As has already been mentioned, this part of the UK has been starved of a decent wildlife attraction so they are filling a niche in the market.

Also. the fact that hunting dogs are being acquired shows at least some ambition for what this collection could become. (I do wonder about putting them in an exhibit called "World's Farm" though). Best of luck to them - it won't be easy going, especially in the current economic climate.
 
I agree. Every new collection has to start with some easy to obtain species and they don't really give any indication of what might come later.
 
Pertinax said:
I agree. Every new collection has to start with some easy to obtain species and they don't really give any indication of what might come later.
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Cromer Zoo had a bit of an advantage by only exhibiting south american species. So have a few less common animals
 
taun said:
Cromer Zoo had a bit of an advantage by only exhibiting south american species. So have a few less common animals
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True. Some collections do start specialist, like Cromer, or big- e.g. Marwell (felines and rare antelopes) or both- Howletts(Tigers, Gorillas, antelope etc).

But the more common way is what's happening here, the more easy to find,familiar species to start with.
 
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