Over the winter we’ve been busy upgrading many of the animal houses and enclosures in the park. The Chimpanzees will soon have their brand new purpose built house on the mainland opposite their island. When completed it will be large enough to house more chimps than we currently have, so watch this space!

Our on-going programme of improvements to the birds of prey department is coming along nicely with a complete demolition of the old buildings. The New buildings have been constructed for the comfort and security of the birds, with space for a further expansion of the department in the future.

The Elephant section has undergone a remodelling with the addition of a “wobbletree” for the 3 girls to push against and play with. A new out door elephant training wall has also been constructed so that our elephant keepers can demonstrate some of the training techniques we use here at the park to the public during the season. The elephant section is also currently getting ready for a workshop on protected contact training of elephants through positive reinforcement and enrichment that they are organising here at the park. This is the first such workshop to be held in Britain for elephant keepers and includes internationally respected guest speakers. The workshop took place recently and it was a huge success.

The European Brown Bears, Amur Tigers and African Lions have all had wooden platforms constructed within their enclosures. These not only allow a better view of these animals for the public but also enrich the lives of the animals by adding another dimension to their enclosure.

Animal Update

Over the winter there has been lots of comings and goings on the animal front. The first to move on was Sherrie the Bactrian camel born here at the park in May 2005. She has gone down to Paradise Wildlife Park in Hertfordshire, where she has settled in well, bringing out her bossy side. In return we collected a Red-ruffed Lemur called Kumala.

She has joined our male Red-ruffed lemur on the far side of Chimp River. This area will be an up close and personal Lemur walk through exhibit opening to the public in 2007. So keep a look out for them as you pass on the Chimpanzee Island boat trip. With our two Red Ruffed-lemurs there are also fourteen Brown lemurs, our original Ring-tailed lemurs and we have just collected a further six from Folly Park in Wales. The latest to arrive are six new Meerkats from Calder Glen Wildlife Park. Heading off soon to East Links in Edinburgh will be our South American Rhea in exchange for Guinea Fowl and our Dromedary Camel has also taken the hump and will shortly be heading off to West Midlands Safari Park.