The old Blackbrook Zoo site at Winkhill has been purchased and a redevelopment has started to turn it back to profit. The initial opening has produced a visit that allows you to feed and stroke Wallabies, see Penguins close up and walk amongst Lemurs, amongst other things. I particularly liked the idea of walking with Lemurs.
These are Brown Lemurs. They tend to rest as a group in trees for much of the day and come down to earth to feed. These lemurs keep themselves to themselves.
The Black and White Ruffed Lemur is the big boy about town (Actually, the park has a pair of females) who tend to dominate the smaller lemurs.
The Ring-Tailed Lemurs tend to be quite relaxed. They are all primates and distant evolutionary cousins of humans. All of these Lemurs have been raised in captivity and they are conditioned to the presence of humans. That makes them very accessible. They can bound around and jump amazing distances and are very agile creatures.
The young tend to hang on to mums belly, but as they get older they hang on to her back. This one is still suckling, but should be weened soon.
I also took the opportunity to photograph Humboldt Penguins underwater. That was a new experience for me. This one is diving for sprats.
This is a visit I would highly recommend. Check out the Peak Wildlife Park website at:
The cafe is very good, but be advised that they charge tourist "hot-spot" prices.
What a treat this was.I am interested to re-visit to see how the new African enclosure works out. This may be a chance to walk amongst Meerkats! - That should be interesting if it works out OK.
2 comments:
I see what you mean. Never been happy visiting zoos or animal enclosures, but I do understand their importance in helping to conserve animals (and our primate cousins) we might otherwise lose. Two of my favourite books are 'Penguin Lost' and 'Death and the Penguin', both novels by Andrey Kurkov, a Russian writer, from 2001 and 2004, and the penguin is called 'Misha'. Is the zoo a place you could volunteer and get to know the penguins better?
This project is very pleasing as the animals in general are all behaving in a natural and relaxed way. We did not see the otters on this visit, and there was no prompting by the staff to disturb them in their den. The animals do what they want and you observe, or interact with them where there it is appropriate. There is a run of old empty pens with a note saying "this is how it used to be!"
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