Longleat Safari Park
| Longleat Safari Park | |
|---|---|
 Longleat Safari Park
 Longleat Safari Park shown within Wiltshire |
|
| Type | Safari park |
| Location | Wiltshire |
| Nearest city | Warminster |
| OS grid | ST818434 |
| Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Area | 9,000 acres (36.42 km2) |
| Created | 1966 |
| Designer | Jimmy Chipperfield |
| Camp sites | Yes |
| Website | www |
Longleat Safari and Adventure Park, in Wiltshire, England, was opened in 1966 as the first drive-through safari park outside Africa.[1][2][3] The park is situated in the grounds of Longleat House, an English stately home which is open to the public and is the current home of the 7th Marquess of Bath. The safari park was the first of its kind anywhere in the world, and was ground breaking in terms of how captive animals are kept and viewed by the public. Longleat Safari Park and the concept of safari parks were the brainchild of Jimmy Chipperfield (1912–1990), former co-director of Chipperfield's Circus.[4]
Today, Longleat is home to over 500 animals, and the whole estate is situated on 9,000 acres (36.42 km2) of Wiltshire countryside.
Contents
The Safari Park's reserves
- Wallaby Wood: red-necked wallabies with pygmy goats, warthogs, African spurred tortoises and helmeted guineafowl, It is possible to get out of the car and view this section on foot.
- Lemur Walk-through: the spacious Lemur Walk-through enclosure is home to brown lemurs and ring-tailed lemurs and features extensive rope swings and wooden walkways which provide the lemurs with the perfect opportunity to demonstrate their extraordinary agility and climbing skills.
- African Village (60 acres or 24 hectares[5]): Rothschild giraffes and Grant's zebras.
- Tapir Terrain: Near the African Village are the Brazilian tapirs. It is possible to get out of the car and view this section on foot.
- Flamingo Valley: Chilean flamingos, sacred ibises, whistling ducks, spoonbills and wood ducks.
- Vulture Venue: five pairs of African vultures and grey crowned cranes.
- Monkey Jungle: rhesus macaques, blue wildebeest and blackbucks.
- Anne's Haven: specially built for Anne the Asian elephant, accompanied by three Nubian goats. Anne suffered mistreatment before her arrival at Longleat and receives special care for her physical and psychological needs. The new elephant house has deep sand floors, heating, feeding areas and outdoor space with a large grassy paddock, rocks, log piles, a giant browse frame, sandpit, plunge pool and scratching post. As well as her own team of keepers dedicated to her wellbeing, Anne has the freedom of her own paddock. The new house has facilities and space for additional elephants and Longleat would consider accommodating other elephants that need a home.
- Big Game Park: scimitar-horned oryx, Ankole cattle, southern white rhinos, ostriches, Bactrian camels, roan antelope and Pere David's deer.
- Deer Park: red deer and fallow deer.
- Pelican Pond and surrounding area: pink-backed pelicans, common eland and eastern bongo.
- Tiger Territory: three Amur tigers.
- Lion Country: two prides of African lions.
- Cheetah Kingdom: six cheetahs.
- Wolf Wood: Canadian timber wolves.
- Half Mile Lake: common hippopotamus, California sea lions, eastern white pelicans.
- Gorilla Island (situated in Half Mile Lake): home to elderly male western lowland gorilla Nico.
- Gorilla Colony (situated at the far end of Half Mile Lake): home to a small bachelor group of three male western lowland gorillas Kesho, Alf and Evindi.
Other attractions
The estate is open to the public, with the various attractions being individually priced. A 'passport' ticket providing one admission to each attraction is available at a discount.
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Jungle Kingdom
Opened in 2011, this attraction is the first step in a long redevelopment programme of the park as set out by new CEO David Bradley. The first section is within the former Pets Corner area, and includes walk-through exhibits for meerkats and chipmunks (the former is the first of its kind in the UK) along with themed enclosures for otters, binturong, coatis, porcupines, giant anteaters, Burmese pythons, boa constrictors and maras.
Monkey Temple
The second section, built between Jungle Kingdom and Animal Adventure, is the Monkey Temple, which allows marmosets including common marmoset, pygmy marmoset and black-headed marmoset, along with the tamarins including cotton-top tamarins, Geoffroy's tamarins, emperor tamarins and red-handed tamarin to run freely around the visitors from mock temple ruins. At the lorikeet feeding station, visitors can buy pots of nectar to feed to rainbow lorikeets in a walk-through aviary alongside golden pheasants. Red pandas and barn owls can also be found in this area.
Animal Adventure
Containing many animals previously kept in Pets Corner, many exotic and familiar mammals, birds, reptiles and insects are on display, including goats, striped skunk, macaws, ferrets, guinea pigs, cockatoos, rabbits, tortoises, iguanas, Kune Kune pigs, armadillos, Siberian weasels, rock hyraxes, fennec fox, Chilean rose tarantula, prairie dogs, Geoffroy's marmosets, royal pythons and many more. A walk-through butterfly hot-house and handling areas for small mammals, reptiles and invertebrates allow visitors to have direct contact with the animals. Donkeys and Jacob sheep can also be seen, along with three emus and two kookaburras called Darwin and Giggles.
Jungle Express Railway
Established in 1965 and expanded in 1975, the 15-inch gauge ridable miniature railway passes through the Jungle Kingdom. It has a length of one mile and circles Half Mile Lake. Reindeer can also be found at Christmas when passengers meet Santa Claus in his grotto.[6]
Jungle Cruise
The Jungle Cruise involves taking a short trip around Half Mile Lake, which houses a large family of sea lions, the dominant male of which is called Buster, and a pair of hippos. Aboard, it is possible to buy a cup of fish pieces to throw to the sea lions, who naturally follow the boat and bark for food.
Penguin Island
Opened in July 2013, Penguin Island is a 225,000-litre naturally-themed display which is home to a colony of 30 captive-bred Humboldt penguins. Visitors can enjoy watching the penguins from above as well as below the waterline through giant viewing windows.
Stingray Bay
Also opened in July 2013, Stingray Bay is a giant, open-topped display housing a selection of marine stingray species and is home to thornback stingrays and undulate rays.
Bat Cave
Bat Cave is home to Egyptian fruit bats, cave fish, rats, scorpions and more.
In the media
The Lions of Longleat
A 1967 BBC One documentary about the newly opened safari park with commentary by Lord Bath and Jimmy Chipperfield.[7]
Lion Country
55-part documentary series broadcast on BBC One in 1998.[8]
Vets in Practice
The park featured heavily in the BBC fly-on-the-wall documentary series Vets in Practice.
On Safari
On Safari is a children's TV show broadcast in 2000 by the ITV children's strand CITV and re-broadcast in 2009 by STV.
Animal Park
Longleat was the subject of the BBC's long running Animal Park series, hosted by Kate Humble and Ben Fogle.
Roar
Roar is another BBC series about the animals and keepers at wild animal parks.
All Change at Longleat
A documentary filmed in 2014 and broadcast on BBC One in September 2015, following one of the country's most extraordinary aristocratic families and the people who work for them. Lord Bath hands control of the estate to his son, Ceawlin, but it doesn't go smoothly.
References
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- ↑ The lions and loins of Longleat The Sunday Times Retrieved 18 February 2011
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Great dynasties of the world: The Chipperfields The Guardian Retrieved 18 February 2011
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links
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- 1966 establishments in England
- Zoos in England
- Visitor attractions in Wiltshire
- Buildings and structures in Wiltshire
- Zoos established in 1966
