Wildwood Wildlife Park

About 2 miles from the holiday bungalows is Wildwood wildlife park. The park features native animals that used to live abundantly in Britain but that are now predominantly endangered/extinct in the wild. It was a fairly cold day, and unfortunately a lot of the animals were hiding/sleeping. I particularly wanted to see the red squirrels, as they look sooo cute in pictures. The grey squirrels are from America and have been the main cause of diminishing numbers of red squirrels. But the silly things were hiding on the day we went.

 

Yes, that is a wallaby. Not what you would expect in a British wildlife park, but apparently they were brought from Tasmania, and being in a similar environment, thrived fairly well. I know I said that the park features native British animals but this is the only exception, and funnily enough it’s the first animals you come to as you walk through the entrance!

 

Hmm, after reading that you wonder how many people get bitten?! Luckily the snakes were hibernating for the winter.

Raven

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry I forget what these deer are… Possibly Fallow deer?

Cranes and white stork

Sheep, again can’t remember what type specifically.

Bison, gave as a great ‘welcome gift’ when we came to see these guys. Lets just say that their urinary system and bowels are working just fine…

Red deer

 

 

 

 

Fat little robin – he wasn’t in the park, just ‘visiting’ but I’ve never seen such a fat little one, so had to take a picture

Wild horses. These guys must have thought we had food or something, as the whole group (about 5 of them) walked all the way from one end of the enclosure right up to us.

Another small deer. It has a funny name, I can’t remember.

 

 

 

 

Lots of different types of owls. I love the little on the right, he was so cute! There were also barn owls, but they were sleeping in a dark hidey hole.

All we could see of the fox

 

 

 

 

Wolves! These ones were hand reared. There was also a wolf pack but they were hiding in the bushes and I only got a glimpse of them, so couldn’t get a photo.

All I saw of the red squirrel But how cute do they look!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lynx  

Farm animals that you could pet including pygmy goats, silly chicken, and rabbits.

Wild cats – they look just like a big tabby cat, but are certainly not domesticated. And they definitely don’t respond to ‘here kitty kitty’.

The park caters for people with disabilities well. Carers are admitted for free. The path is mainly smooth, but there were a few roots across it, which couldn’t be helped really, and they only small one, so don’t really interfere. At this time of the year there were plenty of leaves on the path as well, but again, as long as you went through them slowly they are not too much bother. There are a couple of places that are inaccessible by wheelchair, but the majority of the park, and the animals are visible to all. In fact, the main area that a person in a wheelchair couldn’t get to is the rat barn, and to be honest, who hasn’t seen a rat before!!