.............not all those that wander are lost..............

Saturday 26 June 2010

The Pride of Yorkshire...................

Spent the day yesterday at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park near Doncaster.

Not too much walking as my daughter is still not up to it, but a great day out.

I'm in two minds about zoo type places. I can see that it isn't really always fun for the animals but there are obvious advantages for human beings of getting close to real living and breathing creatures. The Park isn't huge but there is an interesting mix of species there. Everything seemed well organised with plenty of hand washing facilities for visitors and plenty of space for the animals.

'The Pride' refers to some rescued lions from a zoo in Romania. They've not long been in the park in their specially built enclosure. Not quite like the African plains but a whole world away from the concrete and metal cages they were kept in before. They seemed happy enough dozing in the Yorkshire sunshine.


{Lions in relaxed mode}


{The whole story of the lions}

There were other animals to see - some to pet in the goat enclosure, a whole field of wallabies (or 'wabbalies' as my grandson called them), meercats (inevitably!), some incredibly ugly red river hogs having a great time in a muddy pool, a snake to stroke (under supervision), and probably the highlight - lemurs in a wooded area that you could walk through.

{Ringtailed Lemurs - up close and personal}


{Talking to the animals}

There were four of us altogether - me, my daughter, my grandson and Sam (my eldest son, who has just arrived for a visit from Canada). Of course, we all had an ice-cream before we went home.

2 comments:

Louise said...

Know what you mean about the zoo thing, in two minds myself and don't do them often. Sounds as though you had a lovely time though, love the photograph of the goat petting, very cute.

Laura said...

I should have mentioned that the legs which appear in the goat picture are not mine!