Highland Wildlife Park gets UK’s only Polar Bear
The Highland Wildlife Park gets the UK’s only Polar Bear, as it moves Mercedes in from Edinburgh Zoo:
Polar bear unveiled at new home
Got to admit, I have mixed feelings about the park – on the one hand, I’m hopefully that they are doing helpful zoological work for protecting endangered species.
However…the park doesn’t seem to know if it’s a zoo or safari, with a drive-around area, and also a long walk area.
There’s little engagement that I can recall, not least on activities and the meaning of the exhibits, and there’s little attempt at interaction.
The park also doesn’t seem to have a theme – it looks as though at one point they were trying to have a focus on Northern European mammals that used to be resident in Scotland, but are now extinct – yet the arrival the Japanese monkeys, Amur Tigers, and now Polar Bear, shows a focus on big exotic species that leaves the theme looking confused.
There also aren’t actually that many exhibits, with a number of enclosures empty, which leaves the wildlife park feeling somewhat empty, but with long walks between species.
For children, the Black Isle Wildlife Park is probably better – not so much walking involved, they can feed the deer and other animals, and the building at the end where you can feel snake skins and baby chicks makes it very memorable for children.
When you look at other similar wildlife parks, such as Blair Drummond near Stirling, or even the Isle of Man wildlife park (relatives on the island means the children have been a few times) there seems to have been far better planning and thought gone into these, with a feeling of more to see and so.
However, are my comments just part of being a natural cynic? Am I simply nit-picking? Is the Highland Wildlife Park better than I think? Or, really, can they do better?
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3 Responses to “Highland Wildlife Park gets UK’s only Polar Bear”
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Hi Brian,
I’ve enjoyed your nature posts of late on the geese and the Highland Wildlife Park.
You’re totally right in your observations about the park – a couple of years ago, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (which runs the park and Edinburgh Zoo) changed its strategy. The park originally featured Scotland’s creatures “from the past and present” but is now switching to be a “mountain or tundra biome or zone”, in keeping with the RZSS’s plans for Edinburgh Zoo. More details at: http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/scotsman-edinburgh-scotland-the/mi_7951/is_2007_April_14/zoo-animals-set-northern-migration/ai_n34623942/
I agree with you about the “interpretation” at the park – a lot of it is badly dated and could be improved a great deal, making it more interactive and fun for children. A lot of that work has already begun in Edinburgh Zoo but it would be great if more visitors to the park told the RZSS what they’d like to see in terms of displays and information.
Personally, I think the RZSS does a good job on the science side of things – it’s involved in preserving species that are endangered in the wild and runs some of the “stud books” for breeding endangered species – some could soon even be returned to the wild: http://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/news-and-events/news/articles/news_0047.html
That comment was waaaay longer than I meant it to be but I love the Highland Wildlife Park and I think it’s good to talk about how it could be made even better.
Keep up the good work with the blog!
Cheers,
Peter Ranscombe
(Nairnite living in Edinburgh)
Thanks for the comments, Peter, and your enthusiasm behind the park is most appreciated.
Brian, went to the Highland Wildlife Park on Sunday and had a great day out. There were about 100 cars there and folks looked to be enjoying themselves. The tigers were really fabulous and the polar bear asleep!!!
Well worth a visit, and it’s nice to have somewhere like that to go without having to drive down to the central Belt.