Manor Wildlife Park

So, whilst I’m on work placement at Folly Farm, I thought I would take a visit to the nearby Manor Wildlife Park! Also known as Anna’s Welsh Zoo, it is the sister zoo to Peak Wildlife Park in Derbyshire. Parking for the zoo is just next to the zoo itself, which was incredibly useful! Upon entering, I was happy to find that they accepted my professional ABWAK card as entry, to which I was very grateful – I made sure to pop my loose change into donation boxes around the zoo.

The first exhibit I came across was ‘Wander with the Wallabies’, a Bennett’s wallaby walkthrough, where I was able to stroke a wallaby! This is encouraged as long as visitors stay on the path and don’t upset the wallabies whilst doing so. The walkthrough was large, with many trees, logs and lots of hiding places for the wallabies! This was my first impression of the zoo and it was great, I was looking forward to seeing what was next! There were hand washing facilities outside and many dotted throughout the park encouraging hygiene and stopping the spread of germs!

Giving a Bennett's wallaby a tickle!

I continued down the path to ‘Camel Corner’, spotting a group of Bactrian camels enjoying grazing out on the paddock. Opposite the camels were scimitar horned oryx, rhea and Przewalski’s horses, all in large paddocks. The signage surrounding the oryx told the story of how this species was saved from extinction with captive breeding, and it does really well to promote good zoos. I must say, the signage was really good! (I think my only comment would be calling common marmosets, ‘white tufted ear marmosets’!)

I then walked uphill with the stunning Southern white rhino to my left, in a mixed species exhibit with Damara zebra and ostrich. Even though it was raining, none of the animals seemed phased by it and continued grazing! This mixed species exhibit was huge, sporting many wallows and a large shelter for the animals to use if they so wished. Again, the signage around the enclosure was really informative, promoting the work of Save the Rhino International, something I am hugely passionate about (I have a ‘thick skinned and horny’ sticker in my car!)

Southern White Rhino having a munch on some grass!

The path down from the rhinos took me to the ‘Valley of the Apes’ where 3 siamang gibbons were happily playing around in the trees. An island enclosure, sporting lots of height, long grass and platforms for sunbathing, this enclosure houses Steve, a siamang gibbon success story. Before Anna Ryder-Richardson bought and re-established this zoo, Steve lived in an enclosure that was incredibly small for a siamang (macaws now live happily in there), before being moved to this spacious enclosure. As a visitor, this exhibit is within woodland habitat, with a couple of benches where you can sit and watch the siamangs and the native wildlife in the trees. Leaving the valley of the apes (which again, has amazing signage), I passed an island which is the home to common marmosets, which I was unable to spot! 

Amazing signage detailing the different primate species!

The path came back round to the oryx, passing tapirs and llamas, housed next to the beautiful, elusive, female Sumatran tiger, Terima. Terima is a young Sumatran tiger, arriving at the zoo from France last year, and she lives in a large enclosure with feeding poles, plants, hideaways, and it can be split into two if needed. After speaking to one of the keepers, Amy, I was delighted to hear that Terima has important genes, and that they are hoping to take on a male Sumatran tiger from Chester Zoo in the hope of forming a breeding pair, contributing to the EEP for this species. On the day of my visit, Terima was in her back paddock, slightly off show – apparently she’s a feisty cat!

Sumatran tiger, Terima

I carried on through the woodland paths, past the emu (occasionally booming) to ‘meerkat mountain’. I was lucky enough to catch the meerkats at feeding time, where they were happily munching on mixed veg. Meerkats are common in zoos, though it is nice to see how different collections keep them. The ‘African Village’ was next to see, which was a walkthrough of various chickens, pygmy goats, Cameroon sheep and kune kune pigs in an fenced off area (pigs can be dangerous!) There was also a giant rabbit walkthrough nearby, with lots of bunnies having a good sunbathe!

Meerkat on sentry duty!

My last stop on my visit was the ‘Lemur walk through’, which was home to ring tailed lemurs, red fronted lemurs, red bellied lemurs and red ruffed lemurs all living happily together. Whilst I was there, I spoke to a keeper who was also a student, studying the behaviour of lemurs in response to various enrichment devices she had implemented into the enclosure. On this particular day, she was looking at basket enrichment. Two woven baskets were filled with hay and food, cable tied together and hung on a rope. The ring tailed lemurs and the red ruffed lemurs were investigating this enrichment, but didn’t seem to have the hang of it just yet! As I walked around the enclosure, I spotted a red bellied lemur baby! It was so small and so cute, bounding around the trees! Though I have worked with red bellies before, I had never seen a baby one!

Although not a large zoo, and only taking a couple of hours to get round, I really enjoyed my visit. It is perfect for a day with young children as it is not a full day out and is also not too busy. The conservation message throughout the park is strong and consistent, and really does promote good zoos and ways that conservation can be done at home. I made sure to grab a magnet from the shop, to add to my zoo magnet collection, and I will hope to visit again in the future. If you are in South Wales, definitely add this one to the visit list (along with Folly Farm!)

I made a video montage of my visit, in case you want a small taster!