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	51°11′24″N 2°15′40″W / 51.19°N 2.261°W / 51.19; -2.261Coordinates: 51°11′24″N 2°15′40″W / 51.19°N 2.261°W / 51.19; -2.261
Area	9,000 acres (36.42 km²)
Created	1966
Designer	Jimmy Chipperfield
Camp sites	Yes
Website	www.longleat.co.uk

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.

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.

Longleat House
Gardens and Grounds
Lord Bath's Murals
Jungle Cruise
Bat Cave
Jungle Kingdom
Motion Simulators
Animal Adventure
Longleat Hedge Maze
Jungle Express railway
Postman Pat Village
Adventure Castle
King Arthur's Mirror Maze
The Life and Times of Henry, Lord Bath
Family Bygones
'Meet My Ancestors' Film
Longleat House Scale Model
Rockin Rhino
Deadly adventures

Jungle Kingdom

Jungle Express

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

Animal Adventure rabbit

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 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. Also found here are Indian Runner ducks, chickens and turkeys.

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

↑ Mary Chipperfield (1972). Lions on the Lawn. HarperCollins Publishers Limited. ISBN 978-0-00-613025-3.
↑ The lions and loins of Longleat The Sunday Times Retrieved 18 February 2011
↑ Vines, Gail (2 December 1982). "Safari Parks, after the Honeymoon". New Scientist. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
↑ Great dynasties of the world: The Chipperfields The Guardian Retrieved 18 February 2011
↑ "Longleat Safari Park". britishzoos.co.uk. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
↑ "Jungle Express (Longleat)". Miniature Railway World. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
↑ "The Lions of Longleat - BBC One London - 12 November 1967". BBC Genome. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
↑ "Lion Country - BBC One London - 16 February 1998". BBC Genome.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Longleat Safari Park.

Zoological gardens in the United Kingdom

Those listed in italics contain more than 5000 animals

Zoos	Africa Alive! Amazon World Zoo Banham Zoo Beale Park Belfast Zoo Birdland Park and Gardens Birdworld Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park Blackpool Zoo Borth Animalarium Bristol Zoo British Wildlife Centre Chessington Zoo Chester Zoo Colchester Zoo Cotswold Wildlife Park Cricket St Thomas Curraghs Wildlife Park Dartmoor Zoological Park Drayton Manor Zoo Drusillas Zoo Park Dudley Zoo Durrell Wildlife Park Edinburgh Zoo Exmoor Zoo Flamingo Land Resort Folly Farm Adventure Park and Zoo Hamerton Zoo Hawk Conservancy Trust Howletts Wild Animal Park International Centre for Birds of Prey Isle of Wight Zoo Lakeland Wildlife Oasis London Zoo Marwell Wildlife Monkey Sanctuary Monkey World New Forest Wildlife Park Newquay Zoo Noah's Ark Zoo Farm Paignton Zoo Paradise Park, Cornwall Paradise Wildlife Park Peak Wildlife Park Plantasia Royal Surrey Gardens Screech Owl Sanctuary Seaview Wildlife Encounter South Lakes Safari Zoo Tropical World at Roundhay Park The Living Rainforest Tropical Birdland, Leicestershire Tropiquaria Twycross Zoo Welsh Mountain Zoo Wetheriggs Zoo and Animal Sanctuary Whipsnade Zoo Wildwood Discovery Park Wingham Wildlife Park Woodside Farm and Wildfowl Park Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Safari parks	Blair Drummond Safari Park Highland Wildlife Park Knowsley Safari Park Longleat Safari Park Port Lympne Wild Animal Park West Midland Safari Park Woburn Safari Park

Permanently closed	Belle Vue Zoo Glasgow Zoo Coventry Zoo Manchester Zoological Gardens Southport Zoo Windsor Safari Park Rare Species Conservation Centre Cricket St Thomas Wildlife Park

Category List Commons

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