Opened: 1931
Area: 600 acres
Location: Dunstable, England
It had been nearly 2 years since my last visit and back then I wasn't really able to fully understand and appreciate Whipsnade, so I wanted to go back and have a proper look at the park. We paid the £17 extra to take the car into the park and it helps especially for such a long visit.
In my opinion, Whipsnade is split into roughly 3 areas - Entrance, Asia & Africa. Throughout the zoo free-ranging animals move from enclosure to enclosure and throughout the woods. These are chinese water deer, muntjac, bennett's wallabies, mara and peafowl.
Entrance
The first exhibit visitors see as they enter the park is the excellent 'In with the Lemurs'. Opened in 2007, a walk-through exhibit was developed from an already existing lemur island (which had been devoted to Gerald Durrell). Visitors enter the island and watch the ring-tail lemurs climbing ropes, crossing fences in front of them and relaxing by a small pond. Volunteers are on hand throughout the day to ensure people stick to the rules in the walk-through and whilst i was there, even small children showed a respectful attitude whilst inside. The Lemur enclosure is in the shadow of Whipsnade's old Lubetkin designed Elephant House, nothing lives inside here at the moment, but there are signs up saying that plans are being thought of for it.
Next up is the Chimpanzee Island. It is a decent, quite heavily planted enclosure although there could be more climbing frames. The indoor area is decent and provides some climbing opportunities and the floor is covered in bark for foraging. The original chimp enclosure still stands, although it doesn't appear that chimps still use it (it appears to be based on the old primate enclosures in the Sobell Pavillions at London).
Two more refreshingly good enclosures in the area are 'Wolf Wood' and the Brown Bear exhibit. Both exhibits devote large areas of heavily planted land for these animals (the wolves even have their own corner of woodland). In my opinion, it is the best bear enclosure in the UK and the Wolf enclosure easily compares to those at the UK's safari parks
Other enclosures in the area are a reindeer pen, a wisent paddock, a paddock for white wallabies and storks, bison hill and the penguin pools. All of these are spacious and the penguin pool is perfectly located on the edge of the dunstable downs with the freezing wind blowing.
The zoo's tropical house is located near the entrance, named the Discovery Centre. Visitors enter the house into the desert section, featuring creepie crawlies (such as the red-kneed tarantula), fish, reptiles and my favourite in this section, the dwarf mongoose group (as well as some other mammals). Visitors continue to the underwater world, where a host of fish, reptiles and amphibians are kept (including a bizarre snake-naked turtle). The next section is called the forest floor and keeps invertabrates, reptiles and amphibians. Visitors then progress further, where they can see Dwarf Crocodiles, Leaf-Cutter Ants, Geoffrey's Marmosets, Saki Monkeys, Pirannha, Iguanas and other forest creatures.
I will also include the short-clawed otters, red pandas and sealions in this section. The otters and pandas have fairly standard, but decent sized enclosures that are nothing special for two species which are seen in a number of collections. One of the few disappointing enclosures in the zoo is for the sealions. They have quite basic pools and the whole sealion complex is looking very tired with paint flaking and the white exterior becoming dirty.
Also in the section is a spacious Children's Farm (with grass fields for the animals!), a woodland bird walk and the bird garden. However, owing to time constraints, I was unable to see these parts.
Asia
I'll start the review of the Asian Section with the Elephants. Whipsnade is home to a large group of these magnificent animals and there is regular breeding. Now, I think that Whipsnade has one of the best elephant set-ups in the UK. There is a huge, grassed paddock, complete with scratching trees, rocks, shade structure and two pools. The Bull facilities are also good as he has his own seperate house, sanded paddocks, pool and a section of grassed paddock. Not only do they have this all this space, but the keepers will also walk the elephants around the zoo and in sections of the woodland for them to browse. An elephant demonstration also takes place once a day for about half an hour (not overworking the elephants).
The next most notable exhibit in the Asian Section is named 'Rhinos of Nepal' and is home to the zoo's Indian Rhinos. Opened earlier this year, the new rhino house was an upgrade for the rhinos with additions of heated indoor pools and also an upgrade for visitors by making the area more attractive. The old houses are still in use alongside the new facility. Visitors can walk up to a watchtower where they can observe the rhinos in their large paddocks (which includes a pond and mud wallows). They can also overlook the Asian drive-through reserve from here.
Next door to the old Rhino house is a mother and son pair of Gaur. These majestic asian cattle are the only ones in the UK and they recently lost a male.
Continuing past the new Rhino house, visitors will see the Sloth Bears which were recently moved from the London site. The bears are a lot more active out in the countryside than in the city, which is good to see. The mother of the bears lives seperately and has access to a woodland area, which is mostly off-show. The brother and sister bears have a large grassy paddock, which could do with some more plants, but it is pretty good.
Opposite the bears is a huge Onager paddock. A notable point of the Asian section is the 'Journey through Asia' which is a drive-through reserve (in a similar style to a safari park) which keeps herds of Asian Deer. Also visible are large herds of Przewalski Wild Horses, Bactrian Camels and Yak. The Indian Rhinos and Sloth Bears can also be seen from the road. A railway runs through the reserve (for people who don't bring their cars in) and elephants can also be seen from their enclosure from the railway, as well as the other species.
The last species in this area is Amur Tigers. They live in a fantastic woodland enclosure named 'Tiger Falls'. The tigers have a large pool for swimming, with glass viewing windows next to it. There is also climbing platforms and visitors observe them from an overhead bridge.
Africa
Africa is probably one of the most spectacular areas in Whipsnade. The most dominating area is that of the White Rhino. It is a massive multi-acre grassed paddock which is home to the zoo's breeding herd of these massive creatures. Waterbuck and Roan Antelope also share the paddocks. One drawback, is that the animals prefer to stay towards the centre of the enclosure, which due to it's size means that it is hard to take good photos with my pathetic zoom feature on my camera!
One impressive area of the section is named 'Lions of the Serengeti'. This is home to african lions (obviously!), meerkats, sitatunga, red river hogs, Grevy's Zebra and scimitar-horned oryx. Visitors belive they are entering an African camp where they see meerkats in a new enclosure before heading into a viewing building for the lions. Inside there is a panoramic view as it appears the lions are in the same exhibit with the oryx, although hidden fences seperate them. Nearby paddocks hold the zebra, red river hogs and sitatunga.
The newest area of Africa is 'Cheetah Rock'. This simulates an African research station and the cheetahs can be seen from across a moat or through glass inside a hut. The surrounding area has been themed and there are activities for children to take part in. Behind Cheetah rock is a large herd of Nile Lechwe.
Next to the cheetahs is the hippo complex. I reckon this is the best hippo exhibit in the UK as the water seems cleaner than WMSP and Flamingoland and there is a large grass riverbank for grazing. There is also public access to the indoor quarters The area also holds pygmy hippo in paddocks next to the common hippo. Greater Kudu occupy a paddock opposite the hippos.
Other animals kept in large paddocks in this section are Bongo, Reticulated Giraffe, Gemsbok, Ostrich and Common Zebra (I think). The Bongo in particular are given access to thick woodland which creates a good forest feel. Arabian Oryx also have live here, but I couldn't see them.
Evaluation
I feel that Whipsnade is one of the finest zoos in this country (my #2 behind Chester). Nearly every animal has access to a great enclosure and many of them live in proper social groups of numerous individuals. The park's breeding records speak for themselves (cheetah and white rhino particularly) and it seems to be in a better position for development than it's sister zoo London.
Excellent:
Tiger enclosure
elephant enclosure
both rhino enclosures
brown bear
wolves
penguin enclosure
Poor:
Sealion exhibit
the gaur and old indian rhino houses
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