Dartmoor Wildlife Park has had a sad history. It was opened about 30 years ago, with a variety of native UK rescued animals. Over the years, it grew and developed, and expanded its collection into more exotic “zoo†species. It became the largest collection of cat species in the South-West of England. About 10 years ago, it ran into financial troubles and the owners had difficulties keeping up with changes in Zoo Licensing regulations. The park went into a major decline, and the owners were prosecuted for bad animal management issues. The zoo licence was taken away. Last year, the park was eventually sold to the Mee family, a family with no zoo keeping experience, but a great love of animals and they were ready to take on the challenge of the zoo. The Curator and I were contacted by the Mee family at the start of 2007, to run the animal department of the zoo. I have always believed that bad zoos should not be shut down, they should be renovated and brought up to modern standards, and this was my opportunity to try. It hasn’t been an easy process. The enclosures were extremely dilapidated, with rotten fence posts and gaping holes in the wire mesh. The staff already at the park had no formal training and needed to be taught basic husbandry of the animals. Diets were appalling – chocolate cake for the tapir and jam sandwiches for the coati. The animals hadn’t been seen by a vet in years. The concept of enrichment had been lost on the previous owners. The record keeping system was incomprehensible and largely useless, as most of the animals had the same name and were unable to be identified as individuals. One of my first jobs was to relocate an Amur tiger. There were two tigers sharing an enclosure, but they were incompatible and had been using the enclosure on a rotational basis for the past 8 years. 24 hours in the den and then 24 hours outside. This was a welfare issue, the indoor den was tiny and unsurprisingly they didn’t want to go back inside at the end of their turn outside. I was fortunate enough to be helped by the tiger studbook keeper and coordinator, and we managed to find a zoo in France that only keeps cats. After ploughing my way through vast amounts of paperwork, CITES licences and animal transport legislation, the zoo in France came and collected our tiger. She is now enjoying a beautiful enclosure in the French countryside, and our remaining tiger has free access to her enclosure and den. The Mee family brought much needed funds, and great enthusiasm to the park and we were able to start work on the zoo. The Curator and I were able to bring in new qualified staff, so between us we now have over 76 years of zoo keeping experience. Enclosures have been modified and enlarged, diets sorted, vets visited and the animals have been enriched. We have a conservation and education programme and are rebuilding links with other zoos. We haven’t had a day off in months and rarely finish work before 9pm. This work has paid off, as we have achieved the standards necessary to be awarded a licence to operate a zoo, and we opened on 7/7/07! We recognise that we still have years of work to do, but are on our way to becoming (in our opinion) a nice little zoo. We want to join BIAZA and get involved in breeding programmes and finally shake off the history and sadness that came with the zoo.
Our "random" Collection is as follows: 1.3.0 Vervet Monkeys 1.1.0 Crested Porcupines 2.5.0 Grey Wolf 1.1.0 Raccoon 1.1.0 Red Fox 2.0.0 Silver Fox 1.2.0 Brown Bear 1.0.0 Coati (hopefully to be joined by 0.1.0 soon!) 0.2.0 Short Clawed Otter 0.2.0 Puma 0.2.0 Siberian Lynx 0.1.0 Serval 1.1.0 African Lion 1.0.0 Jaguar 1.3.0 Amur Tiger 1.0.0 Brazilian Tapir 3.4.0 Pot Bellied Pig 1.0.0 Llama 3.1.0 Muntjak Deer 0.0.17 Fallow Deer 2.3.0 Sika Deer 0.2.0 Ferret 2.0.0 Rat 1.1.0 Degu 1.0.0 Shetland Pony 0.1.0 Rabbit 0.1.0 Guinea Pig 1.2.0 Black Shouldered Peafowl 1.0.0 Temmincks Tragopan 0.0.12 Peafowl 2.2.0 Guineafowl 1.1.0 Pelican 1.0.0 Little Owl 1.0.0 Bengal Eagle Owl 1.1.0 European Eagle Owl 1.1.0 Great Horned Owl 3.2.0 Tawny Owl 2.2.0 Barnacle Goose 1.1.0 Embden Goose 1.0.0 Scarlet Macaw 1.0.0 Blue and Gold Macaw 1.0.0 Ostrich 5.2.0 Emu 0.1.0 Chilean Flamingo 1.0.0 Greater Flamingo 0.1.0 Bar Headed Goose 1.1.0 Canada Goose 1.0.0 Emperor Goose 0.1.0 Tawny Eagle 0.1.0 Harris Hawk 0.1.0 Crested Caracara 0.0.20 Lovebirds 0.0.3 Red Eared Slider 1.0.0 Red Tailed Boa 1.1.0 Corn Snakes 0.1.0 Banded Water Snake 0.0.2 Leopard Tortoise 1.1.0 Leopard Gecko 1.1.0 Whites Tree Frog 0.0.1 American Bullfrog 0.1.0 Curly Haired Tarantula 0.1.0 Chile Rose T 0.0.1 Goliath T Snails Stick Insects Cockroaches
What a sad situation- good to hear it's been turned around. Well done. What sort of plans or ambitions does the zoo have? Or is it still just a case of still trying to improve everything that's already there before any new developments? What's the long-term future of DZP look like?
We have pink-backed pelicans As for future plans, there are a lot of ideas being discussed at the moment, but we are really just ensuring that everything we have at the moment is being housed correctly and looked after properly. After years of neglect, there is still huge amounts of current issues that need to be resolved before we can start on future plans.
I cannot imagine anything more rewarding and exhausting than turning round a bad zoo. The attitude of everybody from Dartmoor who have spoken through the press or now here on this forum just seems so focused on the welfare of the individual animals still at the park. I would have expected a wildlife park to reopen with some new species or exhibits hurriedly put together to bring people in, I'm really glad that hasn't happened.
yeah it is good that you havent rushed in with loads of new species. building better enclosures and adding to exhisting animal populations is much better.
For a zoo in decline and now on the road to recovery it is fine to just refurbish and remodel what is there and present the current animal collection to a standard deemed acceptable to BIAZA standards. When and if Dartmoor Wildlife Park has reached a point where it can sit back once the BIAZA standards have been met, management can really start thinking where it wants to go from here. I hope they continue the way they are doing right now and slowly improve conditions. A masterplan and collection planning are something for the future.
So where is the elusive lioness? During the Bens zoo series, it clearly showed three African Lions. However in the stock list that you placed here you only have 1.1 African Lions. C'mon miss K. What happened to it.
Missed tonights programme, i believe ben was at Whipsnade, he was also interested in getting giraffe for the park. Did the programme end on an up beat note?
I would say, yes it did. I realise that people who read my posts may well think that I'm against this lot, I'm not. admitedly, an experienced keeper (as I was told they have) made the mistake of seeing a newborn fawn on its own under a tree, and thought it was wrong, (according to the narative, it should have been walking around with its mother), even though this is natural behaviour for the yougster to stay in one place (preferably hidden). I have no quams with it, we all make mistakes, and bearing in mind that this person was a bird person not mammal, At least : A- it was noticed, and B- he was thinking he did the right thing. so I cannot fault it. Ben said he saw a wild puma around the sparkwell area, but I shall let you make up your own minds on that bit as to wether or not it was said in the hope of generating more interest in the park (zoo) or not. (I'm interesred to see if anything gets said about this, for my own curiosity, perhaps a new thread!!!). I do hope there will be another series in the future, to see how it worked out, say two years on from opening.
