After attending a wedding on Saturday I found myself staying in the attractive village of Pangbourne , only a mile from Beale Park . So , of course ,that is where we had to go on Sunday morning . The Park has an attractive setting next to the Thames with lakes , lovely gardens and lots of statuary .
The Wildlife Park and Gardens , as is is known , is run by a Charitable Trust - more information on their web-site
Beale Park - Wildlife and Animal Park/Gardens near Reading, Berkshire. Children's Entertainment, Activities and Days Out . The curator Dave Coles , is well known in avicultural circles . The World Pheasant Association had its base here for a long time - not certain if it still is - and previously an extensive pheasant collection was housed in large ranges of aviaries along with softbills such as a lvarious laughing-thrush species . The web-site claims its bird collection is one of the foremost in Europe - I do not agree with this .
Now , instead of rows of smaller aviaries there are a few very large attractively landscaped and planted aviaries . Four are themed - Himalayas , South America , Africa and Australasia - the last being walk-through . Each houses a mix of birds with ducks , waders , pigeons , softbills and small seed-eaters . A few parrot aviaries have lesser and greater vasa parrots and madagascar lovebirds ( nice to see these ) amongst others . A large waterfowl collection is housed on the lakes and pens . There is also a pair of white storks but no cranes which they used to have .
A large range of big aviaries houses a good owl collection - notable being ashy-faced from Muncaster , also spectacled , hawk , brown wood etc. plus breeding striated cara-caras and American black vultures . Rheas and emus are housed with mammals in regionally themed paddocks .
The mammal collection has grown . Aviary type enclosures house white-fronted and breeding red-handed tamarins and Goeldi's monkeys , larger accomodation is provided for squirrel monkeys and ring-tailed lemurs housed with white-faced tree ducks . A new rangs of pens with a raised viewing platform house prairie dogs , yellow mongoose and meercats ( unusually not showing themselves ) . The other mammals are housed in the paddocks - fallow and sika deer , Bennett's and Parma wallaby , mara . There is also a good variety of domestics - alpaca , dwarf zebu and unusual Arapawa goats froma New Zealand island ( these attractive small animals were said to be the only ones on show in the UK though ISIS says Cotswold also has them ) .
As a visitor attraction there is much to attract families with small children - a train ride is included in the ticket price £8.50 for adults and £6 for children , several play areas for various ages and paddling pools . In this respect it reminded me of Paradise Park . The Pavilion houses an impressive model boat collection . You can take river trips from the Park and fishing is available on the lakes which are also good for wild birds with a large reed bed . The Park is only open from March to October .
A very pleasant place to visit , but do not expect any great zoo rarities . It is only a few miles from the M4 and near Reading . We also passed the Living Rainforest at Hampstead Norreys , not too far away .
12-08-2008
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