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On 27th July 2008
I made my first visit to this park after receiving rave reviews from a
work colleague. It was a really sunny day and I was very impressed with
this wild animal park. It is very unlike a normal zoo, you are able to
get much closer to most of the animals than in a zoo.
The park was an idea created and developed solely
by David Gill. At the time of the construction back in 1993/4, he was an
animal nutritionist with no connections to zoos, but a desire to see
education and conservation brought into the public awareness by the
reality of a close, wild experience, an experience for all to react to
assist worldwide conservation issues. The then 32-year-old father of
two, built the park with his own hands and to this day, still designs
and builds all the facilities around the zoo now with the help and
assistance of the large staff.
There are very
many good reasons to visit the park, the most spectacular of which is
the feeding of the tigers. In order to give the tigers exercise and keep
them fit their food is nailed to the top of 20 foot high posts. They
therefore have to work for their food and provide the visitors with a
spectacular show at the same time. This method of feeding the tigers is
unique in Europe, as are many other features of this wild animal park.
High level
walkways throughout the park provide a very different viewpoint of the
animals than you find anywhere else. Also the fencing off of the park
into different parts of the world containing only animals from that part
of the world provide an educational experience as well.
Anybody who likes
going to zoos will find the visit to
South Lakes Wild Animal Park a very
enjoyable experience.
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