Yorkshire Wildlife Park
|
|
Date opened | 4th April 2009 |
---|---|
Location | Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England |
Coordinates | 53°30′17″N 1°02′30″W / 53.5047°N 1.0417°WCoordinates: 53°30′17″N 1°02′30″W / 53.5047°N 1.0417°W |
Land area | 260 acres (110 ha) |
Annual visitors | 678,000 (2015) |
Memberships | BIAZA,EAZA |
Major exhibits | Into Africa, Lion Country, Land of the Tiger, Leopard Heights, Project Polar |
Website | www |
The Yorkshire Wildlife Park, commonly referred to as YWP, is a wildlife park located in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, in England. It was built on the site of Brockholes Farm Visitor Centre, which closed to the public in November 2008. The park prides itself on being 'The UK's Number 1 Walkthrough Wildlife Adventure'.
Yorkshire Wildlife Park is a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA).
The Yorkshire Wildlife Park was built on land formerly occupied by the 260-acre (110 ha) Brockholes Farm Visitor Centre, and currently occupies about 100 acres (40 ha) of the site.
Cheryl and Neville Williams and business partner John Minion purchased the site in 2008 with funding from Lloyds TSB Commercial, private investment, and a Yorkshire Forward grant. The site was renovated over the 2008–2009 winter, and officially opened by Justin Fletcher, MBE (also known as Mr Tumble from CBeebies) on 4 April 2009.
In February 2010, the park rescued 13 lions from a Romanian zoo and, after their quarantine period, released them into the newly built 10-acre (4.0 ha) Lion Country enclosure.
In 2011, the zoo opened Land of the Tigers, which contains two pools and a waterfall and was created next to a wetland reserve. Visitors view the tigers from a 150-metre (490 ft) long raised walkway, with the tiger enclosure on one side of the walkway and the wetlands on the other.
In March 2012, the park opened Leopard Heights, a £300,000 open-topped enclosure that lets visitors view the Amur leopards from an 8-metre (26 ft) viewing tower or from ground level through a 10-metre (33 ft) long glass wall. The 6,000-square-metre (65,000 sq ft) enclosure is claimed to be the largest leopard enclosure in the world.
In July 2014, the park opened a large enclosure for polar bears, named Project Polar, with the first bear being 500 kg male Victor; a second arrived in March 2015 called Pixel, who is Victor's grandson.
On 15 April 2015, Yorkshire Wildlife Park announced that one of its Amur tigers had given birth to three cubs on 29 March 2015. A video of the birth was released on the park's official Facebook and Twitter page.
The park has become a popular attraction in its first few years, starting in 2009 with only 66,000 visitors; it hosted 323,000 in 2011.