There's nothing quite like a trip to the zoo and while it's a sad week for the millions of us who visited Bristol Zoo, which closes on Saturday, September 3, there's still a brilliant place to see beautiful animals and have fun just a stone's throw from the Severn Bridge.
The Wild Place Project, which was opened by the Bristol Zoological Society back in 2013, is a wildlife park which will house the animals currently at the historic 186-year-old Bristol Zoo and it focuses on protecting threatened habitats on our doorsteps and around the globe. Bristol Zoo in Clifton has been open to the public since 1836, a staggering 90 million visitors have dropped by for a day out, all whilst the zoo helped to save around 175 species from extinction through its extensive conservation work.
At the Wild Place Project - the Clifton zoo's sister site at Blackhorse Hill in Bristol - you'll find European brown bears in the Bear Wood, who live side-by-side with European grey wolves, Eurasian lynxes and wolverines. There's the Madagascan village which is home to mongoose lemurs, ring-tailed lemurs, white-belted ruffed lemurs and our Alaotran gentle lemurs.
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There's the Benoue National Park which mimics life in the wilds of Cameroon, Africa and is home to giraffes, cheetahs and zebras.
Other than animal spotting there's loads of other things to keep the family occupied, from the Sanctuary Garden where the kids can play on a life-sized wooden aeroplane model, based on the Royal Air Force's Bristol Bulldog model, which was first produced by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1927. There's also multiple outdoor play areas, a giant bird's nest and the Barefoot Trail where kids can feel different habitats underneath their feet.
The Clifton site is to be sold for the development of sustainable homes and money from the sale will help pay for the development of another new zoo at the site of the Wild Place Project, due to open in 2024. Conservation will be at its heart and around 78% of the species will have links to conservation projects – a higher percentage than any other zoo in the UK.
The new zoo will include endangered African grey parrots and critically endangered slender-snouted crocodiles as well as two black rhinoceros. There will also be extremely rare species of West African fish which visitors will be able to see in a new underwater viewing area.
The Clifton site will close its doors on Saturday, September 3 and the Wild Place Project is open from 10am-5pm. Find more details here
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