Last Monday my colleague Alex kindly stood in
for my Monday as I was down in the West Country for a family wedding, thanks
Alex! As ever though all things ' zoo' are never far from my mind
and on the way home we realised that we would be passing Dartmoor Zoo,
home of the movie 'We bought a Zoo' based on the book written by its owner
Benjamin Mee.
I've always been fascinated by Benjamin's
story. As you all probably know by now, our zoo is also privately owned - by
the Corney family. I've seen firsthand that it takes a lot of personal
self sacrifice, dedication and hard work bringing both highs and lows when the
owner of a private zoo.
Having read Benjamin's book, I often mention
Dartmoor Zoo in my lion talk, as our beautiful lioness Nahla originally came
from there, being rejected by her mum and hand raised by the keepers then
coming to the island at 9 months old.
I was keen to head to the lions enclosure as
soon as we got there. Their enclosure was a great size with long grasses
and a few mature trees together with a battered Land Rover, much like our lions’
beloved sunbathing spot on the roof of theirs!
The keepers were sprinkling scent enrichment
around and hiding meat in the trees.
We could see
a very excited lioness 'Josie' that was keen to get back into her outside space
and find all the goodies that were hidden.
You could have knocked me down with a feather when she was released from
her bedroom. She was the spitting image of our Nahla!! After a bit of
investigation it turns out that Josie is actually Nahla’s sister! Her personality seemed similar too. She
displayed bundles of energy and mischief and was bounding up trees to look for
the hidden meat, just as I'm sure Nahla would!
Dartmoor Zoo
had special entrance rates for locals to encourage them to visit the zoo when
they could. Small zoos really need the
support of local residents not only in the high summer season but especially in
the quieter winter months when we all struggle to pay the bills. The Isle of Wight Zoo has a similar policy
for locals. Bring something along with your address on it and we can reduce
your entry fee. All visitors to the IOW Zoo benefit from free parking for zoo
visitors and it’s just a pound to come back within a week. Why not combine an
extra zoo visit with an afternoon playing on the golden sands of Sandown
beach?! I don't know of many zoos on a beach!
I look
forward to seeing all you lovely people that live on the island soon!
Thanks for
reading this, I'm here every Monday!
