Regular readers will be aware of my intermittent, occasional articles on the zoos and other animal-based visitor centres of the world, published as and when I remember to do them...
Over the weekend I visited the New Forest Wildlife Park, a visitor attraction not more than an hour’s drive from where I live, and in an effort to take advantage of what’s still live and active in my short-term memory, now is a good time to write a review.
The New Forest Wildlife Park – NFWP from hereon – is located in Ashurst on the eastern side of New Forest National Park and has existed as an animal-based visitor attraction since 1981. At that time it was known as the New Forest Butterfly Farm and basically consisted of a large heated glasshouse with some adjacent outbuildings. By 1995, it had changed to New Forest Nature Quest, an innovative site devoted to British wildlife and priding itself on the design of its enclosures and on the fact that any observations of its animals would capture what it’s like to see them in the wild. A 1996 Independent article that explains Nature Quest and its ethos is here.
Place of otters and owls. A change of hands in 1997 saw the site’s wildlife collection expand as otters, owls, lynx and boar were added, and it then became the New Forest Otter, Owl and Wildlife Park. This explains the preponderance of owls and otters still there today, and in fact few places are home to as many otter species as this one, the current list on show including Giant otter Pteronura brasiliensis, Eurasian otter Lutra lutra, Smooth-coated otter Lutrogale perspicillata and Asian short-clawed otter Aonyx cinereus. North American river otter Lontra canadensis was there in the recent past.
What about those eponymous owls? Little owl Athene noctua, Tawny owl Strix aluco, Great grey owl S. nebulosus, Long-eared owl Asio otus, Eurasian eagle owl Bubo bubo, Snowy owl B. scandiacus and Common barn owl Tyto alba are present today, a collection clearly selected to reflect the mostly ‘native European’ theme of the park in its modern form. Other owls, some very much ‘less European’, were there as recently as 2016, including Great horned owl B. virginianus, Burrowing owl Athene cunicularia, Brown wood owl Strix leptogrammica, Ural owl S. uralensis, and Northern hawk owl Surnia ulula.
Since 2010, the site has been known as the New Forest Wildlife Park and it very much emphasises its role in conservation, many of its animals being part of captive breeding programmes. I have actually written about the NFWP before – way back in 2007 – though on that occasion I used my visit as an excuse to write about peculiarities of the UK’s large mammal fauna in general.
The grounds. I’ve said before that you can and should judge the quality of a zoo or wildlife park by the quality, extent and landscaping of its grounds. NFWP scores well on this front, the spaces between and around enclosures mostly being forested and well vegetated, often featuring plants grown for their usefulness to birds and insects. Bird feeders*, bee hives and insect and hedgehog wintering sites are dotted about. The enclosures for many of the animals – including lynxes, wolves and deer – feel like they’re continuous with the surrounding woodland, generally contain the right amount of trees and understory, and have a natural-looking, complex topography.
* We always thought it was a good thing to feed the birds. In recent years it’s been shown that certain species – finches in particular – have died off due to diseases transmitted by the sharing of plastic and metal bird feeders. Today, it may be deemed better to not feed the birds.
Some sections of the park are massively dominated by rhododendron. This creates what looks like a good, heavily vegetated habitat, but it’s one that’s actually devoid of things other than rhododendron: it’s a smothering, non-native plant that creates toxic leaf litter and has a dense root network that stops other plants from growing. On that note, a section in the middle of the park doesn’t feel as healthy and occupied by living things as it should, and this includes a swamp in the rhododendron-dominated area and two large ponds that are advertised as ‘frog ponds’. I checked and didn’t see a single amphibian (not even a tadpole), so I think that redesign and habitat management is needed for that section.
Having mentioned amphibians, a single species is on show, namely Common toad Bufo bufo. Actually, I initially thought that the lone toad I saw was a European green toad Bufotes viridis (which is not a British native)… but no. Other than the aforementioned birds, there are no reptiles on show.
Smaller mammals. Located close to the entrance are a number of well-vegetated enclosures that house Red fox Vulpes vulpes, European badger Meles meles and both European polecat Mustela putorius and their domestic brethren the Ferret M. p. furo. Some are designed within the ethos of ‘Nature Quest’ discussed above, such that you peer through small openings and the animals don’t know you’re watching. It’s effective and I like this feature a lot. The badgers are rescue animals and the polecats are part of a successful breeding programme. Polecats were in severe decline in the UK but this has definitely been in reverse since the late 20th century.
While on mustelids, I should add that Pine martens Martes martes are present in a large caged enclosure near the deer and wildcats (discussed below). You get good views of them, especially when they climb about in the tunnel that allows them to leave the main part of the enclosure. The Pine marten, like the European polecat, was formerly in dire straits across the UK but it has increased in range and numbers in recent decades, and wild animals now occur in the New Forest again. NFWP has two martens and has bred four litters of kits between 2015 and 2023, all of which have been passed to other collections or released into the wild.
On rodents, rats, dormice, squirrels and others have been kept at the site in the past but I think that only Eurasian harvest mouse Micromys minutus are there today, which is good because they’re about the most visible and non-cryptic of European rodents in captivity.
Hoofstock 1: deer. Moving now to hoofed mammals, three deer species are currently on show. Fallow deer Dama dama and Sika deer Cervus nippon are both contained within a large walk-through area where they’re only semi-enclosed. The collection used to include several Sika but I only saw one during my latest visit (a hind called Saffy), and it was lying down with a Fallow group. It was interesting to compare and contrast its appearance to that of the Fallow: both are cervine deer, but members of very distinct lineages.
A small group of Red deer C. elaphus are present too, though in a separate fenced area. At this time of year (April), stags lack antlers but antler buds were prominent on Maverick, the big stag within the group. Sika and Fallow are both introduced to the UK (though now very much naturalised and clearly here to stay) whereas the Red is a true native, as is the smaller and highly abundant Western roe deer Capreolus capreolus, the only capreoline deer that survived in the UK into modern times (Moose Alces alces and Reindeer Rangifer tarandus were formerly present here, and reindeer have since been reintroduced).
Chinese muntjac Muntiacus reevesi used to be kept at the park but they’re not there today, despite still being on the signage. This tricks me every time: I love muntjac and always embark into the park expecting to see them. Muntjac are well known for having a major destructive impact on woodland understorey and are regarded as pests. I’m assuming that, for that reason, their keeping is now discouraged in British wildlife collections.
Hoofstock 2: bovids. Moving now to bovids, NFWP also has a small flock of Mouflon Ovis gmelini. Old World wild sheep fall into three main species groups: mouflons, urials and argalis (we absolutely must avoid the species- and subspecies-level taxonomy for the purposes of this article). Mouflons are the most westerly of the three, their various populations occurring in western Asia, part of the Middle East and on some Mediterranean islands. There’s a lot to say about the diversity, taxonomy and history of wild sheep, and in fact I have written at length about these animals before. This is shorthand for saying that I’m not going to say more much about them now.
The NFWP mouflon are relatively recent additions, having joined the collection in 2014, and they’ve been successfully breeding since 2015 (6 lambs were born in 2023 alone). Their enclosure is big and spacious. I’ve learnt that most people have never heard the word ‘mouflon’ nor have any concept of what such an animal might be.
Also on bovids, European bison or Wisent Bison bonasus are present too. European bison are nice and all but they’re virtually always smaller and less impressive than classic American ones (which I don’t think I’ve never seen, not even in captivity). In part, this is because European bison are the hybrid products of Steppe bison B. priscus and Aurochs Bos primigenius crossings, the result meaning that they’re more ‘cow x bison’ in appearance than their Pleistocene bison forebears (Barnett 2019). NFWP has three bison, all males, one of which was only born in 2020.
A constant area of discussion in UK rewilding circles concerns where and when bison will be released into the British countryside, and it won’t surprise you to know that we mostly don’t have sufficient space or ‘wildness’ to allow them to roam without encountering people. Then again, they’re not much more dangerous or reckless than cows and there are plenty of those roaming about the place (both standard modern breeds as well as archaic long-horned forms). Also part of the discussion is whether bison should be here anyway, since the evidence for their occurrence as wild-living natives in post-glacial UK is scant and controversial. Anyway, the ‘rewilding’ has started, since several were released into the wild of Kent in 2022 as part of the Wilder Blean Bison Project. One of these animals was pregnant on being released and hence ‘wild-born’ bison are in the UK already.
The boars are back in town. At least we agree that Wild boar Sus scrofa is definitely a British native, and one that’s now back and very much present in the country due to releases both accidental and deliberate. A big, adult male boar is an impressive and formidable animal, so much so that people have long been inspired to depict these animals in sculpture and other forms of art; that’s an interesting topic that I’ve been planning to write about here ever since I first read about the Roman boar statue, dating to the 1550s, on display at the Ashmolean in Oxford.
Boars living in the UK today – and those elsewhere in Europe – are a bit of a mess in genetic terms, typically (if not ubiquitously) incorporating genes from various domestic pig breeds. I don’t think that anyone has worked out, or cares all that much, what a ‘pure’ European or British wild boar might look like, but it’s notable that many of the boars we see in the UK today have black or near-black hair and a ‘dished’ (concave), short-snouted face. True, wild-type boar are browner and have a flat forehead and very long snout.
The key value of boar, whether they’re part domestic pig or not, is that they plough and overturn the ground while foraging, and thus act as ecosystem engineers. This role is crucial in regeneration and soil health, but it means that they quickly turn any small enclosed patch into a sodden quagmire, and such has happened with both boar enclosures at NFWP. Three boars are there at the moment, all new since 2021 and originating from Wildwood Trust in Kent. They bred last year but I didn’t see the piglets… or boarlets, if you prefer. Boar have been at NFWP park beforehand, as you can see from the photos above.
Cats of Europe. Two European cat species are on show, namely European wildcat Felis silvestris and Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx. The wildcats are in a large and recently constructed cage with numerous wooden platforms and ramps. This doesn’t strike me as the sort of enclosure they might prefer if they had a say in the matter (I would assume something heavily vegetated), but it does mean that they can be readily seen. UPDATE: I realise now that the enclosure is too new to be properly planted. It will become greener very soon.
The signage has it that these are specifically Scottish wildcats, and that they’re thus F. s. grampia. However, it’s no longer thought that British wildcats are worthy of taxonomic distinction from those of mainland Europe (Kitchener 1991). I’ll say something else I often say when discussing British wildcats: the name ‘Scottish wildcat’ is misleading as it creates the impression that this animal is and was unique to the north, but it wasn’t, occurring as recently as 1800 in Wales and England too (Langley & Yalden 1977). It only became ‘Scottish’ because of persecution.
On lynxes, the site was formerly home to a splendid adult male called Odin, and more recently a female called Munchkin. Today, two sisters – Tora and Inga, both originally from the Highland Wildlife Park in Scotland – occupy the big lynx enclosure and have done since 2019. You’ve probably heard how notoriously cryptic lynxes are, but I’ve seen them at NFWP every single time I’ve visited, sometimes very close to the viewing area.
Macropods of the UK. Anyone familiar with the UK’s mammal fauna will know why wallabies are present at NFWP: it’s because the Red-necked or Bennett’s wallaby Notamacropus rufogriseus (specifically its Tasmanian subspecies N. r. rufogriseus) has been introduced and/or has escaped into several locations within the British countryside. These include Herm in the Channel Islands, Bedfordshire in eastern England, Staffordshire in the West Midlands, the Weald in south-east England, the Isle of Man, the Derbyshire Peak District in the north, and Loch Lomond in central Scotland (Lever 1977, 2009, Yalden 1988, English & Caravaggi 2020). Some of these colonies were doing well for a time but have since dwindled and disappeared, though occasional sightings continue to be reported and might mean that low numbers persist (English & Caravaggi 2020).
Included in the same area of NFWP as the lynx (which are way over at one end) and wallabies (which are in the middle) are the wolves Canis lupus. These wolves are specifically Northwestern, Alaskan or Canadian timber wolf C. l. occidentalis, one of the largest and longest-limbed of wolves. They’re surprisingly big and thick-coated. NFWP currently has four, all siblings born at Colchester Zoo in 2010 and relocated to NFWP in 2011. A fifth member of the group, a female called Cedar, sadly died in 2024. This relatedness explains their similar looks, since some individuals there possess a distinctive sloping upper surface to the muzzle with a dark midline stripe.
As they’ve aged, the wolves have become paler: some were very dark just a few years ago. The park had wolves before this though, since some of the photos you see here are from 2012 yet show adults.
Final comments. And that ends my look at the New Forest Wildlife Park. As should be clear, it includes a good selection of animals that – with a few exceptions – very much feel part of the same, western European theme. Those exceptions include the Giant otters, but I so enjoy seeing them that I still regard their presence as a major draw. The landscaping and enclosures are good but I do think there’s room for involvement here and there: I really want to see those ponds improved, the rhododendron-spoilt area should be modified, and the fact that the boars have ruined their enclosures means that they should be given something better. Yes, I know that that’s easier said than done…
A real stand-out feature of the park is the quality of its signage. A massive amount of tidily-presented information is presented to the public, and there are small signs explaining the histories of the individual animals on show and what their names are.
On other matters, the park has a decent café and shop, the parking is fine, admission is not expensive relative to similar attractions, and there’s a good mix of things for families with kids, and things for people who just want to go and look at animals. The New Forest Wildlife Park is definitely on my recommended list: go there if you can. Its website is here.
We finish with my wholly subjective scoring system…
Selection of species: 7 out of 10
Zoo nerd highlights: Giant otter, Scottish wildcat, Alaskan timber wolf
Quality of signage: 9 out of 10
Value for money: 9 out of 10
Overall worthiness: 9 out of 10
And for previous articles in my zoo reviews series, and articles relevant to some of the topics touched on here, see…
Britain: wildlife theme-park, December 2007
Tet Zoo Reviews Zoos: Edinburgh Zoo, August 2016
Tet Zoo Reviews Zoos: Colchester Zoo, October 2017
TetZoo Reviews Zoos: the Isle of Wight Zoo, February 2020
Ross Barnett’s 2019 The Missing Lynx: the Past and Future of Britain’s Lost Mammals, May 2021
TetZoo Reviews Zoos: ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, June 2021
TetZoo Reviews Zoos: Bristol Zoo, July 2021
TetZoo Reviews Zoos: Tripoli Zoo in Libya, January 2023
Refs - -
Barnett, R. 2019. The Missing Lynx: the Past and Future of Britain’s Lost Mammals. Bloomsbury Wildlife, London.
English, H. M. & Caravaggi, A. 2020. Where’s wallaby? Using public records and media reports to describe the status of red-necked wallabies in Britain. Ecology & Evolution 10, 12949-12959.
Kitchener, A. C. 1991. The Natural History of the Wild Cats. Christopher Helm, London.
Langley, P. J. W. & Yalden, D. W. 1977. The decline of the rarer carnivores in Great Britain during the nineteenth century. Mammal Review 7, 95-116.
Lever, C. 1977. The Naturalized Animals of the British Isles. Hutchinson & Co, London.
Lever, C. 2009. The Naturalized Animals of Britain and Ireland. New Holland Publishers, London.
Yalden, D. 1988. Feral wallabies in the Peak District, 1971-1985. Journal of Zoology 215, 369-374.