Manor House Wildlife Park

Manor House Wildlife Park
Map
51°41′8″N 4°45′51″W / 51.68556°N 4.76417°W / 51.68556; -4.76417
LocationPembrokeshire, Wales
Land area52 acres (21 ha)
WebsiteManor Wildlife Park

Manor House Wildlife Park is a 52-acre (21 ha) zoo located in Pembrokeshire, Wales, just north of the village of St Florence. It was bought in 2008 by television presenter Anna Ryder Richardson and Colin MacDougall and is more recently known as Manor Wildlife Park.

Animal exhibits

Large animals include Southern White Rhino, oryx, Damara Zebra, tapir, camel, llama and Sumatran tigers; there are also smaller wild animals such as red panda, meerkat, wallaby and three species of lemur (Black and White Ruffed Lemur), Red Bellied and Ring Tailed), and a variety of birds, principally ostrich, emu, rhea and guinea fowl.[1]

Endangered species

As well as the endangered Sumatran Tigers, Siamang gibbons and Ring tailed lemurs, the park is home to the white rhino "Zamba", one of three Southern white rhino at the park,[2] and the first to be bred from artificial insemination in the UK. Red Ruffed lemurs are also critically endangered, according to IUCN, and are part of the zoo's collection. In 2015 the park learned that they had been allocated a pair of critically endangered Sumatran tigers to support the European Endangered Species Programme.[3] In 2018, the park welcomed two endangered red panda sisters from Odense Zoo in Denmark, they now live in their own little forest in the heart of the park.[4]

History

In 2002 the park was called Manor House Wild Animal Park and included a museum, souvenir shop and restaurant as well as animal exhibits.[5]

TV presenter and property developer Anna Ryder Richardson and her then husband Colin MacDougall took over the zoo in 2008. In March 2012, it was announced that Richardson and her husband were to be prosecuted over alleged breaches of health and safety legislation after a mother and child were injured by a falling branch.[6] Subsequently, charges against Richardson were dropped but her husband and the zoo pleaded guilty to four charges and were fined a total of £74,000,[7] plus costs.

Cultural references

In television

Anna Ryder Richardson made a video diary of the redevelopment of the zoo which became the TV film Chaos at the Zoo, narrated by Ruth Jones.[8] Among the animals featured was a pair of endangered Siamang gibbons.[9]

References

  1. ^ "Manor House Wildlife Park - Animals". Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  2. ^ "Southern white rhino". Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  3. ^ "Rarest big cat in the world to be part of a new breeding programme at Anna Ryder Richardson's Zoo". Wales Online. 12 March 2015. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  4. ^ "Meet Betty and Cherry, Pembrokeshire's endangered red pandas". Western Telegraph. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  5. ^ "Geograph - Manor House Wild Animal Park". Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  6. ^ "Anna Ryder Richardson and Colin MacDougall accused of health and safety breaches". BBC News. 20 March 2012.
  7. ^ Stone, Antony (22 November 2012). "Anna Ryder Richardson wildlife park fined after falling tree bough hospitalised three-year-old boy". The Independent. London. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
  8. ^ "IMDb - Chaos at the Zoo (TV movie 2008)". Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  9. ^ "No branching out for gibbon at Wild Welsh Zoo". Western Telegraph. 8 October 2009. Retrieved 5 August 2014.