Yorkshire Wildlife Park

For my birthday back in May I decided that I’d like to go back to Yorkshire Wildlife Park. The last time we went, all the way back in 2016 (!) we were very impressed but we were even more so this time. They’ve expanded greatly and everywhere looks fantastic with a whole shopping area just before the entrance plus larger enclosures for all the animals. I’ve been to a few wildlife parks lately which have cheetahs (my favourite wild animal) but they hadn’t been out and about so I was incredibly happy to see so many here and be able to take photos of them.

There are four cheetahs at the park – a male and female and their two cubs who recently turned 1 year old. The one in the second photo below I’m sure is one of the cubs as you can still see the light tufts on its head and back. They have over 2.5 acres to themselves.

The other highlight is of course the polar bears. When we first visited I think they only had two but now they have six males and their Project Polar Bear enclosure is the largest polar bear centre outside of Canada.

We were lucky enough to get there after food had been delivered which they, and the local wildlife, were definitely enjoying.

Another new to us area was Point Lobos, home to the Californian sea lions it is the largest purpose built habitat of its kind in the world. Most were understandably sunning themselves in the hot weather, but a few were also enjoying a swim.

We were also very lucky to get a glimpse of one of the Amur leopards. This is the male – the female could be seen on a live webcam streamed outside dealing with her very cute cubs who had been born only days before. There are only around 75 of these leopards left in the wild so the breeding programme here is especially important.

Other favourites included the bush dogs, one of the smallest wild pack hunting dogs in the world that come from South America,

…the giant otters which, fun fact, in the wild kill and eat anacondas!…

…the lovely okapi…

And finally the Gelada Monkeys with bonus baby we hadn’t expected to see. They are the last surviving grazing primates eating around a quarter of their body weight in grass a day – something that came as news to me.

It was a great day out and we spent a good four hours there plus stopped off for some lunch at one of the cafes (very nice food). It is huge, much bigger than we had expected and though the paths are very well laid out, be aware you will be walking a very long way between all the different regions.

The Practicalities:

As I was with family we drove there and there was plenty of free parking available on a Friday in mid-May. You can also get a bus from Doncaster to the zoo that I’m sure wasn’t an option the last time we visited. The bus stop is right outside the entrance.

Ticket prices depend on when you’re visiting (in or out of school holidays as a general rule) but are cheaper if you book online in advance. An adult in advance ticket for our date cost £23.99.

There are plenty of places to eat and drink around the site – we ate at the Masai Coffee House – plus play areas for children and a whole sector called Pangea which had some fun animatronic dinosaurs.

An excellent day out this is only a small sample of the animals you can see here.