News

12 February 2010

Celebrating 40 Years

Woburn Safari Park celebrates its 40th birthday this May and to mark this special occasion we’re offering our visitors two great promotions:

Were you born in 1970 and will also be 40 in 2010? Enter for Free!
If you were born in 1970, bring your passport with you to the park between March 1st and 31st October 2010 and enter for free.  Excludes special event days. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer including Tesco Clubcard vouchers.

Woburn Safari Park for £1
On Thursday 20th May, the actual 40th birthday of Woburn Safari Park, visitors who have pre-booked through our on-line ticketing system can enter the park for just £1 per person.

£1 tickets will be offered on a first come, first served basis and will be limited to six per transaction. 

Tickets will go on sale on Thursday 8th April 2010. 

9 February 2010

New Lion House Breaks Ground as Sea Lions Move On and Penguins Move In!

Already internationally recognised as a centre of excellence for the conservation of endangered wildlife and an innovator in wild animal welfare, Woburn Safari Park has begun work on yet more new, world-class facilities, further improving the standards of animal welfare.

The building of a new lion facility at a cost of approximately £250,000 is another step in the ongoing plans to upgrade all animal facilities for Woburn’s challenging and dangerous large carnivores. 

Large enough to house the existing pride of 16 African lions, and flexible enough to cope with the regular disputes common in any family this size, it has also been designed with the future in mind and will be big enough to accommodate any new additions to the already impressive group.

Critically, the new facility will allow the pride to have overnight access outside of the main house in state-of-the-art, high security night quarters.  In 2004, Woburn invested £300,000 to ensure its wolves had outside, overnight access in their huge enclosure which they share with the bears.  Similar plans are in place to upgrade Woburn’s tiger facilities within the next 18 months, allowing them to have safe overnight access to an outside area.  This is something few visitors will be aware of, but something that all of these animals are certainly appreciative of. 

In recent years, Woburn has spent approximately £4 million on a number of similar ‘off-show’ facilities across the park, designed purely to benefit animal welfare and to enhance Woburn’s conservation potential; a figure unequalled in the UK. 

Starting with the upgrade to Woburn’s wolf facilities, this was followed in 2007 by the building of the African Ungulate Conservation Centre, known simply as ‘The Antelope House’.  At a cost of over £500,000, this bespoke facility is pivotal to the unparalleled work that the park does with hoofed mammals and houses probably the biggest concentration of critically endangered African ungulates on Earth.

After opening the Antelope House, Woburn’s redevelopment programme gathered pace with the building of the first phase of a state-of-the-art Asian Elephant Conservation Centre in 2008.  The first elephant house in the UK to be built from scratch, designed around the welfare of a herd rather than the needs of visitors or keepers, this house allows the elephants to spend their time as closely as they would in the wild, even in the depths of an English winter.

This was followed in mid-2009 with the completion of the most advanced and probably biggest facility in the world for housing rhino and other savannah animals.  Shortly after this house was opened, Woburn was able to welcome two new white rhino from South Africa, to join the four already living at the park. 

Staff at Woburn Safari Park are now looking forward to both herds growing further with the introduction of a seventh rhino from a safari park in Holland and the arrival of another elephant from a zoo also in Holland, increasing the elephant herd to four.  Both of these moves are in recognition of the investment Woburn has made in its animal facilities and the contribution it can make to vital breeding programmes for these species.

The park’s large group of Rothschild giraffe haven’t been overlooked either.  Their house was refurbished and doubled in size last autumn - vital in allowing Woburn to continue to support the European breeding programme for this critically endangered sub-species. 

Woburn is one of the most successful breeders of Rothschild giraffe in Europe and its programme of ensuring a natural diet is maintained all year round supports this.  In the summer, branches are collected from trees on the 3000-acre estate and fed to the giraffes each day; the surplus meanwhile is stored for the winter months.  In fact Woburn, having purposely planted 10,000 trees, is the only zoo in Europe that can guarantee its giraffes a supply of fresh leaves 365 days a year.

Dr Jake Veasey, head of animals and conservation at Woburn Safari Park, and a trained and published animal welfare scientist, says: “We have invested significantly in facilities at the park in the last few years, and our plans over the next five years will see us invest a further £10 million into the development of more new facilities.  While the benefits of this may not be immediately obvious to visitors as they drive through the reserves, it means that we will be able to offer the very highest standards of care possible and introduce, and ultimately breed, new species of critically endangered animals at Woburn.

“Woburn is committed to both animal welfare and conservation and our investments over the past few years clearly demonstrate this.  As with any zoo or indeed any business for that matter, we aren’t complacent and there are still areas we are hungry to improve upon, but we are working through these on a systematic priority basis in such a way that maximises welfare and our contribution to conservation.”

As part of this programme, one species that will no longer be resident at Woburn Safari Park is the Californian Sea Lion.  Much loved by visitors and staff alike, a decision has been made to move these engaging animals to another collection in the Mediterranean which can provide large lagoons for them to live in.

The ‘Animal Care’ team at Woburn has long felt sea lions were somewhat of an anomaly at the park as they require huge amounts of ever decreasing fish stocks to feed, chemicals to maintain their water quality and also don’t have the same degree of freedom as most of Woburn’s other animals.  It has therefore become clear that it is time to say a fond farewell to these amazing and very popular animals.

Plans are already in place to redevelop the sea lion pool into a facility for the endangered Humboldt penguins, allowing Woburn’s existing colony to benefit from having access to this much larger pool.  The redevelopment will be done in a way that will give visitors a unique insight into their lives and in turn will allow the park to introduce new species into the area left vacant by the penguins.  Watch this space!

Forty years after it first opened to the public and with an already impressive history behind it, there is an exciting future for the ever dynamic Woburn Safari Park and the valuable contribution it makes to wildlife conservation.

8 February 2010

Antiques Centre Coffee Shop

Now open.

Enjoy a relaxing cup of Tea or Coffee at our newly opened Coffee Shop while browsing our extensive range of fine art and antiques.

At the Woburn Abbey Antiques Centre you will find one of the largest and most interesting collections of quality art & antiques on sale outside London, all set in the beautiful historic grounds and ancestral home to the Dukes of Bedford.

8 January 2010

New Year Arrival at Woburn Safari Park

Woburn Safari Park celebrated the start of the New Year with the safe arrival of a new female Rothschild Giraffe.

Born during the early hours of New Years Day, the new calf has been named Keira.  In 2010 all new babies born in the reserves will be called a name beginning with the letter ‘K’; the 11th letter of the alphabet to coincide with the 11th year of the century.  Keira is the first calf to mum Frankie, who herself was born at Woburn in 2005. 

Woburn’s head of animal management and conservation, Dr Jake Veasey who is an experienced giraffe biologist having worked with them in the wild in Zimbabwe, commented on the birth; “We’re very pleased to be welcoming Keira to Woburn so early into the New Year.  We expect at least three or four more giraffe this year which will make us possibly the most successful breeder of these highly endangered and beautiful animals anywhere in the world.”

Woburn Safari Park celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2010.  In recent years Woburn has revolutionised the management of giraffe in captivity.  Woburn has a unique programme of ensuring a natural leaf based diet is provided all year round for its giraffe and has developed a novel approach to the management of the giraffe birthing process based on Jake’s experiences of giraffe in other zoos and in the wild.  This combined with the recent expansion and redevelopment of the giraffe house has facilitated dramatic improvements in the success of Woburn’s giraffe programme.  In the past six years, Woburn has planted 10,000 trees specifically to provide leaves for their giraffe herd based on ancient wildlife-friendly coppice management systems.  In the summer, leaves are collected from plantations on the 3000 acre estate and fed to the giraffes each day; the surplus meanwhile is stored for the winter months.  Woburn is the only zoo in Europe that can guarantee its giraffes a supply of fresh leaves 365 days a year.

Population estimates for the Rothschild giraffe vary from just 40 to a couple of hundred in the wild.  It is named after Lord Walter Rothschild who was the first to identify it as a new subspecies as the male has five horns (known as ossicones) on its head – two more than other species.

During much of the winter season the giraffe at Woburn remain closer to their house due to the cold weather and the risk of slipping on ice, but can still be seen from the drive-through Safari route.  In summer they have 24 hour access to large grass paddocks, which they share with the endangered Grevy’s Zebra.

10 December 2009

Winner of the Golf Club competition

Congratulations to the winner of the competition to win a two day golf break and clinic.

The winner is: Mrs Susan Hodgson from Thornbury

16 November 2009

Flintlock and Percussion Pistols

We are pleased to welcome David Cumming to the Woburn Abbey Antique Centre with a selection of flintlock and percussion pistols for sale, at very competitive prices.

For the collector, pistols are a collecting passion and have remained good investments for the very best examples, especially for complete and original case sets.
As pieces of social and military history, the flintlock pistol was a deadly weapon and even when fired some still retained a sprung loaded bayonet to finish the grizzly job if needed.
To view the pistols see the miscellaneous section on our web site or to enquire about the pistols please phone on 01525 292118 or email your enquiry.

Please note: Sales to personal callers only. The usual restrictions apply to the sale of firearms.

14 October 2009

Rare primates making themselves at home at Woburn Safari Park

Visitors to Woburn Safari Park can now see a collection of one of Africa’s rarest mammals in the drive-through African Forest.

The arrival of five Drills (Mandrillus leucophaeus) marks Woburn Safari Park as one of only three other collections in Great Britain to have these critically endangered primates.  Woburn is also the first collection in the world to introduce Drills into a mixed species enclosure.  They join 28 Barbary Macaque, 15 Patas Monkeys and nine Eastern Bongo.

Originally from Hanover Zoo, the Drills arrived from Germany back in February and following six months in quarantine and a period of acclimatisation, all five can now be seen enjoying their new home.
Numbers of these primates have been steadily declining for several decades due to game and meat hunting, habitat destruction and human development.  There are now thought to be fewer than 3000 left in their native habitat of Nigeria and Cameroon.  Across the world there are only 75 in captivity across 20 collections.

Woburn Safari Park intends to exchange three of its males for females within 12 months in order to begin its own captive breeding programme.

Senior Keeper Ross Brown commented; “We’re extremely pleased with the progress that our Drills are making since their release into the African Forest here at Woburn Safari Park.  They have acclimatised well and we look forward to introducing some females to the group in the future so that we can begin the very important work of breeding these extremely rare animals.”

28 September 2009

Children’s Trust Charity Day - PC Aviation

Ten children, who all receive care, education and therapy from the Children’s Trust, and their families, were treated to the trip of a lifetime when a fleet of helicopters flew them on an adventure to Woburn Safari Park on Sunday 27th September.

PC Aviation arranged for eleven privately-owned helicopters to pick up the families from Redhill Aerodrome, Surrey in the morning and fly them across London to Woburn Safari Park. Once the helicopters had landed at the Park the families were taken on a guided tour of the Safari Park and were given a pizza lunch provided by Dominos Pizza.

23 September 2009

European Carnivore Campaign

Thank you to everyone that donated money to our 2009 European Carnivore Campaign - we raised a total of £14,635.57!

Woburn Safari Park won the “Fundraising Award” for 2008/2009. This was awarded for “the most innovative and imaginative fundraising scheme or event by an EAZA institution in support of fundraising targets for the European Carnivore Campaign”

There were approximately 400 other EAZA member organisations, made up from zoos, safari parks and aquariums that were invited to participate in the European Carnivore Campaign.  Woburn Safari Park was the only one to achieve this award.

27 August 2009

Tips for a great day out at Woburn Safari Park

Here's our handy guide for getting the most our of your trip to Woburn Safari Park.

Advance Ticket Booking

• To help speed up your entry into the park, you can book great value tickets online up to midnight on the day before your visit
• A 10% discount is applied to all single tickets purchased on-line
• Please note that our £50 Family Ticket (2 adults and 2 children in the same vehicle) can only be purchased on-line
• Promotional vouchers of any kind cannot be used to purchase on-line tickets

 

Arrival Information

• Woburn Safari Park will be open from 10am each day
• To speed up getting into the park, you can pay by cash on the day and use our FAST TRACK lanes or purchase tickets online (please see above tips)
• If you would like to stretch your legs, use the toilets or baby changing facilities please do so before purchasing a ticket and entering the reserves through the main gate
• There is car parking, toilets, refreshments and a seating area by the stone lions
• Please note that once you’re inside the reserves you will not be able to get out of your car until you reach the leisure area

In the Park

• Please be aware that pets are not permitted into the Safari Park and kennels are not provided
• Convertible vehicles can only be permitted to drive through the hoof-stock areas of the safari drive through – by pass roads are available
• During high season, consider taking the safari drive through in the afternoon when it’s less busy.  You are welcome to drive through the animal reserves as many times as you wish.  If you’d like to do this, we recommend that you begin your repeat circuit before 5pm
• All rides, talks and demonstrations are included in the price of your admission ticket
• To avoid disappointment on busy days please arrive at the demonstrations in good time to ensure your place
• Timings can be found in your free visitor leaflet which you will receive on arrival or in the ‘Plan your Visit’ section of our website
• Last entry into Woburn Safari Park is at 5pm
• The last re-entry to the safari drive through is at 5.30pm

18 August 2009

Rhino’s Arrival Breeds Hope

Moving home is always one of life’s biggest tasks, but when you’ve got two 1,700kg rhino coming to take up permanent residence it’s a truly heavyweight affair.

The South African white rhino - believed to be 5 and 6 years old - moved into the rhinoceros equivalent of The Ritz at Woburn Safari Park on Monday 17th August …with a little help from some very heavy lifting gear of course.

But while the arrival of the two formidable females will be great for visitors to Woburn, it has far greater significance for Europe’s white rhino population as they are expected to play a vital part in a continental breeding programme.

The pair will join the park’s four-strong rhino herd which consists of two males and two females; some of whom have lived at Woburn since it first opened nearly 40 years ago. Despite the equal male/female split of the resident rhino, they have never bred as it is thought they have come to see each other as siblings rather than potential breeding partners.

However, the introduction of the two new females, together with a young bull from another UK safari park, is hoped to provide the necessary spark to let nature take its course - that is, after 30 days in quarantine and a gradual socialisation process with the other rhino.

Dr Jake Veasey, Woburn’s head of animal management and conservation, says: “Having more than one bull rhino is critical for creating the optimal social situation needed for stimulating breeding with males vying for interest from the females. We will now have three males and four females so the chances of breeding will be dramatically improved.

“White rhino are what would be described as a conservation-dependent species, meaning that without effective and active conservation measures they would become extinct in the wild. At the turn of the 20th century there may have been as few as 30 white rhino left; and now with effective conservation, most notably in South Africa, there are in excess of 17,000.

“But as they only occur in protected areas and space is limited, surplus animals maybe culled to alleviate the pressure on habitats and to raise revenue to support ongoing conservation. An alternative is for these surplus animals to come to join ‘insurance’ populations outside of Africa which could help to ensure the future of the species, and in turn help to raise the profile of these amazing animals.

“The white rhino population in Europe is currently not self-sustaining - one of the reasons for this is the historical mismanagement of white rhino social groups with too many rhino growing up together and so establishing sibling rather than sexual relationships in captivity. This combined with a lack of facilities holding multiple bulls to stimulate competition for mates meant that whilst captive rhino typically lived remarkably long lives, not enough of them went on to breed to replace the loss of older animals.”

The new Woburn rhino house, which is described as the best in the world, is expected to play a pivotal role in rectifying this situation. The facility, designed by Dr Veasey and his team, has been created to allow the rhino to live in herds as they would in the wild, even inside the house.

The house has several unique features such as a huge communal living area and four additional management areas with a choice of floor surfaces for the rhino from concrete, rubber through to half-metre deep woodchip beds. The house complex also has three yards, a medical restraint chute for the treatment of any ailments that may arise in their long lives and two outside paddocks totalling over 40 acres.

6 August 2009

Winner of Ian Poulter Competition

Congratulations to Mark Stevens from The Warren Golf Club who has won our free prize draw.

Congratulations to Mark Stevens from The Warren Golf Club who has won our free prize draw for himself and a playing partner to have a round of golf with Woburn Tournament Professional, Ian Poulter, playing either the Duke’s, Duchess’ or Marquess’ courses.

Thank you to all those who entered the draw but were unsuccessful.

31 July 2009

Woburn Safari Park says ‘Jambo’ to its first Giraffe of 2009

Woburn Safari Park is celebrating the birth of its first Rothschild giraffe to be born in 2009.

This birth signals another major success for the park’s breeding programme of the most endangered of the nine subspecies of giraffe.

Born during the afternoon of Friday 24th July, the new male giraffe has been named ‘Jambo’ which means ‘hello’ in Swahili, the national language of Kenya and Uganda where this subspecies originates from.

His eleven-year-old mum, Savannah, is one of Woburn’s most experienced, having given birth to four calves since her arrival at the safari park from Edinburgh Zoo in 2003.  There are now nine Rothschild Giraffe at Woburn.

The giraffe at Woburn can be found in the large African section where they roam alongside the critically endangered Grevy’s zebra.  Population estimates for the Rothschild giraffe vary from just 40 to a couple of hundred in the wild.  It is named after Lord Walter Rothschild who was the first to identify it as a new subspecies as the male has five horns (known as ossicones) on its head – two more than other species.

At Woburn Safari Park a change in how the species has been managed in recent years has resulted in a baby boom – there is another giraffe due at the park imminently, making Woburn a world leader in giraffe management and conservation.

Woburn’s head of animal management and conservation Dr Jake Veasey, who is an experienced giraffe biologist having worked with them in the wild in Zimbabwe, says: “We’re delighted at the safe arrival of another giraffe here at Woburn Safari Park.  It’s testament to the changes we have made in managing the everyday lives of these rare animals and a great boost to the survival of this critically endangered subspecies.”

Woburn is one of the most successful breeders of Rothschild giraffe in Europe and its programme of ensuring a natural diet is maintained all year round supports this.  In the summer, branches are collected from trees on the 3,000 acre estate and fed to the giraffes each day; the surplus meanwhile is stored for the winter months.  In fact Woburn, having purposely planted 10,000 trees, is the only zoo in Europe that can guarantee its giraffes a supply of fresh leaves 365 days a year.

16 July 2009

Baby Boom at Woburn Safari Park

Woburn Safari Park has experienced a major baby boom over the past two weeks.

Staff are celebrating the arrival of three baby Squirrel Monkeys, an endangered Przewalski foal as well as two pygmy goat kids and one lorikeet chick, which are being hand fed.

These babies join the other young born earlier this year which includes 2 red river hoglets, 4 Patas Monkey and 6 barbary Monkey babies as well as a red bellied Lemur and Penguin chick.

There are some occasions when babies in the Park need a little extra help if their mothers can not rear the young on their own.  This year the pygmy goat twins are having a helping hand with extra feeds from staff.  Animal Encounters Deputy Team Leader Katie Rice has been kept busy with the new arrivals.  ¨Babies are definitely hard work¨, commented Katie who has been enjoying feeding the baby goats during the night!  ¨But it is rewarding to see them do so well and grow up.  We have named the goats Maizie and Poppy.¨

16 June 2009

London Taxi Drivers Fund ‘TAXI SAFARI’ to Woburn Safari Park

100 London Taxi Drivers visit Woburn Safari Park

On Tuesday 19th May 2009 over 300 ‘special needs’ and disadvantaged children received a special treat when they were collected from three schools in Mill Hill and Barnet and taken in two convoys of 100 taxis on a ‘Taxi Safari’ to Woburn Safari Park. The organisation were deeply grateful to the Mayor of Barnet, Councillor John Marshall, for waving the children off.  This outing was the first one to take place in the Fund’s 81st year and what a triumphant success it was.

29 May 2009

Rugs and Carpets at the Woburn Abbey Antiques Centre

For many years the centre has stocked good quality rugs and carpets and is able to offer you great value for what are woven pieces of art in their own right.

For many years the centre has stocked good quality rugs and carpets and is able to offer you great value for what are woven pieces of art in their own right.

Mainly Persian and Afghan carpets are held in stock, all handmade in the traditional manner.

Rugs and carpets such as these are never out of fashion, adding the final touch to your room. Due to the huge range of pattern and colour variations available, your choices are limitless.

Usually after searching though many carpets, when you see the one, you know it straight away, whether it’s the pattern, the feel or the colour with the bonus that it’s handmade and unique.

These carpets will give you years of pleasure and are renowned for being extremely hardwearing. Carpets can still be giving good service for several generations.

You can choose from a nice selection here at the centre. If you have a particular requirement we will help you find what you are looking for though our contacts in the trade.

In the financial climate of today, you can benefit from very competitive prices on all our rugs and carpets and buy with the confidence of good quality and service.

For further details on the rugs for sale please contact us on 01525 292118, or email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

22 March 2009

Go Ape at Woburn - NEW FOR 2009!

High Wire Forest Adventure for anyone 10 years and over. Climb the trees and slide across high wires, cross rope bridges, tarzan slides, walk the planks and zip down to the ground - you'll wish you'd done it long ago!

Experience the thrills of trekking from tree to tree. Each section begins with a rope ladder climb into the tree tops where an assortment of spectacular obstacles and tarzan swings lead to an exhilarating zip-slide bringing you back down to earth. Corporate bookings, team building and groups welcome.

For further information visit the Woburn Safari Park Go Ape section.

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