Howletts Wild Animal Park

Howletts Wild Animal Park
Howletts Wild Animal Park
Date opened	1975
Location	Bekesbourne/Canterbury, Kent, England
Land area	90 acres (36 ha)
No. of animals	350+
No. of species	40+

Howletts Wild Animal Park (formerly known as Howletts Zoo) was set up as a private zoo in 1957 by John Aspinall near Canterbury, Kent. The animal collection was opened to the public in 1975. To give more room for the animals another estate at Port Lympne near Hythe, Kent was purchased in 1973, and opened to the public as Port Lympne Zoo in 1976.

The collection is known for being unorthodox, for the encouragement of close personal relationships between staff and animals, and for their breeding of rare and endangered species. Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin visited the park in 2004 and said the following about his visit - "I love this joint and I love these gorillas – they’re the finest in the world.".^[1]

Since 1984 both parks have been owned by a charity (The John Aspinall Foundation). Following the death of John Aspinall he was buried in front of the mansion house and a memorial was built next to the grave near the bison. The most recent extension to Howletts was the black and white colobus open-topped enclosure, just behind the entrance.

Animal collection

Howletts Wild Animal Park is home to the largest breeding herd of African Elephants in the UK and one of the largest breeding groups of Lion-Tailed Macaques in the world. However, the park is most famous for having some of the largest family groups of Western Lowland Gorillas in the world.

Special Events (Charity)

The charity that runs Howletts and Port Lympne Wild Animal Park, the John Aspinall Foundation, also runs animal conservation programmes. It has recent success in releasing a black Rhino into the wild and has previously released other black rhinos and gorillas.

On TV

Port Lympne has featured on the CBBC television programme Roar. This shows the two parks, the life of the animals and how the keepers look after them. The first series was filmed in 2006 and, as of March 2009, there have been four series in total.

References

^ Crocodile Hunter News - http://www.crocodilehunter.com.au/crocodile_hunter/news_articles/2004/flyingvisit.html

External links

Zoo website
Aspinall Foundation
"Captive-bred kitten" (Video). BBC. 2008-09-10. Retrieved 2010-01-05. of Pallas' cat
Roar (UK TV series) at IMDb

51°16′N 1°9′E / 51.267°N 1.150°E / 51.267; 1.150

[1] Crocodile Hunter News - http://www.crocodilehunter.com.au/crocodile_hunter/news_articles/2004/flyingvisit.html

[1]

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Animal collection

Special Events (Charity)

On TV

See also

References

External links