The Missing Lynx
Come face to face with what used to be Britain's native wildlife.
Animals that once roamed England’s countryside before going extinct will feature in a new Wild Wild Whipsnade exhibit from Easter.
Natural England last week named more than 500 species that have already become extinct in England, and predicted further extinctions at the rate of two a week.
Now visitors to Whipsnade will be able to come face to face with lynx, brown bears, wolves, bison, moose and wolverine – the very animals they could once have bumped into in Britain’s rural woodland.
Zoo curator Malcolm Fitzpatrick says: “These amazing creatures, which once roamed Britain, have already died out here and we are on the brink of losing dozens more species. We hope that allowing people to see what’s already been lost will help them appreciate the importance of protecting what we’ve got left.”
The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) uses zoo income to fund conservation projects protecting and reintroducing native species including red-barbed ants, field crickets and corncrakes. The launch of the new exhibit is timed to coincide with the International Year of Biodiversity.
ZSL Whipsnade Zoo is run by the Zoological Society of London, the charity which also runs ZSL London Zoo.
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