Safari Park’s Baby Boom Arrivals
As most of the animals at Knowsley Safari Park are ‘programmed’ for the warm climate of the African savannah, they’re making the most of the current conditions which are in sharp contrast to the wet and chilly British summers of recent years.
The dry conditions are also proving a more familiar environment for many of the new arrivals at Knowsley, born in recent weeks as part of the park’s annual baby boom season.
This year’s breeding successes have included the Pere David’s Deer herd, who have produced 18 fawns, closely followed by the axis deer with 12 youngsters. The Pere David’s in particular have proved to be a real Knowsley success story. Critically endangered in the wild, they are breeding in such numbers in Prescot that the park has been able to ‘export’ groups to other attractions.
Elsewhere at the attraction there are a dozen new baby meerkats, ten bison calves, eight red lechwe antelope calves and numerous baby baboons. Sharp-eyes visitors will also spot eland and blackbuck antelope calves and ankole cattle and forest buffalo youngsters. It’s also been a vintage year for camels, with four calves having been born, and for rhea.
According to Safari Park bosses, more babies are on the way. There are a number of expectant mums amongst Knowsley’s nilgai antelope and fallow deer herds which are just coming into their main breeding season. And three of the park’s female white rhinos are also pregnant again, thanks to bull Bud who has proved so fertile that he was recently sent to another attraction on a breeding loan.
General Manager, David Ross, commented: “This is a very exciting time of the year with the patter of tiny - and not so tiny - feet all over the park. Looking round our paddocks it’s clear from the appearance and behavior of our animals that the current dry and warm conditions really suit them.”
With Strangles Awareness Week just around the corner (5-11 May), vets are being encouraged to share a survey about the disease with their horse-owning clients.
