I love to visit animal parks across the UK and throughout the world. The New Forest Wild Life Park isn’t the biggest, but it has lots of charm and charming animals to see.
A small park to visit, the New Forest Wild Life Park features lots of otters, owls and deer as its main attractions, but has a few others to see as well. There are also some great wolves, wallaby’s and lynx which are fun to see, and there are also bison and wild boar, but truthfully their enclosures put them at some distance from the public.
The highlights for me were the giant river otters and we were lucky enough to see them at feeding time. They were a family of three and were playful and made the most amazing noises as they ran about and noshed on fish.
Another highlight was that you can walk about where deer and wallaby’s may just decide to walk up to you for a great photo opportunity.
Luckily the lynx couldn’t get up too close as one decided to pounce towards me like prey from behind its enclosure. Likewise the wolves, whilst amazing to see, did give us the sense they were watching our every movement and contemplating us as a tasty dinner. I’m half joking, but it was cool to see how they operated as a pack and as a community whilst all watching us at all times.
The first few minutes in the park were a slight letdown as animals such as a fox, some otters and a hedgehog all decided to hide. I did wonder if some of the arrangement of the zoo didn’t make it easy for some animals to be seen.
It doesn’t have lions and elephants like some may hope for from a zoo or wild life park, so it’s worth checking the website for the full list of animals before you go. But for me it was an opportunity to focus more attention on the likes of the deer, wolves and otters which whilst fun at any zoo, may be ones that are sometimes slightly overlooked.
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