Highland Wildlife Park

I went to this Scottish wildlife park in August 2012, just three days after my Edinburgh zoo visit. Opened in 1972, it is run by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) which also runs Edinburgh. There are no elephants here, like in Edinburgh, because it is too cold. Most of the animals here are cold-adapted, like the musk ox and polar bear. There are three polar bears at the park: two males named Walker and Arktos, and a female named Victoria who came here in 2015 from Denmark. In December 2017, Victoria bore the first polar bear to be born in the UK for 25 years, a male named Hamish. The park has one of the largest polar bear enclosures of any zoo in the world. In the drive through reserve, bison can be seen, as well as moose and przewalski’s horse. When you are walking around, you might spot a red panda. There are two of them and their names are Kitty and Kevyn. Other notable animals are the Amur tigers, grey wolves, and Japanese macaques (aka snow monkeys). Snow leopards were brought to the park in 2015. I have a mug from my visit to the HWP, and it was made to celebrate its 40th anniversary the year we visited. Oh, I forgot to mention the pine martens. This is the first time me and Dad had seen a pine marten, and Dad says he would love to see one alive in the wild. Scotland is one of the strongholds for this mammal in the United Kingdom. They were in an enclosure near the Scottish wildcats.

Seven years later after our visit, we returned to the Highland Wildlife Park and spent much more time than our last visit, as we were staying much closer. The notable changes since our last visit were the additions of the wolverine, snow leopard and female polar bear enclosures, as well as the offshow Amur leopard enclosure that was visible by its dark green fencing. We enjoyed getting up close to Walker and Arktos and seeing Hamish and Victoria playing together in their pond!

Link to their website.