Yorkshire Wildlife Park, Branton, Doncaster

We have been visiting Yorkshire Wildlife Park for around 10 years now, the changes that have taken place are amazing. It started out as Brockholes farm, a riding centre that welcomed visitors to the farm. It had the usual horse pigs and occasionally had things like Raccoons etc.

However a couple of years ago things changed, the little farm became Yorkshire Wildlife park (YWP)!!

The park is situated approximately 10 mins from junction 3 off the M18, it is well signposted with usual visitor attraction brown signs from pretty much everywhere in Doncaster. The post code for sat nav is DN46TB off Warning Tongue Lane. The park entrance greets you with a large Gate and sign indicating YWP! A long tar mac road brings you to a pretty rough car park, it is quite full of pot holes and gravelly but hey the money is going to the animals at the minute. There is an overflow car park to and this is used quite often on busy days.

You enter the park via a log cabin area prices are as follows

Adult £12.99

Senior Citizen/Student *£10.99

Disabled Adult £7.00

Child (aged 3 --15 ) £9.99

Children (under 3) Free

Disabled Child £5.00

Official Carer £2.00

Annual Passes
£40 (£35 Renewal) for an adult
£35 (£30 Renewal) for an Senior citizen
£35 (£30 Renewal) for a child (age 3 -15 inclusive).

We have the annual passes as they work out really good value after 3 visits to the park they have more than paid for themselves, the park is only 3 miles from our house, so it is ideal to drop in for an hour or we quite often spend a day there.

Now on to the park....
as you enter the park you enter a paved area with a play barn with 3 slides, socks and long sleeves are required to ride, dont forget, then the kids will not be dissapointed. There is also a coffee bar a sensory pod ( this needs to be pre-booked) and a young children play area.

Passing the play barn there is a coffee shop serving snacks and light meals and an ice cream kiosk, toilet picnic benches etc are also available in this area.
The first animals you will come to are the merekats and yellow mongoose, we love watching these funny characters and I often wonder if they feel the same about us. On to the Goats Sheep etc these are in a petting area where you can get up close and stroke the animals, this area is lovely we enjoy this most times we visit. There are hand washing fascilites through out the park and hand sanitizer is available pretty much everywhere.

The Lions are just up the path in a lovely huge area, the pride of Lions was rescued from a zoo in Romania they are now known as the pride of yorkshire, I love the Lions they are so chilled most of the time relaxing in the yorkshire ermm sunshine. However you often hear them roaring, there roars bellow through the park, their way of reminding you that they are there. I am so proud to have the Lions so close to where I live, they are amazing and happy they have an enormouse enclosure that you can walk all the way round. Pretty spetacular!

Over the bridge past the Flamingo pool, lots of ducks geese and half a dozen flamingos in a small natural pond, we spend a while here as my kids love watching the Flamingos ducking their heads in to the pond.

Next is our favourite, MONTY!!!! Monty is a camel that was rescued from a circus. Monty has never seen another camel he does not even know he is a camel, when he first came he was in a bit of a state however now he is healthy happy and stands proud, my 2 year old son wakes up daily asking to go and see Monty, I am sure he actually recognises us now as he always seems to come over to the fence when we are there. He will eventually be introduced to the rest of the camels once breeding season is over.

I dont want to spoil the day by covering and typing about every single animal in the park so now I have told you about Monty I will keep the rest brief....

Wallaby Walkabout is an area where you can again have contact with the Wallabys, the babys hopping in and out of the mothers pouches are a pretty amazing sight.
Lemur woods again is an area where you can walk through with lemurs bouncing around the trees above your head.
Quite a walk through the park takes you past the African Plains lots of African animals and birds dwell together in a huge Plain.
On to the south American area another walk through with Capibara and Squirrel monkeys. There is also a newly opened eating area I think this is beautiful, planted with the kind of plants that smell like you are on holiday, worth taking a picnic just for this, it is just lovely!

Then past a few more camels you come to the Land of the Tiger critcally endangered species of tiger live here, usually sleeping near the waterfalls they are huge and absolutely beautiful, at the end of the Tiger cat walk you will come to Leopard heights new for 2012, the Amur Leopard is the most endangered cat in the world, these live in a large area where you can have eye to eye contact with them either through the glass viewing screen or up on the viewing platform where they can climb on to various tables at the same height. Soon there will be Giraffes at the opposite side of the platform, they are due in the autumn, something to look forward to.

The park also has Painted hunting dogs, Red river hogs, a Skunk has arrived recently, various birds of prey and many other really interesting animals.

Throughout the day at times there are many feeding times and ranger talks etc these are really interesting, although i have heard many of them several times now I never tire of hearing about these amazing animals. The bird of prey display is alone worth a visit to the park.

For the children and the big kid in you there is an enormous wooden play area, built in the middle of a beautiful blue bell wood conservation area this is a great place for the kids to let off steam, as we have passes we often visit just to see Monty and come to the play area. ( tonight we spent a good half hour watching the baby rabbits running between the african plains and the bluebells, this place is ever changing)

We love the park and visit really often, we have definately had our moneys worth from our passes, I think I am as excited as the kids about YWP, I love it, I feel the animals are extremely well looked after, the whole park is clean, the fascilities are fantastic without being too 'in your face' toilets hand washing benches and dustbins are well placed through out the park.

The walkways are gravelly and can get quite dusty in the summer if the weather is dry and the opposite in the winter they get quite sludgy and there is a lot of puddles, I can see how this may be a bit difficult for wheel chairs however although a little difficult we managed with the pushchair. My 2 year old doesnt mind the sludge and puddles, we are quite well known in the park now amongst the rangers as they regularly see him covered head to toe in mud as he loves jumping in the puddles, but hey he is a little boy, we sometimes go just so he can do this. We have visited in all weathers wind rain snow and the occasional sunny day too...I think a day is what you make it, its outdoors so just prepare for the british weather. The winter will bring a play barn which I imagine will be one of the jungle gym type with the large climbing area, so even if the weather is not great I think a good day will still be had.

I think YWP is worth every penny and can see why the prices are as they are, the park is growing and the animal conservation is important.

Just for now I am going to draw my review to a close, I intend to come back and update as things change or if I remember anything I feel is relevant. I hope this review has helped it is an enthusiastic review as it is something I feel prety strongly about. Visit the park I guarantee you will have a lovely day.

Summary: a lovely day out to see happy healthy well looked after animals.

As promised I am back with an update, it ir the begining of march and the park is getting ready for the summer rush. The play area has opened recently it is huge and indoor so it is a great escape from our weather. It is a huge purpose built building with a cafe serving easy chicken nuggets burgers chips etc...it is quite pricey! You go through the cafe into a huge wooden climbing area with lots of slides, climbing walls, swings, etc etc it is like nothing I have ever seen before with large woooden carvings of baboons looking over the children, the area will soon have a glass wall that looks on to a baboon enclosure. Exciting stuff!

Since I last wrote the Giraffes have arrived too. They are beautiful, in an enclosure near the leopards you can vsee them from a viewing platform that also puts you on eye level with the Leopards when they are climbing their frame. the Giraffes also have a Giraffe house where you can get really close to them, see them eating etc..

FANTASTIC!!