Safari park
A safari park, sometimes known as a wildlife park, is a zoo where visitors can drive their own vehicles or ride in vehicles provided by the facility to observe freely roaming animals.
The main attractions are frequently large animals from Africa which people can see in wildlife reserves such as: giraffes, lions (including white lions), white rhinos, African bush elephants, hippopotamuses, zebras, ostriches, lesser and greater flamingos, ground hornbills, guineafowl, African buffaloes, sometimes dromedary camels, great white and pink-backed pelicans, African sacred ibises, Ankole cattle, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas, chimpanzees, baboons, African wild dogs, Barbary sheep, crowned cranes, Egyptian geese, saddle-billed, yellow-billed and marabou storks, Nile crocodiles (in a side paddock), Nubian ibexes, and many antelope species including- wildebeest, hartebeest, topi, gazelles, elands, lechwe, addaxes, oryxes, bongos, kudus, nyalas, impalas, springbok, blesbok, sitatunga, duikers, waterbucks, sable antelopes, and roan antelopes, just to name a few. Also in the reserves there are animals that are not from Africa: Asian species include: Asian elephants, Indian and Sumatran rhinoceroses, gaur, water buffaloes, nilgais, blackbucks, banteng, markhor, Malayan tapirs, wild asses, sambar deer, Indian hog deer, yaks, gibbons, tigers (including white tigers), Asian black bears, Eld's deer, babirusas, chital, dholes, barasinghas, painted storks, peafowl, and Bactrian camels; North American species include: American black bears, brown bears, wolves (including Arctic wolves), American bison, elk, and white-tailed deer; South American species include: llamas, alpacas, jaguars, capybaras, anteaters, South American tapirs, rheas, and black-necked swans; Australian species include kangaroos, wallabies, emus, and black swans; European species include: European bisons, Eurasian wolves, mute swans, fallow deer, red deer, and moose.
The predecessor of safari parks is Africa U.S.A. Park (1953–1961) in Florida. The first lion drive-through opened in 1963 in Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo. In double-glazed buses, visitors made a tour through a one-hectare enclosure with twelve African lions. The first drive-through safari park outside of Africa opened in 1966 at Longleat in Wiltshire, England. Longleat, Windsor, Woburn and arguably the whole concept of safari parks were the brainchild of Jimmy Chipperfield (1912–1990), former co-director of Chipperfield's Circus, although a similar concept is explored as a plot device in Angus Wilson's "The Old Men at the Zoo" which was published five years before Chipperfield set up Longleat. Longleat's Marquess of Bath agreed to Chipperfield's proposition to fence off 40 hectares (100 acres) of his vast Wiltshire estate to house 50 lions. Knowsley, the Earl of Derby's estate outside Liverpool, and the Duke of Bedford's Woburn estate in Bedfordshire both established their own safari parks with Chipperfield's partnership. Another circus family, the Smart Brothers, joined the safari park business by opening a park at Windsor for visitors from London. The former Windsor Safari Park was in Berkshire, England, but closed in 1992 and has since been made into a Legoland theme park. There is also Chipperfield's "Scotland Safari Park" established on Baronet Sir John Muir's estate at Blair Drummond near Stirling, and the American-run "West Midland Safari and Leisure Park" near Birmingham. One park, along with Jimmy Chipperfield at Lambton Castle in North East England, has closed.
