GOING WILD IN LINCOLNSHIRE

Lincolnshire isn’t just home to its native wildlife species, but to a wealth of creatures, great and small. This month we’ll suggest ways to go wild in Lincolnshire, and here we meet Neil Mumby, owner of the most long-established wildlife park in Lincolnshire to find out how a visit to the 20 year old Woodside Wildlife Park helps him to support national and international efforts to prevent the extinction of endangered species...

Words: Rob Davis.

“YOU WANT TO SEE SOMETHING SPECIAL?” asked Neil Mumby in, of all places, the middle of a penguin enclosure. “Always!” was the predictable answer from the journalist with the camera. Neil lifted up a piece of the enclosure, underneath which a nesting Humboldt penguin mum is cuddling her month-old chick. The fluffy little grey chick is wide-eyed and undoubtedly very lucky to have been brought into the world at Woodside Wildlife Park, five miles east of Lincoln almost equidistant between the city itself and Wragby. The colony of Humboldts are a relatively new addition to the park, having arrived just a couple of year ago, but the park itself is rather more well-established and in fact celebrated its 20th anniversary in April this year. It’s the only BIAZA and EAZA- affiliated wildlife park or zoo in Lincolnshire, and is now home to around 400 animals – great and small. Neil was born and raised in Waddington and Bracebridge, and after studying at Caythorpe Agricultural College, he worked all over the world in the poultry industry, advising on high welfare production environments. “From being a youngster in the late 1960s I had a lifelong interest in birdwatching, falconry, botany and pretty much everything to do with natural history,” says Neil. “My hobby was falconry. I kept peregrine falcons, golden eagles, hawks and owls, and when I was made redundant just before the millennium, I wanted to turn my hobby into a business.”

“I purchased a derelict farmhouse – Wood Farm – with some tumbledown buildings and a large grass paddock. I opened the business initially on just a few acres under the name Woodside Falconry, just at the start of the Food & Mouth epidemic, on 12th April 2001.” The business opened with 15 birds of prey, but Neil realised that to broaden the attraction’s appeal and to ensure it had the footfall necessary to bring revenue into the business, to grow the site and to provide a home for more animals, it would have to diversify. And so, work began on adding a tropical house with butterflies and reptiles. The park would be known as Woodside Wildlife and Falconry Park from 2009, and from 2014 it was renamed Woodside Wildlife Park.

A much more profound change than the name, though, was Neil approaching BIAZA, the British & Irish Association of Zoos & Aquariums, and it’s this affiliation that sets Neil’s Woodside Wildlife Park apart from any other, more recently established, wildlife parks which have been created in recent years. Other parks around the county and across the UK are animal sanctuaries. Typically, these are private collections comprising of animals which have been purchased or rehomed from elsewhere and are allowed to open on a few selected days a year or, once they’ve obtained a full zoo license, open fully to visitors all year round.

Though Neil is full of respect for the county’s other wildlife parks, Woodside’s affiliation with BIAZA and EAZA (the latter is the European parent body; the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums) means that Neil and the team are part of an international community which is scientifically led and conservation oriented.

The network of 100 British member sites (in the case of BIAZA) and 400 European sites gives Woodside access to – and consideration within – a framework of European breeding programmes designed to hold information on the genetic stock of each species and to facilitate breeding programmes.

“Joining BIAZA and EAZA enabled us to grow organically and to be part of a community of international animal conservation projects,” says Neil.

“In 2012 we became home to Lincolnshire’s only pack of Hudson Bay wolves – our first carnivores – which proved to be a real success. Our lynx followed in 2013, and in 2014 our Sumatran tiger Julia came to live at the park.” >>

>> At 15 years old Julia is an older tiger (they typically live to between 15 and 18 years of age), and whilst Bengal tigers are a little more abundant in number, Sumatrans are critically endangered. And so, with each species having a BIAZA/EAZA coordinator (in the Sumatran’s case, based at Whipsnade in Bedfordshire), consideration is already being given to which of the available females at the groups’ affiliated sites would suit which males to facilitate a science-oriented breeding programme to ensure the genetic integrity and longevity of the species. The affiliation puts Woodside Wildlife Park in the same category as, for instance, London Zoo or Chester Zoo; much larger sites. It also provides access to experts in husbandry, nutrition and veterinary science, and it means that Woodside Wildlife Park can be involved in – and it can help to fund – worldwide conservation projects. Part of your ticket price when you visit the site is used to fund projects beyond the care of the animals at the site and beyond your day out. But though Woodside Wildlife has grown to six acres – with the purchase of a further three acres due to be completed as Pride goes to press – and though it attracts 75,000 visitors a year, running a wildlife park like Woodside remains costly in terms of overheads.

Even during the pandemic, those penguins still need to be kept in fish and the pack of four white wolves still needed to be kept in their preferred venison… literally Neil still needed to keep the wolves from the door! “It takes 23 members of staff including eight keepers to run the business,” says Neil. “Our running costs are over £2,000 a day – about £750,000 a year – including keeping the animals fed, keeping them warm and to ensure they’re looked after,” says Neil. “So, after being able to open for just nine of our 12 months, we were delighted to be able to reopen the centre to visitors post-Covid and begin to derive an income from admission again.” “The staff we have are really wonderful and they look after our animals very well. We’re able to take them on and train them, and we like to ensure they have experience of not just one species but a range of different ones across different habitats.”

Sadly, I’m more often sitting behind an Excel spreadsheet than feeding animals or helping to build enclosures these days, but the fact that we’ve got such a great team is exactly why I can trust them to maintain our high standards of welfare, and that in itself is a balancing act.” “We’re keen for them to make a connection with their animals but also to maintain a safe and professional distance.” “A tiger will always be a tiger and a pack of wolves will always be a pack of wolves so in the case of the carnivores we never allow our keepers to go into their enclosures.” “But the past year has also meant we can embark on projects which have been easier to complete by virtue of the fact that we’ve not had to work around our visitors. We’ve just opened New Africa, a purposebuilt enclosure for our meercats and tortoise.” “New Africa is the biggest project we’d embarked on since 2014 when we relocated – piece by piece – the Sir Joseph Banks Conservatory from The Lawn. It’s now home to, among other animals and plant species, our Siamese crocodiles.” “Since opening 20 years ago, only a couple of the remaining parts of the site are original, the rest is all new. Next year, we’re planning to replace a couple of the enclosures, and those will be the very last of the original buildings from 2001.” “One of the implications of an affiliation with BIAZA and EAZA is that we have to plan two or three years in advance what we intend to do, so we already have a pretty good idea what will be happening that far in advance, but of course, everything is subject to change.” Speaking of the future, Charlie, one of Neil’s two daughters, is helping look after the park’s visitors and opens up on the morning of our visit. At 24, she’s had an incredible childhood growing up with more animals around her than the usual domestic dog or cat. Neil says he won’t let her take over “yet,” but doubtless she, sister Victoria and the rest of the Mumby family are invested not just in creating a visitor attraction, but a place with an ethos of making a real contribution to conservation. “We’re proud of what we’ve created here not just as an attraction, but in terms of our approach towards animal welfare and to conservation more broadly.” “Of course, we’re biased but we think that we’re one of the best places in the country to see the species which call Woodside home and to understand what looking after animals involves.” “We also think that our bias towards how great the site is can be justified by the effort we make to be part of international conservation projects.” n

Above: Neil tends to his colony of Humboldt Penguins, relocated to Woodside Wildlife in 2019... they’re a big draw for visitors and they’re always on the go in their purpose-built home. Opposite: Comparing the meercats at Woodside. Open wide and say “aah!” for the park’s Siamese crocodiles. The park’s pack of four Hudson Bay wolves. Poppy the Parrot. Find Out More: Neil Mumby is the Director and founder of Woodside Wildlife Park, based at Newball, Lincoln LN3 5DQ. The centre is open seven days a week, 364 days a year. Call 01522 754280 or see www.woodsidewildlife.com.

CARING FOR WILD PLACES

This month we’re featuring a few of the zoos and wildlife sanctuaries which are protecting animals from all around the world. Closer to home though, the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust manages over 100 nature reserves here in the county, but also protects 65 roadside nature reserves and 1,000 local wildlife sites.

Current projects include work to protect Lincolnshire’s wildflower verges, as 97% of the UK’s wildflower-rich grassland has been lost since the 1930s.

The Trust has also worked with Scotts Precision Manufacturing to develop a Road Verge Biomass Harvester which cuts and collects grass to burn, which in turn can generate power.

Another project being headed up by the Trust is Dynamic Dunescape, which will target 34 sand dunes – around 7,000 hectares. The aim is to restore the wildflower-rich fixed dunes and grey dunes by creating areas of bare sand, clearing some scrub, and removing nonnative species which have escaped from nearby gardens to choke the dune scrub. Saltfleetby, Theddlethorpe and Gibraltar Point’s sand dunes are all a focus for the project.

Meanwhile, down in the fens, South Lincolnshire Fens and Fens for the Future are two working groups aiming to restore landscape-scale wetlands and biodiversity. South Lincolnshire Fens is seeking to restore up to 800 hectares of fenland to a variety of specifically targeted and threatened wet-fenland habitats.

Lincolnshire’s Wildlife Trust is supported by nearly 28,000 members, caring for 3,877 hectares in total. It was established in 1948 as the UK’s third such Trust, with a mission to protect existing wild places, encourage people to use Lincolnshire’s natural environment, to support research projects and to share in a collective vision of maintaining the county’s ecosystems with decision makers.

For more information on the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, see www.lincstrust.org.uk or call 01507 526667. Bengal Tiger at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park, Stickney.

Northcote Heavy Horse Centre. Meercats at Woodside Wildlife Park.

1. Zoos & Wildlife Parks in Lincolnshire

For little ones keen to enjoy fresh air and sunshine, a day out at a wildlife park is always enjoyable!

BACK IN 1999, Neil Mumby purchased a derelict farmhouse with tumbledown buildings and a grass paddock. Having taken redundancy from the poultry industry, he instead started the Woodside Wildlife Park near Lincoln, and opened it in 2001 just as Foot & Mouth struck. Despite the timing, Neil and his team made a success of the attraction and now counts white wolves, a tiger, red pandas, crocodiles and many mammals, reptiles and plants among his wards. Neil also took on the former Sir Joseph Banks Conservatory and relocated it from The Lawn to Woodside in 2017 to preserve tropical plants and flowers, renaming the glasshouse Endeavour (01522 754280, www.woodsidewildlife.com).

Meanwhile, on the East Coast, the Lincolnshire Wildlife Park was formerly known as the National Parrot Sanctuary, its renaming reflecting the fact that in addition to over 2,000 birds, it’s also home to Bengal tigers, white lions, pumas, monkey, plus a wealth of reptiles too. The attraction was set up by Steve Nichols and now covers 16.5 acres (0871 3841130, www.lincswildlife.com). Meanwhile, in Horncastle, the Wolds Wildlife Park (07748 617650, woldswildlife.co.uk) is Lincolnshire’s newest park, set up in 2013 by Andrew Riddel and Tracy Walters. It’s now home to an Indian leopard, reindeer, an African lion, brown bear and zebras. Finally, The Ark at Stickney is home to a number of big cars from lynx to servals, jungle cats and savannah cats. It’s a rescue zoo and independent exotic animal refuge a well as a visitor attraction open seven days a week (01205 481468, www.arkwildlifepark.co.uk). n

Skegness Aquarium.

Making it snappy at Woodside Wildlife Park.

2. Helping Horses

Local sanctuaries for horses and donkeys

3. Aquatic Attractions

Aquariums and coastal animal sanctuaries

4. Alpacas & Llamas

Wooly wonders in the Lincolnshire Wolds

JUST A FEW MILES north of Lincoln, Bransby Horses was founded in 1968 by Peter Hunt and is now one of the UK’s largest equine charities, currently responsible for over 900 equines, many of whom come from situations of neglect of mistreatment. Visitors can see and stroke some of the site’s horses, and there are play areas for little ones (01427 788464, bransbyhorses.co.uk). On the East Coast, the Radcliffe Donkey Sanctuary at Huttoft opens on selected days, publicised on the charity’s website, and invites its supporters to adopt a donkey for just £20 (07940 146330, www.radcliffedonkeysanctuary.co.uk). Not too far away at Spilsby is Northcote Heavy Horse Centre (07899815960, www.northcotehorses.com), which, since 1989, has been looking after neglected horses. In previous years the centre has hosted jousting and medieval tournaments too. n ESTABLISHED IN 1965 by the Yeadon family as a not for profit attraction, Skegness’s Natureland helps to care for seals on the East Coast but also has a tropical house with reptiles including crocodiles, plus alpacas, meercats and more. Support from visitors allows it to continue treating and returning poorly seals and other marine life to their natural habitat (01754 764 345, www.skegnessnatureland.co.uk). A little further up the coast is Mablethorpe’s Seal Sanctuary with its big cats, primates like lemurs and monkeys, as well as its seal pools (01507 473346, www.theseal sanctuary.co.uk). Finally, Skegness gained its Aquarium in 2015, with sharks, stingrays and the centre’s octopus (01754 228200, www.skegness-aquarium.uk). n EVIE EWING was just 15 years old when she started Louth Llama Trekking, at Julian Bower near Louth. Evie now has seven llamas and offers trekking experiences which includes an hour long walk – at each llama’s pace, as they’re quite single-minded – plus the chance to feed, groom and generally find out a little more about the quirky creatures (07483 867444, www.louthllamatrekking.co.uk). “My favourite part is seeing the children hug and smile at the llamas as they leave, it’s the best feeling to see people enjoying life and having fun,” says Evie. Meanwhile, a short distance from Evie is Big Sky Alpacas as Beesby near Alford, run by Dave and Emma Cornthwaite (07944 103496, www.bigskyalpacas.co.uk). Alpaca experiences are offered either for visitors to the site or the couple can bring their alpacas to your residential home, school or even your wedding! n

Fun on the farm at The Pink Pig.

Crazy golf at Rand Farm Park. Hilarious hens at Rand Farm Park.

5. Farm parks for family fun in Lincolnshire

For little ones keen to enjoy fresh air and sunshine, a day out at a family park is always enjoyable!

FAMILY FUN is assured at one of Lincolnshire’s farm parks, places where little ones can discover the county’s nature and enjoy fresh air and sunshine. Based in Louth, Rushmoor Country Park covers six acres and includes farm animals, birds of prey and new for 2021, Rushmoor Creepy Crawlies. The farm also offers Farmer Experience Days which allows either children over 10 years of age or adults to get stuck in with mucking-out, grooming and feeding horses (01507 328706, www.rushmoorpark.co.uk). Meanwhile, Rand Farm Park at Market Rasen (01673 858904, www.randfarmpark.com) features farm animals from horses to cows and calves, lambs and goats, plus small animals to stroke. In addition, the park offers tractor rides, a 150 square metre giant trampoline, summer sledges and electric quads, as well as crazy golf, the skyrider play area and aerial harness ride in its adventure playground. The park also offers camping weekends and on site is Lincolnshire’s largest toy shop too. Based at Holme, south east of Scunthorpe, The Pink Pig is Sally & Andrew Jackson’s working farm with its indoor and outdoor play areas. As well as pigs, chickens and alpacas, there’s also the Aerial Trail high ropes area, with five zip-wires and 18 areas. The Pink Pig also has a really good café, The Greedy Pig, and one of Lincolnshire’s best farm shops too (01724 844466, www.pinkpigfarm.co.uk). And if you’re on the East Coast this summer, Hardy’s Animal Farm is a farm park set in seven acres which provides children with the chance to see and stroke, both large and small animals (01754 872267, www.hardysanimalfarm.co.uk). n

Rushmoor Country Park also offers ‘Farmer Experience Days’ which allows visitors to get stuck in with mucking-out, grooming and feeding horses!

Personal injury lawyer’s plea – be safe on the country roads!

Wilkin Chapman Partner, Steve Hennegan has recently seen an increase in accidents and incidents on our counties country lanes and calls for us all to be considerate of other road users.

I last had the privilege of writing in this magazine in August 2019 and where I advised on keeping safe on our country roads.

As a personal injury lawyer with Wilkin Chapman, I have seen a rise in the number of incidents on our rural roads over the last 15 months. Many involving horses and their riders, cyclists and pedestrians.

Initially I put this down to the lockdown effect, with everybody getting out and about for socially distanced exercise, whether on foot, bicycle or on horseback. With such increased traffic on the roads, bridleways and back roads one could be forgiven for such an assumption.

However, I recently had the pleasure of speaking to Alan Hiscox of the British Horse Society (please do have a look at their various campaigns on their website https://www.bhs.org.uk/ our-work/safety as well as their App for reporting incidents https://www.bhs.org.uk/ourwork/safety/report-an-incident) and where I learnt some startling facts. Despite the fact that only 1 in 10 incidents are reported to the BHS, between February 2020 and February 2021 there were 1010 incidents reported. From these incidents, 14 horses sadly died, another 118 horses were injured with 130 people being injured. Further statistical analysis revealed that 80% of these incidents involved vehicles driving too fast and/or passing too closely to the horse.

Equestrians are not alone in this, cyclists report similar experiences. According to the Department for Transport, 15 cyclists were killed on UK roads in the first month of lockdown alone, such being an increase on previous figures for the same time of year.

The reason I wish to return to this topic is that many of these incidents are avoidable with us all taking more care whilst out and about.

Further drastic reforms to personal injury law are due at the end of May this year (such deserving an article of their own). The impact of these reforms for horse riders, cyclists, pedestrians, children and motor cyclists amongst others (classified as “vulnerable road users”) who have the misfortune to be involved in an accident on the roads, is that they will require specialist legal advice.

Therefore, when you are out and about on the country roads during the summer months, be increasingly aware of the chances of encountering other road users who may be just round that country bend. Please allow yourself time to react to the unexpected.

For further information please contact Steve Hennegan on 01522 515004, email steve.hennegan@ wilkinchapman.co.uk or visit wilkinchapman.co.uk