Another circus family, the Smart Brothers, joined the safari park business by opening a park at Windsor for visitors from London. 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. 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. 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. The first drive-through safari park outside of Africa opened in 1966 at Longleat in Wiltshire, England. In double-glazed buses, visitors made a tour through a one-hectare enclosure with twelve African lions. The first lion drive-through opened in 1963 in Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo. The predecessor of safari parks is Africa U.S.A. Giraffes being fed by visitors in the West Midland Safari Park, England On river safari areas, there may be islands with primates Longleat keeps gorillas and black-and-white colobus on their islands, which are used to house chimpanzees and siamangs African Lion Safari in Canada has black-and-white ruffed lemurs, ring-tailed lemurs, lar gibbons, siamangs, Colombian spider monkeys, Geoffroy's spider monkeys, pink-backed pelicans and black swans in the waters. These are commonly found in the walk-around area. Safari parks often have other associated tourist attractions: golf courses, carnival rides, cafés/ restaurants, ridable miniature railways, boat trips to see aquatic animals like sea lions, life-sized recreations of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, plant mazes, playgrounds, monorails, cable cars and gift shops. The Knowsley Safari in England keeps Siberian tigers and giraffes in their walking area. There can be walk-through exhibits with animals like kangaroos, lemurs and wallabies. Besides animals, in the walk-round area, there are public facilities like toilets, snack bars and cafés, play areas and sometimes amusement rides. Some also have: children's zoos, aquariums, butterfly houses and reptile and insect houses. Most safari parks have a 'walk-around' area with animals too small or too dangerous to roam freely in the reserves, like: tapirs, small birds, small antelopes, squirrel monkeys, penguins, marmosets, tamarins, mongoose, meerkats, lemurs, wallabies, gorillas, reptiles, hornbills, chimpanzees, capybaras, llamas, emus, red pandas, snow leopards, otters and warthogs. The main attractions are frequently large animals from Sub-Saharan Africa which people can see in wildlife reserves such as: giraffes, lions, white lions, rhinoceros, elephants, hippopotami, zebras, ostriches, African buffaloes, oryxes, sometimes dromedaries, pelicans, ibises, Ankole cattles, cheetahs, hyenas, baboons, African wild dogs, Barbary sheep, addaxes, crowned cranes, Egyptian geese, white storks, bongos, crocodiles (in a side paddock), Nubian ibexes, sitatungas, gemsboks and antelopes ( elands, lechwes, wildebeests, nyalas, impalas, waterbucks, sable antelopes, kudus and roan antelopes just to name a few).Īlso in the reserves there are animals that are not from Africa: Asian species include: gaures, nilgais, blackbucks, bantengs, sambar deers, Indian hog deers, yaks, tigers, white tigers, Asian black bears, Eld's deers, babirusas, chitals, barasinghas, painted storks and Bactrian camels American species include: American black bears, brown bears, wolves, tapirs, American bisons, elks, Arctic wolves, llamas, guanacos, rheas and white-tailed deers Australian species include kangaroos, wallabies and emus European species include: European bisons, brown bears, wolves, fallow deers, red deers and mooses.

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Virginia safari park