Thursday, June 24, 2010


How Cute Is This?


Went to Marwell on Sunday, it was Father's Day and I fancied photographing some animals. Anyway this is a Wallaby and her Joey.


Less cuddly but probably more impressive is this Leopard.

I've always been a little worried about zoos but walking around Marwell is more like walking a round a conservation project than something designed to make you go 'aah' whilst spending hours afterwards worrying about the ethics of it all. Most of the animals have a lot of space, it seems that only a few, mainly the big cats, have less space than they would be used to in the wild. The play-off is the fact that at Marwell they don't get shot at or run the risk of becoming close to extinction, in fact so successful have some of the breeding projects been (the Okapi for example) that Marwell actually exports animals to other countries for breeding and out into their native countries when sufficient numbers have been reached.

3 comments:

Span Ows said...

Great pics...Haven't been for a few years but Marwell is very nice indeed and a great place to take vistitors from abroad. Winchester etc is just a nice area.

Paul said...

Thanks. Marwell has expanded a lot over the years but it still feels small somehow - if that makes sense.

Span Ows said...

Yes it makes sense, maybe due to the "Home farm" like feel. Had a friend that used to manage an estate near Owslebury (a village close to my heart...) which is the main reason I was there on a few ocasions with the kiddiwinks but the last was easily 6 or 7 years ago.