Flash
2/1/25
Visiting Longleat
We enjoyed visiting Longleat in Wiltshire, which is an amazing stately home with beautiful grounds. For 75 years it has been open to the public and since 1966 it has been home to an amazing safari park, and today 120 species of animals live there.
We went to visit the Safari Park there and to enjoy the Lantern Festival they have every Christmas. It was such a lovely day out. It would be a brilliant place to go if you are learning about animals and for fantastic school trips. I’d definitely recommend it! You can find out more about visiting on the Longleat website. You can also find out lots more about the animals that live at Longleat by watching the programme Animal Park. We’ve watched it since and it was fab finding out even more about the animals that we saw in real life!
Longleat Safari Park
Longleat Safari Park is a drive though experience where you get to see some amazing animals. You can drive in your own car or they have a bus that drives through it too. I really enjoyed seeing the animals at Longleat. Mainly because of how much room the animals had to roam. To be honest I much preferred it to visiting a zoo.
African Village and the East African Reserve
The first part of Longleat Safari is the African Village. This is the only part where you can get out of your car and explore on foot. Once you explored that part you then get back in your car and drive through the East African Village. Here you will see my favourite animal…giraffes! Also they have African Painted Dogs, Ring Tailed Lemurs, zebras, ostriches and wildebeest.
The giraffes they have at Longleat are the Rothschild species. We were able to get really close to them and feed them, something I can never resist!
My Top 3 Giraffe Facts I learnt at Longleat
The keeper who took us to feed the giraffes told us so much about them and it was so interesting. My top three facts he shared with us was…
1. We can’t hear the giraffes but they are often communicating with each other. If we could hear the sounds they make apparently it would sound like a very deep cow type noise. Can you image that? The keeper also said sometimes he can tell when they are making that noise as some of the giraffes lift up the heads slightly when they communicating, so even though he can’t hear it he can sometimes spot it.
2. Even though the giraffes necks are super long they actually have the same number of bones in their neck as we do…7. Isn’t that strange!
3. In the wild giraffes would eat for 18 hours a day so the keepers have to ensure their giraffes are eating enough. They also have to ensure they are eating the right type of foods and stretching their tongues out to eat otherwise they don’t produce enough saliva and then can’t digest the food correctly.
Tiger Territory
The tigers at Longleat live in their own space called Tiger Territory. They have lots of room in comparison to a zoo and to be honest I much preferred seeing the tigers and the other wild cats have some space to explore, even though it made it a bit trickier to see some of them. When we went though their territory only one of the tigers was roaming around. I think it was Red, the male tiger. He was absolutely huge!
But very excitingly, in a separate enclosure was 4 super cute tiger cubs with their mum Yana! You could see them playing with each other, running and leaping about. The cubs were born in May last year, so are only about seven months old. This is amazing news for a species that is so endangered.
My Top 3 Tiger Facts I learnt at Longleat
1. The tigers at Longleat are Amur Tigers, who are also known as Siberian Tigers. They can be found in the wild living in Russia and in small numbers in China and North Korea.
2. Amur Tigers are incredibly endangered. There are thought to be less than 500 Amur Tigers left in the wild. Unbelievably in the 1940’s it was thought there were less than 50 Amur Tigers left. They have been brought back from the edge of extinction by conservation. This means the tigers left in the wild were protected and lots of effort has been put into trying to increase the numbers of the species. Longleat having just had four cubs is massively helping towards this conservation.
3. Amur Tigers are the largest and heaviest species of tiger and the largest cat in the whole world.
Lion Country
They have two prides of African lions at Longleat. The lions were amongst the first animals at Longleat when it first opened its safari park. Lions are very territorial so the two prides are kept it separate enclosures at the park. When we were there a lot of the lions were awake and walking around. We got very close to one of the male lions which was incredible.
My Top 3 Lion Facts I learnt at Longleat
1. Lions live in groups called prides. They are much more sociable than some wild cats so these prides are often quite big and include up to about 15 lions. Prides are made up of mainly female lions and their cubs. There will be one or two adult males lions in each pride.
2. Most lions in the wild live in Africa. Only a small number of lions are found in Asia. Lions aren’t endangered but some people are worried that the number of lions living in the wild is falling.
3. A lions roar can be heard 5 miles away. While we were there we heard the lions roaring and making noises. It was incredible.
Even more animals...
There are so many animals to see on the safari! We also saw cheetahs, flamingos, vultures, very cheeky monkeys, rhinos, camels, deer and wolves! At Longleat they also have an elephant named Annie. She was in her house when we visited. The poor elephant used to be in a cirus, which is very sad. But she was rescued and is now living a much nicer life at Longleat. She apparently often chooses to stay in her house and is allowed to do whatever she chooses which is lovely but does mean you’d be very lucky to catch a glimpse of her!
Once you have explored the safari there is even more to see. A Safari boat ride where you get to see even more animals, including gorillas and lots of animals you can see near the house that you can see on foot. My favourites were the lorikeets which we also fed and the koalas. I have never seen koalas in real life before! They were so cute!
My Top 3 Koala Facts I learnt at Longleat
1. Koalas are a type of animal called marsupials. Marsupials are only found living in the wild in Australia. They are a type of mammal that have a pouch for their babies to develop inside.
2. Most of the koalas at Longleat were asleep up in the trees when we saw them (one was awake which as amazing). It’s not surprising as they apparently sleep for about 18 hours a day.
3. Koalas love to eat eucalyptus leaves. But these leaves are actually poisonous. Koalas are immune to this though and their digestive system protects them from this poison so it doesn’t hurt them.
And then finally...the Lantern Festival
As we visited over Christmas once it was dark it was time to visit Longleat’s Lantern Festival. They have this light trail every year, and every year it is a bit different. This year it was a bit like a giant timeline through history. All the ‘statues’ glowed brightly, lit up from lights on the inside. It was incredible! Blue and Violet came with me and really enjoyed this part of our day.
Find out more about some of the animals at Longleat...
Links for grown ups...
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