Fota Wildlife Park facts for kids

Fota Wildlife Park is a huge wildlife park on Fota Island in County Cork, Ireland. It opened in 1983. This special park is a charity, which means it's not run for profit. It's one of Ireland's top places to visit for seeing amazing animals and learning about nature.

In 2017, over 455,000 people visited Fota Wildlife Park! It's home to almost 30 types of mammals and 50 kinds of birds. Some animals, like friendly lemurs and wallabies, can even walk around freely near visitors! Larger animals, such as giraffes and bison, live in big open areas. The park uses clever barriers so you can see the animals almost as if they were in the wild. You can also spot red pandas, tapirs, and siamang gibbons here.

Discover the Animals and Their Homes

A zebra and its foal at Fota Wildlife Park

Free-roaming ring-tailed lemurs

The animals and birds at Fota Wildlife Park come from many different habitats around the world. Sadly, many of these natural homes are in danger because of human activities. Fota Wildlife Park works hard to protect these animals.

Helping Endangered Species

Fota is part of important programs that help animals that are in danger of disappearing forever.

• The European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) helps animals like the Sudan cheetah. This program makes sure that cheetahs in zoos are healthy and can have babies. This helps keep their numbers up.
• The European Studbook (ESB) helps track animals like the Lechwe, which are a type of antelope. This program keeps records of all the Lechwe in different parks to make sure they are healthy and can breed.

Exploring Different Habitats

The park is divided into different areas that look like the animals' natural homes.

• The Asian Sanctuary is where you can see animals from Asia. This includes the powerful Sumatran tiger, the unique Visayan spotted deer, and the amazing Indian rhinoceros. You can also find lion-tailed macaques and Asiatic lions here.
• The African Savannah is a large open area that feels like the plains of Africa. Here, you can watch ostriches, Grant's zebras, and tall Rothschild's giraffes.
• The Tropical House is like stepping into a rainforest. It's home to many kinds of reptiles, amphibians, fish, and beautiful butterflies. There are also over 300 types of tropical plants inside!
• Around 'Monkey Island', you'll find wetlands with many water birds. These include Chilean flamingos and great white pelicans. On 'Monkey Island' itself, you can see different kinds of monkeys and lemurs, like black howler monkeys and Colombian spider monkeys.
• Some animals, like kangaroos, wallabies, and maras, can roam quite freely in certain parts of the park.

Images for kids

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  Cheetah at Fota Wildlife Park

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  Female white-tailed sea eagle at Fota Wildlife Park

See also

In Spanish: Parque de vida silvestre de Fota para niños