Fota Wildlife Park facts for kids
| Date opened | June 1983 |
|---|---|
| Location | Fota Island, County Cork, Ireland |
| Land area | 100 acres (40 ha) |
| Coordinates | 51°53′28″N 8°18′25″W / 51.891°N 8.307°W |
| No. of species | 106 |
| Annual visitors | 455,559 (2017) |
Fota Wildlife Park is a 100-acre (40 ha) wildlife park located on Fota Island, near Carrigtwohill, County Cork, Ireland. Opened in 1983, it is an independently funded, not-for-profit charity that is one of the leading tourism, wildlife and conservation attractions in Ireland. The park had an attendance of 455,559 visitors in 2017, making it the eleventh most popular paid attraction in Ireland for that year.
The park is home to nearly 30 mammal and 50 bird species. Some of the animals roam freely with the visitors, such as the ring-tailed lemurs and wallabies, while larger animals, including the giraffe and bison, live in paddocks with barriers that are intended to be unobtrusive for visitors to view the animals in a more natural environment. Fota Wildlife Park also has red pandas, tapirs, siamang gibbons and other types of animals.
Animals and habitats
The animals and birds at Fota Wildlife Park originate from a variety of habitats, a number of which are threatened with degradation through human activity. Fota runs the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) for the Sudan cheetah and the European Studbook (ESB) for Lechwe (Kafue lechwe and Red lechwe).
A number of sections of the park are arranged by habitat and region. These areas include the 'Asian Sanctuary' section, which houses the park's Sumatran tiger, Visayan spotted deer, Visayan warty pig, lion-tailed macaque, Indian rhino, and Asiatic lion. The 'African Savannah' paddock is home to ostrich, Grant's zebra, scimitar-horned oryx and Rothschild's giraffe breeds. When opened in 2014, the 'Tropical House' housed three reptile, nine amphibian, 28 fish and 14 butterfly species among 340 tropical plants. A number of aquatic bird species (including penguins, Chilean flamingos, and great white pelicans) are found in wetlands around the park's 'Monkey Island' section, which itself houses black howler, Colombian spider monkeys, and Siamang gibbon and lemur species. Some mammals and marsupials, like kangaroo, wallaby and mara species, roam somewhat freely within sections of the park.
Images for kids
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Cheetah at Fota Wildlife Park
See also
In Spanish: Parque de vida silvestre de Fota para niños
