Cricket St Thomas - Wildlife
Park
Cricket St Thomas, Somerset
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Featured Location Guide |
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2010 Update:
The Wildlife Park CLOSED at the end
of the 2009 season and all large animals have been re-homed in other
zoos and wildlife centres. It has been redeveloped over the winter
months and reopens in May 2010 as Lakes and Gardens with some
small animals such as Lemurs, Meerkats, Fallow Deer, Wallabies etc.
Want to know more - then see
their website for details. |
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| A day out at the Wildlife Park at Cricket St
Thomas is a treat. It is a walk around wildlife park with the animals in areas
which in most cases make it easy to photograph them either because they are in
paddocks which are easy to get a good view of, have perspex panels for you to
look through, or for those animals that need wire to protect both them and you
the wire is large enough that you can photograph through it. There are some
behind smaller wire like the Leopards as well as some of the birds. The smaller wire does present a challenge but
if it's not too busy you may be able to get a position that throws it out of
focus. The other challenge is the perspex because if the sun is in the wrong
direction you can get flare back or low contrast, as well as at different times
of the day it can be a bit grubby, but the avid photographer should be able to
overcome most of these challenges.
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This guide is now out of date
 
 Cheetah |
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Kookaburra |
We visited the park during the winter months,
when it was not busy, and the day we went was sunny but not hot so the animals
were chilled out and we had a good photography session. When you first arrive at
the park, down a very long drive you park the car and enter through the visitors
information centre and shop. Going out from here the first thing you see is the
Tamrin Island and in the summer the Reindeer paddock. The reindeer where in the
paddock on our visit, but we were not able to get near them because it was
rutting season so we had to view from a distance, long telephoto lens handy
here. In Lemur wood you walk through a four acre
woodland where the Lemurs are able to move about and around you. On our visit we
didn't see any in the wood, but they do provide daily tours and tell you when
the feeding of them will take place so if you are a wandering at these times you
are likely to see them and get up close. The only one we saw were some that had
got out of wood area and were in other areas around the park.
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| They have a number of themed paddock areas
which you walk past and they include: The African paddock has Zebra, Ostrich,
Pelicans on the water, African Wild Dogs, and Kafue Flats Lechwe a species of
antelope.
The South American paddock with Rheas, Capybara
and Sitatunga, which look like deer. In the native country they spend most of
their time amongst papyrus beds in swamps and at the park they will be found in
the shallow parts of the lake which form part of their paddock.
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Rhea |
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View of the railway bridge at the end of the
lake |
The Waterfowl paddock has American Flamingos,
Red breasted geese, Hawaiian goose, wigeon, common shelduck, pintails, black
swans and wallaby. Up at the end of the lake with the flamingoes there are nice
water shots with lots of Pampas grass creating a photographic border down the
edge of the lake leading you into a metal bridge which the safari train uses to
get across the lake at this end of the park. The deer park has Axis Deer and Indian species,
unusual in that they do not have a defined breeding cycle, fawns are born all
year round and the stags are likely to have antlers in a range of conditions
from none at all to a full set.
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| At the bottom end of the park
near the Black Swan pub a refreshment area and more shops (open in the
summer months) and children's play areas, there are more animals and birds
to see including an Ibis aviary and there is an island with a moat around it
which is home to some Spider Monkeys, one of them also had a baby that they
were carrying around. On the island there are climbing apparatus for them to
sue and they were quite active on our visit giving lots of opportunities to
get good photographs of them. On the way back to have our ride on the Safari
train we spotted some aviaries which had more birds in them including a
Kookaburra, it was difficult to photograph these because they were amongst
trees and it was not a lot of light getting through, plus they were sat
quite near to the wire fencing, however as you can see above Keith managed
to get a good shot of one perched on a tree. |
Spider Monkey with young |
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There are lots of other things around the park
to see including Cricket House, a large house which is now a hotel, and its
manicured gardens which have statues of children in different play positions,
there is plenty of flora and fauna and different parts will be out in bloom at
different seasons throughout the year. Whenever you visit the park recommends allowing
3-5 hours for your visit. We went at the beginning of November when not many
people were about and still took this amount of time to walk the park and take
the photographs you see here. This is only some of the many we took
between us on the day.
An enjoyable day out and a good site for a day
out during the winter or summer months with a wide variety of subject matter to
photograph.
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| Further information Grid
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Location: |
Cricket St Thomas Wildlife Park, Somerset |
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Ceremonial County: |
Somerset |
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Grid Reference: |
ST272085 |
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Map Link: |
Multimap
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Aerial photo: |
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Route(s):
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Best Times to Visit: |
Any time, however during the Spring and Summer
months there may be more flora and fauna on display, but the animals less
active due to the heat. During the winter months you still see all the
animals. |
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E-mail: |
wildlifepark.cst@bourne-leisure.co.uk |
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Website: |
www.wild.org.uk
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Other useful
websites: |
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Nearby Locations: |
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Other Relevant pages: |
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Planning Grid
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Location: |
Cricket St Thomas Wildlife Park, Somerset |
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Grid Reference: |
ST272085 |
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Getting there: |
From M5 J25, take the A358 to Chard where you
then take the A30 towards Crewkerne, its off on the right hand side |
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Access: |
Paths all round the animal enclosures, there
are some steep slopes. |
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Parking: |
Large FREE car park on site and very close to
entrance of park |
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Facilities: |
Safari Train the runs the length of the
valley, shops. Food available at the Black Swan Pub
or Coffee House. Toilets are spread throughout the park. |
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Things To Do,
See and Photograph: |
The many animals, most in paddocks that can be
easily photographed, Safari Train, lake with many wildfowl, Cricket House
and grounds (a Hotel). Pets corner with rabbits and guinea pigs. |
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What to take: |
Telephoto lens, grads for wider vistas,
polarizer for water and sky shots, macro lens for fauna |
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Nature highlights: |
Lemur, Spider Monkey's, Meerkats, African Wild
Dogs, Cheetah, Reindeer, Zebra, Tapir, camel, deer, wallaby, leopard,
capybara, birds including flamingo, rheas, ostrich, wildfowl, etc. As well
as flora at relevant points in year including Pampas Grass. |
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Address: |
The Wildlife Park at Cricket St Thomas
Chard
Somerset |
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Postcode: |
TA20 4DD |
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Telephone: |
01460 30111 |
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Opening times: |
Everyday except Christmas day. 10am to 6pm
summer months and 4.30pm winter months |
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Charges: |
Range from £4.25 to £27.50 depending on what
time of year you visit and whether you're and individual or family. FREE
entry to wheelchair users. |
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Photo Restrictions: |
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Other Restrictions: |
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Special Needs Access: |
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Special Needs Facilities: |
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Children Facilities: |
play areas for children and during the summer
season some other children's rides are available |
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Dogs Allowed: |
No |
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Please let us know any other information that we
can add to the Further information and Planning Grids or page and any errors that you discover. Before making a long trip to any location it is always
wise to double check the current information, websites like magazines may be
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