Neck and neck Wild place marks five years
ABRISTOL attraction is celebrating five years of going wild by partying with its residents.
The Wild Place Project will be five years old on Sunday, and to celebrate its tallest resident tucked in to a delicious birthday cake.
Gerry the giraffe received the special cake made of his favourite pellets and carrots from his keepers.
Located just off J17 of the M5, Wild Place Project first opened its gates to visitors in 2013 and since then has seen major developments.
The sister site to Bristol Zoo Gardens is a developing attraction and as well as Gerry and his fellow giraffes Tom and Dayo it has gelada baboons, zebra, cheetah and lemurs.
It also has okapi, meerkats, red river hogs and a pack of European grey wolves and the walled garden aviaries – home to various species from Africa to Asia.
They are among scores of exotic animal species at the park which was visited by more than 200,000 people last year.
Nigel Simpson, Head of operations at Wild Place Project, said: “We have come a long way since we first opened the gates five years ago.
“Our visitors love the woods, the open spaces and, of course, our animals and in the years to come we have plans to make Wild Place Project even better.”
Work is already under way on a £5million exhibit called Bear Wood which will bring back European brown bears to the woods at Wild Place for the first time in hundreds of years.
They will be joined by lynx, wolverine and the pack of wolves who currently live at Wild Place Project.
Visitors this summer can also enjoy the Poppy Sanctuary Garden which opened last month and includes more than 100 varieties of poppies from all around the world.
The garden of poppies was sown to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War which is being commemorated by the Royal British Legion’s Thank You campaign to remember “all who served, sacrificed and changed our world”.