Paradise Wildlife Park in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, has adopted charitable status after announcing the launch of the Zoological Society of Hertfordshire (ZSH), a registered charity that will allow the organisation to focus its operations on education and animal conservation.
Paradise Wildlife Park was formed in 1982 and is already well known for its animal breeding and conservation work, having made contributions of over £5,000,000 to projects and wildlife causes in the UK and around the world. It is also part of the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme, with successful African penguin, lar gibbon, cotton top tamarin, silvery marmoset and red ruff lemur births in the past year alone.
Voted Hertfordshire’s Top Tourist Attraction and with a Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence, the new ZSH charity will continue to utilise the Paradise Wildlife Park brand in order to raise funds for its work and to act as a focus for an expanded wildlife education programme for visitors.
Paradise is home to over 400 exotic wild animals including tigers, white lions, jaguars, snow leopards, monkeys (including the largest collection of small monkeys in the UK), zebras, lemurs, meerkats, red pandas, tapirs, penguins, wallabies, emus, birds of prey, reptiles (including the UK’s largest anaconda).
ZSH Managing Director, Lynn Whitnall, said: “As a zoo, we’re crucially aware that our purpose will always be questioned. However, at Paradise Wildlife Park, we’ve always made the well being of our animals and the preservation of the wider natural world our prime focus.
“The creation of ZSH will help us to continue and, we hope, expand our conservation and educational work, making clear the valuable role zoos can play in protecting the lasting freedom of species throughout the world.”
The Zoological Society of Hertfordshire (ZSH) will officially launch at 12pm on Saturday 1st April 2017, when a new state-of-the-art ‘Penguin Falls’ enclosure for critically endangered African penguins will also be revealed.
Based on their homeland in the south of Africa, the penguins amazing new habitat will provide much needed space for an excellent quality of life and breeding – Paradise Wildlife Park is one of only two zoos in the UK to be recommended for African penguin breeding.
For more information about the ZSH charity launch on 1st April please visit https://www.pwpark.com/whats-on/events/zsh-launch
African Penguin: Photo Si Lloyd
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