Out & About Autumn 2021

Wild Berkshire

Beale Park is a family-friendly wildlife park tucked away on the banks of the River Thames and in an area of outstanding natural beauty. SARAH BOSLEY visited the park with her two daughters to see what attractions are on offer

S et in 35 acres, Beale Park reopened its doors to the public in April after the enforced Covid lockdown and has been welcoming crowds of smiling children ever since, something CEO Lucy Costello is delighted to see. “It’s just lovely to see happy children. And lovely to see children unplugged – no phones, no iPad, just running around enjoying themselves.” And it’s not just the staff who have been delighted to see visitors back at the park. The 160 different wildlife species that call Beale Park home seem to be just as excited that things have reopened. “We have absolutely loved having the visitors back and the animals love it too. You often don’t think that of an animal collection. “They are generally curious and so they absolutely loved it when the visitors came back. It was like they were on show again and they were happy to interact.

Wandering around the grounds it is clear that the park has remained true to the vision of founder Gilbert Beale, with a lot of green open space, tall mature trees, lakes and wildflower areas, interspersed among the animal enclosures. Bug houses, including Bug Ben, all created using recycled materials can also be seen in abundance as you venture around the park. For animal lovers there is plenty to enjoy as you can get up close to a number of beautiful creatures – from a host of different birds, alpaca, goats, donkeys, sheep and pigs to otters, coati, prairie dogs, capybara and meerkats. The highlights for my children when we visited this summer were seeing baby Doug, the otters and the squirrel monkey. Youngsters can get a really good look at Doug and his family of lemurs by climbing through the tunnel that leads to a little hut right in the

“Our lynx is a bit of a show-off. He arrived during lockdown so he had no experience of visitors and so we were a bit anxious about how he would react, but he just loves the public.” Finn, the Carpathian Lynx, is not the only new arrival at the park since the beginning of the Covid pandemic. As well as Lucy herself – who joined in November – a family of lemurs, including

the adorable baby Doug, a herd of rescued Shetland ponies, named Hector, Honey, Willow, Sweet Pea, Beauty and Silver, and three sibling Scottish wildcats, now one of Britain’s rarest mammals, have all arrived at the park. Another new addition for visitors to see is a West African Dwarf Crocodile – one of the world’s smallest crocodiles, this one is named Neville, thanks to a Facebook poll.

O&A AUTUMN 2021

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