Our Grand Tour of Scotland: 2010 - Part 3: Highland Wildlife Park

Bev had been really excited at the prospect of visiting the Highland Wildlife Park at Kincrag, and when she saw on the news that the Scottish wildcats had had a kitten, there was no holding her back. 

The park is part of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and is linked to Edinburgh Zoo.  It is known for its collection of animals native to Scotland now or in the past - Scottish wildcats, Pine martens, Red Squirrels and Capercaille, but it also has some other animals suited to the climate of Kincraig - arctic foxes, wolves, Siberian tigers, Lynx, Beaver, and of course Mercedes the polar bear.

We got there early but a whole day was not enough time to see all the animals.  The highlights were definitely the wild cats and their kitten, Mercedes the polar bear who went for a swim and played with a ball in the water, seeing European beavers and the beautiful Amur tigers.

Here is the female Scottish wildcat - she has eyes just like Kitty's.











This is the male Scottish wildcat in one of the aerial runs in the trees.

Here is a European Beaver - we were very lucky to see him, as the staff had just thrown some fruit and vegetables into the water, and one appeared, grabbed a cabbage leaf and disappeared back into his lodge.  The notice at the beaver viewing platform said that they had just provided the basic area for the beavers, and the beavers had carried out all the DIY work and improvements themselves!

And Mercedes off for a swim to cool down!

We also saw an arctic fox, a wolf, the tigers, horses and some deer. 

We would thoroughly recommend the Highland Wildlife Park to anyone who is interested in wildlife, though we would suggest getting there early as most animals go for an afternoon snooze once they have been fed!  Actually, that sounds just like us little bears, who love nothing better than climbing back into bed and sleeping off our big lunches!