Fota Wildlife Park celebrates 40 years of conservation

Geraldine Fitzgerald

Fota Wildlife Park celebrated its 40th birthday last Friday 23 June, marking four decades of successful conservation, education, research and breeding of endangered animals.

Since opening in 1983, Fota Wildlife Park has welcomed over 12 million people through its gates and the number of animals has grown from 172 (33 different species) to 1,096 (109 species).

Over the course of 40 years, 7914 different animals have called Fota home, some for a short while before leaving for other parks, and some for their whole life. This number doesn’t include the 7,500 endangered Natterjack toadlets that were released into the wild in Kerry.

Fota Wildlife Park has given over €4 million to Irish and International conservation programmes since its inception, and presided over the births of 240 cheetahs, 72 Rothschild giraffes and 60 European bison.

The latest addition to the park is a baby female Rothschild giraffe; her lineage traceable all the way back to her great, great grandmother Frisky who came to Fota Wildlife Park in 1983 as one of the founding herd members.

In 1983 Frisky, along with the zebra and cheetah, was one of the very first species of animal to call Cork home, making the birth of the new giraffe calf even more poignant.

The new calf, born on 30 April to mother Clodagh and father Ferdie is already displaying similar characteristics to her long line of Rothschild maternal relatives, who were strong, fearless females.

For public opening hours and animal feeding times, see www.fotawildlife.ie.