To ask if you've driven through a safari park...

[whothehellknows]

Did the monkeys really try to eat your car? I'm driving a hire car until mine is fixed, and I'm not keen to return it with missing wipers etc. Is all that just a myth, or should I not do it?

[frankie001]

I wouldn't do it in a hire car. You do have the option of not driving through that section depending on which park you are going to.

[MarthaMonkeynuts]

No, it's not a myth. They do pull bits off (often the aerial) and chew them, and memorably, once, poo on the sunroof

[StillStayingClassySanDiego]

We never went through the monkeys enclosure for this reason, we never fancied having the car wrecked just in case they did pick it apart.

[Sparklingbrook]

No monkeys at our nearest one. They all died apparently.

TBF we drove through and didn't see a huge amount of animals, and put about 4 years of wear on the clutch.

Hope yours is a bit better.

[passmethewineplease]

I wouldn't do it in a hire car.

My sister had her Ariel pinched.

[Mrsjayy]

Oh no don't go through in a hire car any damage will need to be paid for by you. We have a monkey footprint on our car roof from long leat

[TarkaTheOtter]

If it's longleat you can bypass the monkeys.
Our car got hoofed by a deer too though so that's something to watch out for.

[Molichite]

We took the bus round Longleat and saw baboons ( I think) take a couple of parking sensors out of the car in front.

If it's longleat you're going to I would really recommend taking the bus. The driver was fabulous, gave us the names and life stories of loads of the animals, lots of anecdotes, and it was a lot more fun than driving round ourselves saying "look, a lion!".

[ShotgunNotDoingThePans]

My brother had his rear bumper pulled off by a lion. Was roaring in at us through the window, then followed us as we moved off and went for the fucking car.
Horrible places.

[livsmommy]

We went a few weeks ago and watched them peel the black seal thing from the top of the window of the car next to us and run off with it, definitely not a myth!

[whothehellknows]

It's Woburn, so I think we can skip the monkeys. considers borrowing exH's car for the trip

[LotusLight]

We went through in Longleat with no damage. I did find it a bit dull in places and you could not go as fast as you needed because of other cars ahead but on the whole we enjoyed it. Mind you you see a lot more and a lot closer up on youtube which is a bit cheaper too.

[Sparklingbrook]

Phew. Not my local one then in the West Midlands.

[Mrsjayy]

Most of them let you bypass now

[PuttingouthefirewithGasoline]

100% do not do it, when you think right - nothing can go, its all secure, you can guarantee they will find something!

[ChocolateCherry]

Omg yes. Years ago we drove through the monkey enclosure at Longleat. You can avoid it if you want, but Dh insisted because dd would love it.

We had a rear trim/spoiler thingy across the back of the car. They destroyed it. Dd was hugely entertained for all the wrong reasons watching Dh trying to get the car out (and probably learnt lots of interesting new words from daddy too ).

It was an older car, but we still had to repair it. The monkeys are hugely strong, bigger than I imagined close up and very clever. It's also quite scary actually as they can target a car and pull it apart .

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

The Woburn monkeys aren't as bad as the longleat ones. I reckon the longleat monkeys have done courses in mechanics

We also had our bumper bitten by a tiger at longleat. We were quite proud of the gnaw marks and left them there.

[LuckySaint]

I went to one last year and the monkeys pulled off my rear reg plate.A nice man with a big stick got it back for me, but I wouldn't risk it in a hire car.

[Sparklingbrook]

There's a video on You Tube somewhere of a couple of monkeys mating on someone's bonnet at a Safari Park.

[BigfootFilesHisToesInYourTea]

I've driven through a few times and been fine, never in a car that I cared too much about though.

On one occasion we followed a white hatchback which was obviously someone's pride and joy (customised with spoiler and fancy trim etc). The monkeys were merciless. It was not pretty.

[ChocolateCherry]

Also if the monkeys have selected your car and there are cars in front of you and behind you're effectively boxed in with no exit. And accelerating forward and slamming on the brakes to get them off makes absolutely no difference as Dh now knows.

[Ilovenannyplum]

Woburn monkeys stole our aerial

[Sparklingbrook]

I now don't understand why anyone would drive through the monkey enclosure.

[SnotQueen]

Sounds like these Longleat monkeys have been building a Frankenstein car somewhere and are planning an escape!

[butterfly2015]

We went to longleat last year and the monkeys snapped off the rear wiper. The car in front left with no parking sensors and had all the rubber trim stripped off the roof.

It was great though. We had them all over the car, hanging off the mirrors and the kids absolutely loved it.