Rhino’s hitting cars in West midlands safari park today

[RunningRhino]

So this isn’t anywhere I can read.
Today we were caught up in Rhinos fighting at WMSP- West Midlands safari park.

Rhinos were fighting then cars were in the way of their fight so they started trying to move the cars out their way. It looked more like head flicks and shunts rather than trying to do serious damage, but 3 cars were hit repeatedly.

But the issue is is that this lasted a long time, around 5mins. During this time the park did not stop cars coming in. As they had not seen what was going on people were still trying to pass to get into the fighting arena with their kids hanging out the windows.

There was no influx of keepers to help the one getting hit and they still kept sending the cars through. These things happen but there seemed to be no alert go out to stop the cars. Or even a halt for 5mins to assess the situation if the fighting rhinos needed to be removed and the park was safe, just keep the money flowing in.

I have tried to contact the park but just got a well read your email in 7 days and no other way to contact.

This is bound to happen. Humans shouldn't be invading their space.

That sounds increibly scary ! And no back up systems to procext people !?

We saw something similar to this at another safari park - the car in front of us in the monkey enclosure was swarmed and both wipers and other parts were ripped off. They did have signs warning this could happen but it was extensive!

Years ago I was in the safari drive at Longleat when the lions had a huge fight round the cars. It was terrifying. I read a few days later that Longleat broke up that group, they had a gang on young male lions who all got send off to new zoos.
Maybe your rhinos will be separated and moving on shortly.

Different situation but we were there on Saturday, the keeper was herding the rhinos back to another enclosure through the traffic. One rhino went the wrong way in front of our car, it had to back up and its horn dented the car in front. It was 5pm and I think they were herding the Rhinos to their overnight base. The park hadn’t shut yet and it was full of cars. I was surprised they were trying to move the rhinos whilst the park was still full. Or they should have organised a gap for the rhinos to move through.

Yes, the rights and wrongs of “safari” parks in general aside for a moment, the immediate issue is lack of procedures for dealing with incidents. there should have been a protocol for dealing with this type of situation, so either it doesn’t exist, the keepers hadn’t been training on it, or were not following it.

we went to Longleat a few years back, and wanted to tour the monkey enclosure. There were a million signs about the damage that monkeys do to cars, in fact the entrance gate was “decorated” with car parts that have been ripped off over the years. We chose to do the safari tour bus, and had great fun sat up on the top deck, watching everyone who had taken their car through being mobbed by the monkeys - including some people who were clearly in hire cars - that totally baffled me as it must have cost a fair whack in lost deposit etc.

Perhaps contact West Mids Safari directly and raise your concerns with them, it would be interesting to know what their policy is. We have visited a couple of times but not in the summer and with it being that busy, so that does sound quite scary.

Trigger warning:
We have been at Longleat however with the lions when one killed another. That was also kept very quiet from the news! We were trapped in there for ages as the lions were fighting, they did have a few staff trucks keeping people back but obviously no one could move through. We were further back so didn't see the full incident but the cars in front of us would have seen the full event so I did feel for them if they had young children with them.

The baboons always damage cars, they’re curious and have no fear. If you choose to drive through their enclosure then that’s your own fault. The ones at Knowsley stole my wing mirror. These are wild animals and will behave accordingly

i agree !

I’m curious if insurance covers the damage , like your own car insurance? Or do they say you shouldn’t have taken the risk?

are you given instructions about what to do? ie sound your horn
or do you just park?

This is why I like Port Lympne, you can't take your own car in, it's only the park safari vehicles which mainly run on tracks not inside the enclosures but with low boundaries so you get a lovely view of the animals without them being disturbed

Many years ago when Longleat first opened we watched monkeys running around with hands full of wires, windscreen wipers, vinyl from car roofs etc
It was alarming how much they could grab.
I ‘d never drive through a safari park, the bus is safer!

If it states at your own risk then I doubt if an insurance company will cough up.

Sounds like they handled it badly and they should learn from it - stopping cars from going in until the rhinos had stopped fighting seems obvious but people can also help themselves by not driving nose to tail so they're not trapped in a queue - basic defensive driving. As well as what happened, someone could have broken down so you don't want to be stuck behind another car in those circumstances either.

WMSP is like the M25 with animals. They always let too many in and it's nose to tail. You're just stuck. We went when DS was a baby and we were just stuck for ages not being able to move. DS was crying....it was awful.

Still at least they don't do the bloody firework displays now. That used to make me so cross. Poor animals.

I doubt it - it’s a bit like driving through flood water or road closed signs.

We were at West Midlands a few years ago when the Rhino's were getting aggressive (in fact I think it was young Rhinos play fighting with Mum trying to get a bit of peace and quiet). Keepers came in with Jeeps and headed them away. All very stress free. But the cars were driving sensibly. Leaving gaps so that the Keepers could get through, not moving from one enclosure to the next to allow space. I can imagine if cars are trying to overtake and over filling the enclosures this would be far more difficult to manage. The don't have smart gates that will only open if there is space, the drivers have to manage themselves.

Only on a weekday in school time if it was an inset day. To make sure there is escape space

Yeh I think with all the new accommodation they move the animals for the people staying to see them.

This is really helpful thank you. The rhinos we saw fighting had fresh wounds on their faces afterwards.

They really didn’t seem to know what they were doing in the jeeps.

This is a really good description! At one point. We were stationary for 15mins. On a hill! Cars were breaking down due to constantly hill starting. A simple traffic light at the bottom of the hill so cars queued on the flat would have helped.

Also the whole stop on the left and pass on the right doesn’t work when their tour buses go down the right and stop where they want!

We always tried to leave a space in front but it was so busy people were literally rammed in in 2 lanes and if you left a gap your part to the right didn’t.

Completely get the fact it’s at your own risk. But this could have ended up with dead people and the response to manage it was non existent

There are signs saying sound horn for help. But that wouldn’t have helped as the keepers could already see what was happening and couldn’t contain the situation and the park kept flooding the cars in.

Absolutely - I was just answering the question about whether car insurance would pay out.