Summer Break in Bournemouth 2018: New Forest Wildlife Park

We have passed by The New Forest in the past on our trips to Dorset and I was intrigued by it, so when one of our group suggested we stop there on the way back to London from Bournemouth, I was up for it.  I didn’t have much time to research what we could do, and most activities seemed mainly suited to hikers and cyclists, which my group is decidedly not.

In the end, we settled on the New Forest Wildlife Park, which is a collection of local animal species housed in the forest itself.  The Wildlife Park requires you to follow a path through the forest that leads you from one enclosure to another.

We saw wolves, deer, boar (Peppa’s dad apparently…), lynx, wildcat and a beautiful stag. We did manage to go around in circles a few times and missed seeing the Bison. 

The number of animals isn’t enormous, but the setting of the New Forest is beautiful and there were a number of well-designed and interesting play spaces for younger and older kids that we spent quite a bit of time in.

There was also a butterfly house which housed a few other small mammals like otters and field mice.  There were quite a few butterflies hidden in the foliage, although I didn’t manage to get a picture of the most beautiful one, which had big cobalt wings.

Overall, not the most exotic or the largest collection of animals we have seen, but made up for by the beautiful location in the forest and the play spaces.