Things To Do In Kent For Wildlife Lovers

Howletts Wild Animal Park is the only zoo in the UK that has a herd of African Elephants. Due to things such as the ivory trade and being poached for their tusks 100 elephants per day loose their lives. They are endangered in the wild which is very sad.

During my first visit to Howletts in 2018 one of the tigers I was looking forward to visiting was Arina who had a special story, when she was a cub she was hand reared by the keepers after being abandoned by her mum. When Arina was younger she developed a lack of bone mass which causes her to limb when she walks. Despite what she has been through Arina still had a zest for life.

Howletts also have Javan Langur Monkeys that are endangered, some of the problems they face in Asia are habitat destruction, hunting and young monkeys being taken away from their mums for the illegal pet trade. One of the conservation projects Howletts are involved with is the Javan Primate Project outside Malang in Indoneisa, they rescue langur monkeys and release them back into protected areas.

Howletts Wild Animal Park was set up by John Aspinall in 1957, it used to be a private zoo before opening to the public in 1975. In John's memory they have the conservation charity The Aspinall Foundation that work with Howletts and their partner zoo Port Lymne. Through their charity they release some of the animals from the zoo into protected reservers in the wild which will hopefully help the survival of the species. The past few years the Foundation have released western lowland gorillas, black rhinos, javan langurs and european bison back into the wild. For more information on visiting Howletts their website is https://www.aspinallfoundation.org/howletts