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Entrance to the Animal Orphanage section in the Park

The animal orphanage is not big - in fact, it's rather small, but this makes it very intimate and it is certainly easy to to wander around.  What adds to its charm and its sense of personalisation is that every enclosure has a notice in front of it describing the animals in a way that allows visitors to relate to them. First of all, each animal has a name and its age and a reference to where it came from. Other interesting facts include biological details (it's life expectancy, how much and what it eats, natural habitat, etc.)

You can also read about how each animal came to be there - whether it was rescued or born in captivity. If it was rescued, there is a story about who rescued it, what it was suffering from and a brief tale of its recovery and rehabilitation. If unsuccessful efforts were made to release it back into the wild, you can also read about why those efforts failed - and I noticed on many of the boards that often it was because the animal was refused to leave its caretaker!
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Lion taking an afternoon siesta

But it was a lot different when Phil Perkes visited the orphanage. He was standing in front of the enclosure, quietly observing the lions, when this lion suddenly shot up and galloped straight at the fence towards him, jaws wide and roaring like a ... lion!

The way he tells it is that for a brief moment he was more afraid than he's ever been in his life. "Can you imagine what it must be like to be out in the bush and confronted with a charging lion - you'd die of a heart attack before he got to you!"
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Volunteer Sian Hynam made friends with this cheetah during her placement in the Animal Orphanage

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