Howletts Wild Animal Park (formerly known as Howletts Zoo) in the parish of Bekesbourne, near Canterbury in Kent, was established as a private zoo in 1957 by John Aspinall.

Since 1984, both parks have been owned by the John Aspinall Foundation, a charity. Following his death, John Aspinall was buried in front of the Howletts House and a memorial was built next to the grave near the bison.

A later extension to Howletts was an open-topped enclosure for black and white colobus, just behind the entrance.

Animal collection

thumb| [[African bush elephant|African elephants at Howletts, the largest breeding herd in the United Kingdom]]

The park has some of the largest family groups of western lowland gorillas in the world. It is also home to the largest breeding herd of African elephants in the United Kingdom and has one of the largest breeding groups of lion-tailed macaques in the world.

Charity events

The charity that runs Howletts and Port Lympne Wild Animal Park, the John Aspinall Foundation, also runs animal conservation programmes. It has had recent success in releasing a black rhino into the wild and has previously released other black rhinos and gorillas.

Television

Howletts and Port Lympne have featured on the CBBC television programme Roar. This shows the two parks, the life of the animals and how the keepers look after them. The first series was filmed in 2006 and, as of March 2009, there have been four series in total.

Howletts House

Originally called Owletts, in the parish of Bekesbourne, later of the Hales family for several generations. It passed into the ownership of the Gipps family in 1816. It has been a Grade II* listed building and on the National Heritage List for England since January 1967. The house is presently let by the Aspinall Foundation to Damian Aspinall

See also

  • Port Lympne Wild Animal Park

References

  • Zoo website
  • Aspinall Foundation
  • of Pallas' cat