New facilities and polar bear family at Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Schools who enquire about a teacher pre-visit at the time of booking will have the opportunity to meet the new animals before their school’s session.

With around 475 animals including over 60 different species, most of which are endangered or threatened in the wild, the park is billed as a fantastic experience for children to take a walk-through wildlife adventure. Most of the animals at the park are endangered or threatened in the wild including amur leopards and tigers.

School groups can now take advantage of a designated entrance, as well as a new indoor picnic area for school trips during the autumn and winter months.

During the pandemic, the team at the Auckley-based site has been busy behind the scenes with lots of new school-friendly features now on offer. Students will also be able to see the newest members of the animal family including Californian sea lions and the new polar bear family in special educational workshops.

Meanwhile, the education programme has been updated with a range of enriched experiences available to learners of all ages. For Primary school pupils, sessions include learning about food-chains and diet, animal groups as well as world habitats and adaptations. For the Secondary schools, sessions include learning about conservation and endangered animals, marketing, employability, and zoo careers.

The education team has now reintroduced animal handling into the sessions and students will have the opportunity to handle a range of invertebrates and reptiles depending which topics are booked.

Jade Bancroft, Yorkshire Wildlife Park’s education manager, said: “It is wonderful to finally be back offering our education service after so long. Both teachers and pupils will find we have been busy making plenty of updates, improvements and additions in anticipation of their return.”