Blair Drummond Safari Park 5.84

Blair Drummond Safari Park is a safari park located near Stirling in Scotland. Opened to the public in 1970, it is spread over 120acre. The safari park features drive-through reserves, a boat safari, amusements, children's play areas and a petting zoo.HistoryThe original Blair Drummond House was built in 1715. Sir John Kay, a tea merchant from Glasgow, purchased the house and its surrounding land in 1916. Because he had no sons, Kay passed the property to his nephew Sir John Muir, the father of the park's present owner Jamie Muir. The house was a family home until it was sold to the Camphill Movement, a charity that cares for people with special needs, in 1977. The current Blair Drummond House was built in a new location in 1872 by James Campbell Walker, and again in 1923 by James Bow Dunn after a fire destroyed the previous house.Blair Drummond Safari Park was opened in 1970, with the help of Jimmy Chipperfield, one of Britain's first safari parks (Longleat Safari Park being the first, in 1966) and one of the first to open outside Africa.The reservesLike many safari parks, Blair Drummond features reserve areas that visitors drive through in their own cars or as passengers on the park's "Safari Bus" to view free-roaming animals.African reserveThe first reserve features non-carnivorous native African species, such as Grant's zebra, Ankole-Watusi cattle, Guineafowl, Lechwe, Kudu and the Southern white rhinoceros. The rhinos are part of a Europe-wide breeding programme which began in 2004 with the arrival of three young rhinos from Kruger National Park: Dorothy (Dot), Graham and Jane. Dorothy and Graham have gone on to have five calves: in 2007, 2009, 2012 and 2014. Dot and Graham can still be seen at the park today.