Sitlington Animal Park Tour - Part #5: Zoo (3/3)

This is the fifth part of a series of posts touring Sitlington Animal Park, my low budget British zoo built on the side of a farm.

In this post, we're going to explore the final section of the zoo, which includes the deer, lynx, lemurs, red pandas and gift shop.

Let's begin where we left off by the tortoises. This area of the zoo is a lot more wooded and I've used it to house most of the zoo's "woodland" species (an idea I got from Jimmy's Farm & Wildlife Park, although design inspiration was taken from Bridlington Animal Park). I wanted the woods to be as natural as possible, so I've only use native trees like the oak and ash.

The first habitat in this area belongs to a small group of reindeer. I've given them a rectangular enclosure, surrounded by mesh, and I landscaped it with a few trees. For decoration, I added some piles of sticks (which I downloaded from the Steam Workshop). Since male reindeer can be aggressive during rutting season (so much so that the UK government considers them "Category 1" dangerous animals), I decided to only add female ones here since there's no room for a separation pen.

Opposite the reindeer, I built a habitat for another cervid: the red deer. I gave them a spacious and grassy enclosure, surrounded by a tall chain link fence, since they can jump quite high, as well as a few mature oak trees. I wanted it to look like a slice of the British countryside, since it's such an iconic rural animal here. I actually wanted to expand on that theme with habitats for red fox, wild boar and badgers but I had my work cut out already and I didn't think a farm would risk having badgers on site!

As the path meanders further into the woods, you get another look at the reindeer habitat.

Further along the path I've built a habitat for a Eurasian lynx. I like to pretend it's from one of my other zoos, Crow Nest Park Zoo, since I'm trying to downscale the collection there. I haven't seen many lynx habitats without a roof, so I decided to add one here. This time, I put all my brain cells to work and figured out how to make a modular construction set to speed things up. All I had to do was make a corner and middle piece and then duplicate it around. Better yet, I can re-use it for all my future habitats and I'll probably put it on the Steam Workshop at some point too! This is one of my favourite habitats at the park, especially when the sun hits it from a certain angle. I gave it a row of tall viewing windows and placed most of the climbing furniture in front of it so the lynx can more easily be seen. The viewing area has a gravel substrate which I extended into the habitat itself, a technique real zoos use for more immersion. I gave the habitat a lot of foliage to break up sight-lines, and there's a small off-show holding area on the side (although, in retrospect, the mesh looks too wide).

You'd probably smell the next animals before you actually saw them: of course, it's the Tamworth pigs! This breed of pig thrives in woodland, so I've given them a habitat amongst the trees. In real life, they love rooting through mud for food like acorns, so I've surrounded mine with mature oak trees and given them lots of mud. I really wanted it to look muddy and mulch alone wasn't quite cutting it, so I used faux tree pieces to simulate globs of mud. I also laid the mulch over a pool of dirty water, which protrudes in some places to make small puddles. I'm really happy with how I got it to look. They're a very active breed, so I made sure the barriers were reinforced.

Continuing on the path, it forks briefly between three more habitats. First, there's a small house for ring-tailed lemurs and black-and-white ruffed lemurs. As with the rest of the park, I wanted it to look quite cheap and basic, so there's just a wall of mock rock embedded with a few fake trees that are connected via ropes. Surprisingly, most of it is fully functional and the lemurs can get outside via a small chute I added on the side.

For the outdoor habitat, I re-used the flamingo aviary as it was roughly the right shape and size. This is the park's second walkthrough habitat and there's a small looping path you can follow around it. I placed climbing furniture alongside the paths and some of the rope even passes overhead. A lot of lemur walkthroughs I've been to in real-life haven't been very green, so I made sure I gave this one a decent amount of foliage. There's mostly ring-tailed lemurs here but there's also two black-and-white ruffed lemurs.

Opposite the lemurs is a duo of North American habitats. One of them is a large wooden cage, which I built for two raccoons. Inside, I gave them some raised platforms to climb (which they obviously ignore, in typical Planet Zoo fashion!), as well as a tyre swing and some other clutter for them to interact with. Their favourite feature though is a small pond I added in the corner; it's where they can be found most of the time, so I added a small viewing window overlooking it, since the mesh isn't easy to see through.

The other North American habitat belongs to striped skunk. I put them in a rectangular, low-walled enclosure with a pile of rocks and stumps in the centre. It's basic but I think it looks realistic enough for a low budget zoo. For any American readers, skunks and raccoons are very common in British zoos, especially lower budget ones.

Nestled between both enclosures, I've added a small building which houses their indoor quarters. The exterior is similar to what I used for the lemurs and it's inspired by the buildings at Bridlington Animal Park. The interiors were my own creation though and I'm very happy with how low budget and messy I got them to look.

Nearby, I built another low-walled habitat for a pair of red pandas, the final species in the woodlands area. I added a natural tree for them to climb, as well as a network of wooden platforms. Of course, I placed everything away from the barriers to prevent escapes and I also reinforced them with hotwire.

In the background, you can catch a glimpse of a small herd of fallow deer which live in a spacious paddock overlooked by the farmhouse. I surrounded it with a mesh fence but I found it was a bit hard to see through so I sank it into a ditch. You can see over the top of it for a clearer view and as an added bonus, the habitat gets some terrain variation.

The best view of the deer is from the farmhouse garden. I'm no landscape architect or gardener but I don't think I did a bad job of free-styling it. I decided to make it a terrace with a small lawn, an outdoor table, a barbecue and a few stepping stones to get a better view of the deer. As mentioned in an earlier installment, the house is based on something in real-life but it doesn't have a garden like this.

Oppoiste the deer you get a view of the highland cattle which live in a spacious paddock connected to the Petting Barn we saw earlier. It's basic but it's green and natural, with lots of tall trees and grass.

Finally, the path brings you back to the entrance where you can enter the gift shop. The interior was inspired by another low budget zoo called Ponderosa Zoo. It's basically a wooden cabin decorated with cabinets and shelves holding different merchandise. Just to fill out some space, I even added a few plants for sale and there's even some on a shelf outside. Since it doubles as the zoo entrance, I thought I'd add some lockers and other guest service stuff as well. I used lighting buried underground to give it more light as the game struggles with lighting interiors.