Discovery Desert

Southern Africa is home to a great variety of animals, all enjoying the land together. Many different species can live in one habitat, which is what we have created at Discovery Desert - an exciting mixed species exhibit.

View - pictures / videos

Discovery Desert is home for three species native to southern Africa: slender tailed meerkats, yellow mongooses and African crested porcupines.

Meerkats and mongooses are very lively animals and Discovery desert allows our visitors to enjoy watching them and the porcupines from the terrace of the Dodo restaurant. Children can really immerse themselves in this exhibit in a bubble, which means you get an up-close and personal view of the animals in action.

A mixed species exhibit has a number of benefits for the animals, our visitors and our team in the park. For the animals it provides a more interesting environment with different sights, smells and sounds, like in the wild. For our visitors it demonstrates how these species would live together in their natural habitat. For us it is a more effective use of resources as separate areas would require more money, space and keeping staff.

The Discovery desert exhibit was produced in-house, with work on the indoor accommodation and outdoor areas being done by our very own Maintenance and Landscape Departments.

Funding for the majority of this work was secured through sponsorship from the Association of Jersey Charities and the Trusts L’Assemble des Gardiens. The team here continues to work on the capital campaign for our long term development.

Videos

How do you eat yours? Date added: 23 March 2010

Baby meerkat, cute or not so cute? Date added: 19 March 2010

Pictures