{"id":698995,"date":"2026-07-18T21:22:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T21:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/698995\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T21:22:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T21:22:27","slug":"european-grey-wolves-go-on-show-at-new-forest-wildlife-park-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/698995\/","title":{"rendered":"European grey wolves go on show at New Forest Wildlife Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n They are the first wolves to live at the New Forest Wildlife Park<\/a> since 2024, when their five predecessors either died or were put down.\n<\/p>\n

\n The new arrivals have already settled in at the attraction after their journey across part of western Europe.\n<\/p>\n

\n A two-year-old female at the Reserve d’Animaux Sauvages in Belgium and a one-year-old male at Parc Animalier de Sainte Croix in France bonded in Belgium before being transported to Hampshire together.\n<\/p>\n

\n Two European grey wolves have gone on show at New Forest Wildlife Park (Image: Helen Pinchin)\n<\/p>\n

\n Staff at the park in Deerleap Lane, Longdown, are hoping the carefully selected pair will breed.\n<\/p>\n

\n Jason Palmer, curator of collections<\/a>, said: “We’ve always had the intention of bringing wolves back to the park and our visitors have been incredibly patient. Post-Brexit paperwork for moving animals across borders is a real challenge.”\n<\/p>\n

\n A park spokesperson described European grey wolves as apex predators and a keystone species.\n<\/p>\n

\n “By regulating prey populations, they promote biodiversity and support the health of forests and grasslands, while their control of smaller carnivore populations indirectly benefits a wide variety of prey species further down the food chain.\n<\/p>\n

\n “They are highly social animals and typically live in packs of around seven, led by a dominant mated pair. They are remarkably adaptable and capable of surviving across various environments.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Two European grey wolves have gone on show at New Forest Wildlife Park (Image: New Forest Wildlife Park)\n<\/p>\n

\n Wolves were once a common sight in Britain but disappeared in the 1700s after centuries of hunting and persecution.\n<\/p>\n

\n “Since hunting was banned in Poland in the 1990s, populations have been steadily recovering, with wolves now re-establishing themselves in Germany and spreading naturally into the Netherlands, Denmark and France.\n<\/p>\n

\n “Although wild wolf populations are recovering, accredited wildlife parks continue to play an important role in their future.”\n<\/p>\n

\n The park was previously home to five wolves that arrived in 2010.\n<\/p>\n

\n Two years ago, three of the animals died after developing age-related health problems. Another wolf was also taken ill and was put down along with its only remaining companion.\n<\/p>\n

\n Announcing the deaths, the park said: “Wolves are a highly complex species that thrive on companionship.\n<\/p>\n

\n “After much observation, careful discussion, and consultations with our veterinary specialist, we made the incredibly difficult but kindest decision to humanely put both elderly wolves to sleep together.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They are the first wolves to live at the New Forest Wildlife Park since 2024, when their five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-698995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}