The Mablethorpe Seal Sanctuary and Wildlife Centre, often abbreviated to Mablethorpe Seal Sanctuary or Mablethorpe Wildlife Centre is a seal sanctuary and animal attraction in the coastal town of Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, England. It is a tourist attraction and works to rehabilitate sick and injured seals. It is located close to the seal breeding colony at Donna Nook and many of the animals it rescues are young seals born there. [1]
Other animals visitors can see at the attraction include gibbons, meerkats and birds of prey. [2] [3] The attraction works with a charity called Mablethorpe Animal Rescue and accommodates much rescued native British wildlife, as well as exotic species.
In the 'Time Walking' zone, visitors can view fossils of dinosaurs and other extinct megafauna, including allosaurus, archaeopteryx and mosasaur. Another part of the attraction is themed around the ice ages, and animals which have become extinct in Britain since then, featuring Eurasian lynx. [4] [5] There is also a café and gift shop. [6]
The Seal Sanctuary is located on Quebec Road, North End, close to the sand dunes, and is open 10:00 to 16:30, 10 months a year. There is a fee for entry [7]
Before the Seal Sanctuary opened, the site served as a look-out point in the Second World War, as a firing range and a campsite. [8]
The attraction opened in Mablethorpe after an animal attraction called the Animal and Bird Garden, founded in 1965 in Suffolk, was flooded and the owners (Jerry and Rene King) decided to relocate. The seal sanctuary received its first seal in 1974, opening to the public in the same year, still under the name Animal and Bird Garden. [9] [10]
In 1988 an appeal in the Daily Mail helped the Seal Sanctuary to raise £20,000 to deal with an outbreak of phocine distemper virus. The Seal Hospital opened in 1990. [11]
In 2013 the attraction changed its official name from Mablethorpe Seal Sanctuary to the Mablethorpe Seal Sanctuary and Wildlife Centre. [12]
There was a fire at the Seal Sanctuary in September 2016. The Education Room reopened in February 2017. [13] [14]
Bristol Zoo was a zoo in the city of Bristol in South West England. The zoo's stated mission was to "maintain and defend" biodiversity through breeding endangered species, conserving threatened species and habitats and promoting a wider understanding of the natural world".
Fota Wildlife Park is a 100-acre (40 ha) wildlife park located on Fota Island, near Carrigtwohill, County Cork, Ireland. Opened in 1983, it is an independently funded, not-for-profit charity that is one of the leading tourism, wildlife and conservation attractions in Ireland. The park had an attendance of 455,559 visitors in 2017, making it the eleventh most popular paid attraction in Ireland for that year.
Mablethorpe is a seaside town in the civil parish of Mablethorpe and Sutton, in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. In 1961 the civil parish had a population of 3,611. On 1 April 1974 the parish was changed to form "Mablethorpe and Sutton". The population including nearby Sutton-on-Sea was 12,531 at the 2011 census and estimated at 12,633 in 2019.
Saltfleetby is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England on the coast of the North Sea, approximately 7 miles (11 km) east from Louth and 10 miles (16 km) north from Mablethorpe. The parish had a population of 599 in the 2001 Census, decreasing to 568 at the 2011 Census.
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