Fota to turn up heat for animals
Construction has begun of Fota Wildlife Park’s first indoor animal enclosure.
Renowned for its wide-open outdoor enclosures, the Co Cork park’s new €600,000 animal care and conservation centre will feature a series of indoor compounds, controlled by a hi-tech temperature and climate control system, to recreate tropical forests and steaming jungles.
They will house some of the world’s rarest and most endangered small species, like butterflies and amphibians.
It will also feature an interactive centre, and a cinema where visitors will be shown footage of some of the global conservation projects Fota helps fund, including a project in Madagascar to protect an endangered duck which uses the money people place in the duck food dispensers in Fota.
The facility is being built behind the penguin enclosure, close to the railway station entrance to the park.
Wildlife Park director Sean McKeown said it was a major milestone in the park’s development.
“This is a very important development for Fota as it will make the wildlife park more of an all-weather attraction, increasing visitor numbers to the park and therefore creating additional jobs here.”
The new jobs will be in the areas of support, admin, animal health, and veterinary care.
Head of marketing, Stephen Ryan, said it will also boost tourism-related businesses in the region.
“The new facility will extend our visitor season into the winter months and assist hotels and others with marketing the Cork destination for winter breaks.”
The project, which has received €200,000 funding from South and East Cork Area Development, is being overseen by MMD Construction.
The building is expected to be completed towards the end of this year and open to visitors in early 2014.
The park is the most visited tourist attraction in the South-West with 377,000 visitors in 2012.
Research has indicated that the park has an annual economic benefit of some €167m to the Cork region.
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