Fota Wildlife Park faces permanent closure if visitors cannot return within weeks

The popular visitor attraction in Co Cork is under threat of closing down forever as revenues plummet due to lockdown

Northern cheetah Nimpy with one of her three cubs photographed in August last year in the Cheetah Hill area of Fota Wildlife Park in Co Cork which is now under threat of closure. Pic: Darragh Kane

Fota Wildlife Park may have to close its doors for good unless it is can reopen to visitors within the next few weeks.

As the park is largely an outdoor attraction, it was able to remain open through last year's lockdown period. However, its visitor numbers dropped significantly — 385,000 people visited the park last year, a decrease of 18% on the previous year.

Visitor income also fell from €5.2m in 2019 to €4.3m in 2020.

Throughout the pandemic, the bills involved in running Ireland's largest outdoor wildlife park have still needed to be paid. It costs in excess of €370,000 per month to run the park — nearly €4.5m per year.

The park's food and veterinary bills alone cost in the region of €44,000 per month.

A December portrait of a baby European bison, which was born at Fota Wildlife Park last October, with his mother, Blue. Bison are among several endangered species bred at the Co Cork park. Picture: Darragh Kane

Fota Wildlife Park, like Dublin Zoo, is operated by the Zoological Society of Ireland. Last December, the Office of Public Works announced the allocation of €3m in Government funding to the two institutions — €1m to Fota and €2m to Dublin Zoo.

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage provided a further €550,000.

Director of Fota Wildlife Park, Sean McKeown, said the funding was vital and would ease pressure on the park until May or June, but what happens after that is uncertain.

Mr McKeown said he is hopeful that the park, closed since January 8, will be able to reopen over the coming weeks, even if some of its indoor facilities need to remain shut for public health reasons.

However, if Covid-19 cases do not decrease in the run-up to summer, and if visitor numbers don't pick up, Fota faces "a different scenario" and the prospect of closure, he told RTÉ radio.

As the park is not run for profit, it relies heavily on ticket sales, annual passes, gift shop receipts and donations. Any profit it has made in previous years has been reinvested into infrastructural projects like flood-defences, making improvements to animal facilities, and enhancing the visitor experience, Mr McKeown said: 

95% of our income comes from visitors that come to the park, so we are totally dependent on that to actually run the park.  If we don't have them here, we're in trouble.

Approximately half of the park's visitors during the months of June, July and August, are holidaying in the area.

"Last year we had our busiest June ever, we had our busiest September ever, and the numbers from July and August were extremely good as well," Mr McKeown said.

Without that income, the future of the park looks very bleak.

The park itself is Ireland's second-most visited attraction outside of Leinster, and generates around €200m for the Cork and Munster economy.

More than half of the 135 animal species that live in the park face the danger of becoming extinct in the wild. The park, in co-operation with several other organisations around the world, is also involved in restoring populations of some of its 1350 animal inhabitants.