Prior to their deaths in 2023 and 2024, hippos had been a highly popular animal at Longleat Safari Park, with Sonia and Spot roaming the country estates lakes for over 50 years.
Now, with a £2m investment from the park, Minshall Construction have been contracted to build their new hippo enclosure. The project includes the design and build of a new house including internal penning, chutes and a pool for the houses new occupants. The project also include a classroom to allow Longleat to hold training classes and visitors, and the associated external works to create a paddock and pens within the lake for the animals to use on a daily basis.
Tom Minshall, Director at Minshall Construction, comments: "We are extremely proud to be delivering this project on behalf of Longleat Safari Park, and its a testament to our previous work in the zoo and safari world having worked at Chester Zoo, Knowsley Safari Park and West Midlands Safari Park to name a few.
"We manage the whole process from design to build to handover, even fabricating the internal steelwork ourselves. It allows us to offer our clients a one stop solution which is bespoke and animal focused.
"We aim to deliver a high quality facility which will serve the new inhabitants for years to come and give them the highest possible quality of life."
The project started in February on site, with a completion date of 1 June. This will allow the new hippos a month of bedding in before being officially opened to the public in July.