Woburn Safari Park welcomes new bush dogs

Woburn Safari Park has welcomed a new pack of bush dogs to the family, with all six new arrivals settling in well.

The pack consists of two females and four males; Pongo, Padfoot, Dante, Scrappy Dappy Doo, Perdy and Shiloh, aged between seven and 10 years old, all making themselves comfortable in their new home, the Cachorro Range, which can be found via the Foot Safari.

Bush dogs are small, stocky carnivores which are native to South America. They live and hunt in family groups of up to 12 animals, and their favourite prey is large rodents.

The pack at Woburn Safari Park is a tight-knit group, so they will often follow each other around the enclosure, feed together, and sleep close to one another.

They are naturally quite shy animals, but can be very vocal, so visitors may hear their high-pitched calling noises as they communicate with each other.

Where to see the bush dogs

The six new arrivals came from Sandwich Wildlife Park in Kent and can already be seen exploring their enclosure.

As with all of the animals in the park, the bush dogs have access to their own shelter.

Lucky visitors might catch a glimpse of them from the back of their home (alongside the Great Woburn Railway station at Bison Holt), so if you do not see them on your first walk past, pop back by later as they might have been enjoying a snooze in their house.

The new bush dog enclosure replaces Capybara Caves. Natalia, the Park’s female capybara, now co-habits in Monkey Mayhem with the Guianan squirrel monkeys.

These two species can be found living in the same habitats in South America and Natalia has already settled well into her new enclosure at the park.