West Midland Safari Park: New £1million ice age attraction on the way
West Midland Safari Park will be turning back the clock to the ice age with a new £1million attraction due to open next year.
Highlights of the interactive experience will include a 26ft high 'volcano', an ice cave and life-sized animal exhibits.
They will form part of an open-air walk designed to show visitors what life was like when saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths roamed the earth.
Animaltronics will be used to create realistic animal exhibits - some of which will be more than 12ft tall.
It follows the success of the Land of the Living Dinosaurs, which cost £2.5 million and opened two years ago.
Bosses want the new attraction, which could open next summer, to be educational but they say it has also been designed to capture the imagination of visitors by providing an 'immersive experience of what the world was like at that time'.
"This new £1million exhibit is designed to compliment Land of the Living Dinosaurs," said park spokesman Daniel Griffiths.
An application for planning permission for the project has now been submitted to Wyre Forest District Council with a decision due within the next few months.
Although the ice age attraction will be situated close to the existing dinosaur exhibit, officials say the two areas will not be linked.
It will cover half-an-acre of the park site and will fill unused space near the sea lion arena and the Treetops Pavilion.
There will be themed ‘volcano’ rock work overflowing to the sea lion arena so that glimpses can be seen from that area and the main walk-through route of the Discovery Zone.
Visitors accessing the attraction via an elevated walkway will enjoy a fire and volcanic theme and those leaving via a ground level tunnel underneath will enjoy an ice age theme.
Plans for the attraction come hot on the heels of a new £850,000 themed play area called Giggly Park, which opened in July.
Children are able to find CBeebies favourite Boj and his friends, while exploring and taking part in play in the different interactive zones at the site.
