Fota Wildlife Park in Co Cork celebrates its 21st birthday today, with festivities planned until the end of the week.
The park, which stands on over 70 acres of open grassland, was opened by President Patrick Hillery on July 27th, 1983. Since then, the wildlife park has attracted over four million visitors. On it's opening day there were 32 species of animals in the park - today there are 78.
A number of significant additions have been made to Fota since it opened, including three monkey islands and a giraffe house extension. In 1992, an aviary was built for white-tailed sea eagles and the following year a coffee shop was extended to three times its original size.
Fota Wildlife Park has over the years played a significant role in supporting worldwide conservation projects, and has contributed to 22 different projects in 16 countries around the world.
The first important births to occur at Fota was when five cheetah cubs were born in October 1984. That was the first time this endangered species had been born in Ireland, and since then Fota Widlife Park has been involved in the global Cheetah Conservation Programme to help ensure the animal does not become extinct.
To date over 176 cheetahs have been born in the park, the three most recent additions being Impie, Tombie and Zulu, who were born last October.
Dr Neil Stronach, director of Fota Wildlife Park, said yesterday the numbers of visitors to the park had continued to grow and had exceeded expectation year after year.
"In 2003 we welcomed a record 301,300 visitors and we expect this to grow even higher in 2004," he said.
Numerous activities have been organised during the week, with face painters, stilt-walkers, unicyclists and jugglers present all week. A magic show, and a Punch and Judy performance, are also part of the celebrations.