Scotland’s Highland Wildlife Park becomes accessible for all with Breeze scooters
Run by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), a wildlife conservation charity, Highland Wildlife Park in the Cairngorms has chosen two all-terrain TGA Breeze mobility scooters to make the zoo more accessible for people with walking difficulties.
Visiting a zoo can be a great day out. Like Highland Wildlife Park in the Cairngorms, Scotland. It’s home to amazing animals from polar bears and Amur tigers to wildcats and wolves. Its Japanese macaque monkeys are famous as one made news recently when it escaped. Now safely back home, this monkey and the other animals attract over 1,200 visitors every day in peak season. And many of these visitors need help getting around.
The park is spread over 100 hectares with many boardwalks, gravelly paths and bumpy slopes. The climb to see the snow leopards can be a challenge. With so many things to see on foot and amazing scenery all around, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), the wildlife conservation charity who run the park, decided that two all-terrain TGA Breeze S4 mobility scooters were the answer.
Harry from TGA let them trial a couple of scooters with visitors for a week and Helen Wink, Visitor Experience Assistant Manager, said the Breeze scooters “worked really, really well and felt very robust.”
The two scooters the Highland Wildlife Park now offer for hire have extra wide wheels at the back for more traction and power over uneven terrain and snow. Each Breeze is free of charge to use and both are already helping visitors each week. Helen said: “The feedback we’ve had about the Breeze scooters has been amazing. An ex-Army amputee said the other day he’d used lots of different scooters before but found the Breeze to be the best yet. He said he felt so safe and comfortable.”
“Then there was another visitor, an elderly lady, who had never used a scooter before and had come for the day with her family. Her son persuaded her to try one of the scooters. She was a bit apprehensive at first but by the end she was loving it! It is great to see the delight on people’s faces when they get to see animals like the reindeers which is only possible with the scooters.”
Helen adds: “People do turn up with their own scooters and that’s fine. Some realise though when they get here they’re not going to work around the park so ask to use ours. We go through a proper procedure with them to show how everything works and let them have a wee test drive up and down before they go off. We welcome everyone to come along to use our scooters. You don’t need to have driven one before. We welcome everyone of all abilities.”
The park has two reserves – one drive-through only and one which can be walked through. Accessibility is a priority for the park as Helen wraps up: “Our new scooters have come just at the right time as we’re building a new, inclusive discovery centre and toilets. We have lots of groups that come with people with disabilities such as the Wildlife Wombles and Cairngorm Connect. Making nature more accessible is fundamental because people protect and value what they love and understand – and the Breezes help us do that.”
