New additions to BC Wildlife Park aiming to build on visitor growth

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“Years ago when we had about 85,000 visitors, about 60,000 were local Kamloops residents. Today, we’re still getting that 60-65,000 of local Kamloops residents, and the growth is coming from the tourism market,” he explains, “So say we had 25,000 tourists, now we’re getting 60,000 a year.”

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With that visitor growth comes revenue growth, which Grant says will bring improvements to the park layout. This will include paving more of the outdoors walkways for visitors.

“The biggest challenge that I think our visitors have is our roadways and pathways.” Grant says, noting that much of the area is made up of gravel paths, “Moms in strollers have a really difficult time navigating that and we recognize that. We want to be more inclusive for accessibility for people with disabilities.”

Grants adds that cosmetic upgrades are also on the park’s to-do list.

“As people walk around the park, they think, ‘Well this could sure use a coat of paint’, or ‘This sure could be cleaned up,'” he says, “So first and foremost, we are a wildlife sanctuary, but we are also a park. So we’d like to put the park aspect back into our operation and do a lot of clean up and maintenance, and just overall visitor experience I think will speak for itself when we’re done with some of those things.”

Another upcoming draw for visitors that Grant points out is the new flying squirrel exhibit. The squirrel, now known as Ranger, came to the park through its rehabilitation services and was not suitable for release back into the wild. With that, Grant says the ministry has allowed the park to keep the squirrel for educational purposes.

Through donations raised during this year’s Wildlights, he says they’ve gotten enough money to build a proper habitat for Ranger.

“It’ll be back here in the eco gallery right next to the tortoise. So there will be a few more activities and things for people to see when they get back into this gallery.”