You can meet the two types of alpacas at Paradise Valley Springs – the more common Huacaya with thick fleece and the rarer Suri with long silky fleece.
MAMMALS
The New Zealand bush and mountains are home to a very diverse range of wildlife. New Zealand split from the ancient landmass Gondwanaland tens of millions of years ago, before the start of mammals. Our animals and plants, after becoming isolated, began to evolve independently. The bat is our only endemic land mammal as they reached our marooned shores by flying here. All other land mammals have been introduced to New Zealand at some stage by humans over the last few hundred years, making up our unique population of animals.
The mammals on display at Paradise Valley Springs have all been introduced to New Zealand - many of them live wild around our country, there are farming stock, some are rare breeds so are therefore important genetically, and others have been isolated for long enough to have developed into their own breeds here in New Zealand.
At Paradise we encourage hands on or close contact with many of our animals and hope to foster an appreciation and love for wildlife through connecting with animals, while also educating visitors about the challenges a lot of our native species are facing on a day to day basis. Animal food can be purchased and you can handfeed most of the friendly animals as you explore our wildlife park.
You can meet the two types of alpacas at Paradise Valley Springs – the more common Huacaya with thick fleece and the rarer Suri with long silky fleece.
At Paradise Valley Springs you can meet Fallow Deer, a small species of deer that have been introduced to many countries around the world, and also the larger Red Deer.
A recent addition to Paradise Valley Springs Wildlife Park is our friendly young American Miniature Mediterranean Donkey who is named Cisco.
We have different breeds of goats on display at our park – farm, feral and rare breeds. Most of them are very friendly and really enjoy being hand fed.
Recent additions to Paradise Valley Springs Wildlife Park are our Llamas, a large domesticated South American camelid and relation of the smaller Alpaca.
We have two different breeds of pigs on display at Paradise Valley Springs Wildlife Park and both of these breeds are common around New Zealand.
Opossums (or possums as they are commonly known) are found throughout New Zealand, introduced from Australia in 1837 to establish a fur industry.
Enderby Island Rabbits descended from Australia, released onto subantarctic Enderby Island South of NZ in 1865, isolated for almost 130 years.
Sheep were first introduced to New Zealand in the 1770's and have played a big part in our economic history. There are around 30 million around the country.
At Paradise Valley Springs you can also meet the Tahr - a mountain goat from the Himalayan mountains of Asia. Found wild in the Southern Alps of NZ.
Wallabies were introduced to New Zealand in the 1870's and Dama Wallabies are found wild around Rotoruas' lakes after being released there in 1912.
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