Sheffield half term: Here’s everything to see and do at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park near Sheffield during the February school holidays

Half-term family day outs at the 175-acre Park in Doncaster allow visitors to get close to more than 450 animals from more than 60 rare and endangered species as part of the UK’s number one walkthrough wildlife adventure.

Visitors to the award-winning wildlife attraction will be able to watch the six sea lions living it up at Port Lobos, the largest filtrated sea lion complex in the world.

The 70-metre pool, which is fitted with a state-of-the-art water-efficient filtration system, and is three metres deep, is the playground of a colony of parents Dominic, Lara and Bailey and their lively pups Hanno, Oakley and Maui.

The youngsters are star attractions at the Park, at Branton, near Doncaster, which is gearing up for a fantastic spring and summer season as the nation emerges from pandemic restrictions.

But the sea lions are rivalled by fun-loving polar bear cubs Indie, Tala and Yuma, who are starting to outgrow their mum, Flocke.

Yorkshire Wildlife Park now has eight polar bears who are part of a huge conservation programme to research and protect the species, whose numbers are dwindling as climate change melts the Arctic sea ice, which is their home and hunting ground.

YWP has the largest polar bear centre outside Canada, with 14 acres of reserves with landscaped grasslands, caves, rocks and lakes. Flocke is the fourth generation of her line to produce triplets, which is a once in a decade event in zoos and wildlife parks.

The Park continues to welcome new arrivals to its family, and a second Roloway Monkey was born at the end of 2021, representing a landmark for the rare species whose numbers in the wild have fallen to around 200.

Another high point was the birth of a rare okapi calf, Mzimu, just before Halloween.

Staff recently had to change the name of one baby Red Howler monkey from Pablo to Pabla after the discovery that she was not a male as originally thought after the birth in October.

“It’s quite hard to determine the sex of the baby until they’re a bit older, so once we managed to have another look, we realised that Pablo is actually a girl! We will be renaming her Pabla instead,” said Greg Clifton, the Park’s primates team leader.

Her mum, Tila, and dad, Geronimo, both brightly coloured and vocal Venezuelan Red Howlers, arrived at the South America reserve inside the Park early last year.

Staff have been extra busy further developing the Hive - a free to enter leisure destination at the park entrance.

The new Wilds Café-Bistro will open for half term with plenty of offers on food. It serves a wide choice of breakfast in the morning, lunch, and then a range of dishes in the evening.

This stylish Bistro offers a range of Mediterranean influenced dishes and favourites such as steaks and burgers.