GIRAFFES, hippos and rhinos are coming to a North Yorkshire theme park as part of a massive £7 million expansion plan.

The attraction is due to open in March with a ten-acre redevelopment, featuring hippos and white rhinos, alongside a rebuilt big cat house and a new area for the park's trademark Chilean flamingos.

New rides should also be up and running for the 2003 season, including a boat ride which will swing visitors 70ft over a lake, and the Daktari Express, a train which will travel past the animals in their new quarters.

Park boss Gordon Gibb said: "The idea was to bridge a gap between the zoo and the theme park.

"Visitors are generally more interested in white knuckle rides, but we are hopeful that we can open up a new market - with our new venue we have the opportunity to mix both."

Mr Gibb said: "This allows us to get involved in quite exciting breeding programmes with other zoos.

"It's exciting for us because the animals are very popular."

It would be the first time hippos have been at the park, and rhinos would be returning after the last one went to join a breeding group at Cleethorpes in the early 1970s.

There have been no giraffes since the early 1980s.

Theme park consultant Victoria Binnington, who has masterminded the development, said the new attraction would form part of a Lost Kingdom.

"Part of it is going to be a hippo hollow with a beautiful lake and themed buildings as well," she said.

"There will be a huge ruined temple for the big cats with lots of glass, so the cats and people are safe."

Miss Binnington, who met Mr Gibb while she was working on Flamingo Land's seaside adventure development, which opened last year, is to marry the theme park boss at Kirby Misperton in June.

She said they had bigger plans for the Lost Kingdom.

"The next phase for 2004 is a big water ride a bit like going on a river near to the animals, and then at the end well away from the zoo it's going to be quite exciting with a big pull up and a drop," she said.

"The 2005 phase is a potential - what we would like to do is something like a safari ride driving through the animals.

"It's trial and error, we want to get to know the animals so we know what they're happy with first."

Flamingo Land reopens on Sunday, March 30, with the giraffes expected to arrive in June.

Updated: 12:30 Friday, January 10, 2003