As it happens I've recently visited (in the company of @cliffxdavis funnily enough) and I thoroughly enjoyed my visit, some unusual species in some very well designed enclosures, there is nothing terrible here currently... But I'm really not sure about penguins in that particular enclosure. On a personal note the staff are extremely friendly, and I actually brought a fridge magnet. There's also a very decent farm shop sharing the car park which does a wide selection of fine ales and ciders.
The enclosure isn’t particularly great. There isn’t a lack of penguins and I’ve heard there is reluctance to give them to this place because of the enclosure.
We visited this little place on the way home from a brief zooing roadtrip this weekend just gone. Still no penguins - reasoning from the keeper was essentially that they are way down the surplus list and following the avian malaria outbreak there is not a lot of surplus available to begin with. From our visit I can see that they make most of their money from the experiences they offer so I can see why they would want penguins - but it is clearly not the best enclosure there and I wish they had opted for something else. On the plus side I thought the other enclosures were well designed, the entrance fee very reasonable at £5 and the staff were excellent. Very informative & friendly and there were several opportunities to hold or get up close to the animals in a respectful way. We enjoyed our visit and would return if we are in the area again.
The zoo is closing citing logistical reasons such as parking but is working with the council to move to a new site.
The Zoo is not closing completely. They will no longer be open to the pulic from February 23rd but will continue to use the Priorslee site for non-profit community work, community education programmes, animal assisted therapy and interventions, and private education sessions. Exotic Zoo could reopen to public with four-acre site boasting restaurant and gift shop in Telford town park
@Angel when the Exotic Zoo reopens this year will visitors be aloud to visit,or will the attraction still be closed to the general public?
I'll post a few photos later in the week. They opened early to try and raise funds, so there is still a lot of work going on, but it's looking good so far
I was in Telford this weekend for an event, and Exotic Zoo was nearby so I paid a visit. A few things of note: - As far as design and layout it's not a bad little place, it's not the best small zoo I've visited but I do appreciate how much they try to do with what little they have, managing to do four distinct themed zones that each have something different going on. - A good number of species I've never seen before, like the black widow spiders in the Tropical House, Uromastyx in the Desert Zone, and foxes near the Nocturnal House, including a lovely black and grey fox. Sadly some species I was hoping to see, like the skunks, genets and kinkajous, were no-shows. - Each themed area had at least one keeper just standing around holding an animal, and they'd come up to you as you entered the zone and start telling you about it. In the Tropical House it was a girl with a tailless tenrec, then later a guy with a hissing cockroach, the Desert Zone had a guy with a Uromastyx, and the Nocturnal House had a girl with a lesser hedgehog tenrec. - The zoo will be getting capybaras soon, their enclosure is pretty much done, and it'll be the first thing you see as you enter the zoo. Parts of the wallaby enclosure were also blocked off while their new wallabies settled in, so you could only see the wallabies from one small section of their outdoor area. - The Tropical, Desert and Nocturnal Zones each have speakers playing a voice clip talking about each themed, with the narrator doing a bad David Attenborough impression. Also the front entrance where the kiosk and gift shop are had speakers playing this Hollywood movie style orchestral music for some reason.
I visited today (with the esteemed @cliffxdavis for company) and had a decent enough time, even if I wasn't exactly blown away by it. Quite a few species are absent from the new site that were previously held which include North American Porcupine, the bats and jerboas, Fennec Foxes, Fiji Banded Iguana, and also Alpacas and Ferrets from the domestics area. There's also no intention of getting penguins now, so now terribly small pool inhabited by garden statues... New stuff is limited to a Tailless Tenrec, Dwarf Mongoose, Azara's Agouti (mixed with Kinkajou), and, newly arrived as of yesterday, a trio of Capybara. Enclosure wise it's all done to a decent level but I do think the skunk and palm civet enclosures could do with being larger, and the snakes could use a bit of natural substrate. Being new there's a uniformity to the collection that I like, it definitely knows what it wants to be and it's doing just that. It clearly caters for families and experiences and it's doing just fine as it is, even if it wasn't particularly busy on a cold November afternoon. A couple of nice species make it a worthwhile stop for the enthusiast, but don't expect to spend too long there at all. We had a guy with cockroach and a guy with a rabbit... Where was our tenrec petting oppotunities, huh? No justice in the world... I get the feeling that they used the same guy who does the narration for the bird show at WILD! Zoological Park down the road. They sound awfully similar. and are both pretty bad impressions! Also "Attenborough" today, no orchestral music for us. Think I'd have rather had the tunes myself...
Nope, generally don't have one nowadays unless there's an actual bar on site...! Didn't even pop into a pub in the town centre, which incidentally is quite nice. Not actually been into Telford town centre for many years so was surprised to see it in all of its above averageness!