Zoos in East, Devon, South Devon and Cornwall

In April I am holidaying in Devon and Cornwall and hope to visit as many animal collections as I can. Just when I think that I have a comprehensive list of zoos in the country I see new ones on zoo chat that I did not know existed (Escott being today's example).

During the trip I hope to visit:
Ferne Animal Sanctuary
Sidmouth Donkey Sanctuary
Axe Valley animal park
Buckfast Otter sanctuary
Escott
Dartmoor zoo
Porfell zoo
Ape sanctuary near Looe
Newquay zoo

Having visited Gweek seal sanctuary, Newquay aquarium and the Marine aquarium in Plymouth before we were not going to squeeze them into an already packed itinerary.

Please can anyone let me know if I have missed any.

 

There is a very small but very quaint aquarium at Mevagissey near the harbour.
At Padstow there is the National Lobster Hatchery.

Also good luck finding the monkey/ape place near Looe!!!

 

Isn't Paignton Zoo near Plymouth?

 

Yes good point, we have visited Paignton zoo and Torquay Living Coasts a number of times as they are covered by our Colchester zoo membership so we were not going to go there this time.

A colleague at work has mentioned Wingz so I am just taking a look at their website.

 

Exmoor is a must, Coombe Martin is near by.


EDIT, sorry missed the South bit. lol But Exmoor is better than any on your list in my opinion, In fact only Newquay comes close.

 

And Shaldon.

 

Wingz is excellent - just my kind of place, I loved it when I visited last September. If you prefer mammals though it may not be your kind of place. Paradise Park at Hayle has more mammals than Wingz does and an excellent bird collection especially Parrots (the World Parrot Trust is based there of course). Becky Falls has animals as does Woodlands Theme Park near Dartmouth. I haven't been to either or to Escot as I get the impression from their leaflets the animal collections are very limited. There's Pennywell Farm too. I'd endorse the wonders of Exmoor Zoo if you do decide to venture into north Devon. I visit it every year despite it being a difficult trip from Paignton by public transport. It is marvellous.

 

There's the World of Country Life near Exmouth too.

 

Personnaly I wouldn't wasting your time doing Buckfast Otter sanctuary,last time I visited it cost me £7.50 to see 3 species of Otter and took all of 15 minutes to walk round the whole site.

I would suggest Paradise Wildlife Park at Hayle in Cornwall,very good Bird Collection with a few mammals.

 

Bodmin Moor Wildlife Park will be opening in April 2012.
Porfell Wildlife Park and Sanctuary
Tamar Otter & Wildlife Centre (formerly The Otter Trust)

 

Thank you all for these excellent suggestions so far, I am now researching which ones to include and which to leave out. Whilst understanding how much zoos cost to run I too get frustrated when you pay a lot of money for a very short visit. I must admit I prefer mammals but my son loves all animals so maybe the park in Hayle would suit us better than Wingz. I also hope there are more details on the Bodmin wildlife Park by the time we get there.

Thanks once again.

 

Paradise Park has a programme of events throughout the day - I should have thought they'd be running in April, especially if it's the Easter holidays. I can never resist going to "Carrot Time" to feed the farm animals, and I always buy 10 pots of nectar at the Lorikeet feeding.

 

Dear All, Just got back from our holiday in the South west and managed to fit in 10 animal collections whilst down there ; )

Location wise we had a few days based in Exmouth and then nearly a week in Looe.

Sorry for the long post but here is a brief impression of each collection:

Ferne Animal Sanctuary - Ferne Animal Sanctuary - Welcome to Ferne Animal Sanctuary
A refuge for unwanted domestic and farm animals, Ferne is free to visit but they obviously hope you will make a donation. Ferne had a wonderful free and unfussy feel to it and although it covers around 50 acres is very easy and pleasant to walk around. We also visited their charity shop in Chard.

Axe Valley Wildlife Park - Axe Valley Animal Park - Home Page
This little zoo near Axminster was a a little gem. From the outside I did not have high expectations as it looked like too many enclosures were squeezed into too small an area and I also expected it to be mainly birds (sorry I prefer mammals). However every turn brought another unexpected bonus, Raccoon dogs, followed by Japanese squirrels followed by Palm civets followed by a Tree Porcupine. Great value for the £5.50 entry fee (£4 for children).

The Donkey Sanctuary - Together we can help end the suffering | The Donkey Sanctuary
This sanctuary for donkeys was much busier than Ferne and probably because of its location nearer to the holiday centres on the coast was much more geared up for visitors. It is also free to enter but it didn't grab our attention in the same way that Ferne had.

Dartmoor zoo - We Bought A Zoo - Dartmoor Zoo is the real life zoo, home to the real Benjamin Mee - A Great Day Out In Devon for you and the family - Wedding Venue in Devon - Keeper For A Day - The real Rosemoor Animal Park
So being the first big zoo of our holiday we were really looking forward to seeing the bears and big cats at Dartmoor. Unfortunately for us something did not quite work at Dartmoor. Yes it has a remote location and I understand that larger carnivores must be more expensive to keep but the upkeep of the enclosures and the signage just seemed limited. We were particarly diasppointed with the enclosure for the Silver fox. There were some interesting animals like the Lynx and Brown bears but we still drove away disappointed. Admission was £11 for adults £9 for children.

The Monkey Sanctuary - The Monkey Sanctuary
Now this small monkey sanctuary is just outside of Looe but down some very narrow lanes. Checking their website before visiting they listed 4 species of monkey, as we paid to go in (£8 adults/£5 children) we learned they only had three species (they no longer have Patas monkeys). So paying that much to see around 26 monkeys should have been frsutrating but instead it was a joy. There were two reasons for this firstly it had a very welcoming new age feel and had many interactive displays and games for children (we really enjoyed the orienteering) and secondly your admission ticket gives you membership for a year so as we were based in Looe we went back for a second visit. The three monkey species are Woolly, Barbary Macaques and Black-capped Capuchins (they were the most numerous)

Newquay zoo - Get Closer at Newquay Zoo in Cornwall.
Great day out at Newquay zoo, it really delivered on layout, enclosures, signage and a few interesting animals thrown in (Owston's civets, Kinkajous, Wildebests, Fossas). The only animal we did not see was the Fishing cat. Close to the entrance of the zoo there is an exhibit called Toad Hall and this contains around 10 amphibians and is one of the easiest places to see newts. Only gripe was the car park charge, as it is a pay and display car park you don't know how long you will need for the zoo (we went for four hours) Admission was £12.05 for adults and £9.30 for children.

Notter Bridge animal park - Home
This is a small animal collection squeezed onto a hill at the side of the A38. It doesn't look much from the roadside and is very quick to walk around but what saved it for us was a wonderfully helpful volunteer who clearly loved the animals. In between the guinea pigs, meerkats and turkeys there are some unusual animals like the albino chipmunk, Japanese squirrels and the ferrets that were awake! It was only £1 to get in but I think that is a pre-Easter price.

Wingz bird and animal sanctuary - wingzbirdsanctuary.co.uk
As mentioned above birds are not my main interest but my son loves them so we visited Wingz. Our enjoyment wasn't helped by it being the coldest and rainiest day of our holiday but there were still some highlights like the Kookaburras laughing, seeing out first cardinal bird and particularly seeing an emu sitting on several eggs. Non birds were Meerkats, Japanese white-bellied squirrels, Chipmunks (some albino), Guinea pigs, Tortoises, Wallabies, Marmosets. Admission was £6 Ad/£4 ch.

Porfell Animal Park - porfellanimalland.co.uk
Porfell is a mixed bag as some of the signage is out of date i.e. still showing Lynxes and Ocelots which they no longer have and it looks run down in places but there are still some interesting animals like the Savannah cats, Serval and Sugar Glider. There is a reconstructions of a Masai village and some nice woodland walks. There are also some question trails for children. Admission £9/£6.

Our final visit was on the way home where we were lucky enough to see that Secret World (near Highbridge) was having an open day - Secret World Wildlife Rescue - rescue, rehabilitation and eventual release of orphaned and injured wild creatures
Secret World is a charity that specialises in the rescue, rehabilitation and eventual release of Britain’s orphaned, injured and sick wildlife and the theme of this open day was Badgers. Being Good Friday it was absolutely packed and the day had a fete like feel. The highlight was certainly seeing the baby badgers and foxes.

Ok that's it well done if you made it to the end

Thanks for all those that gave recommendations.

Any questions please feel free to ask.

 

Thanks for the reviews, it's always nice to hear someone's opinion on some of the UK lesser visited collections.

A few questions regarding the Savannah Cat(s) at Porfell -how many do they have? how is this displayed? what information is given about it? how do they justify it's breeding? Very curious about this and their justification, personally I'd find it bizarre if a zoo decided to display a deliberately bred wolf-alsation hybrid (as opposed to a suspected unpure "wolf") and I don't feel any different about Savannah Cats.

 

Hi Shorts

They have two. They arrived at Porfell in Feb 2012. They’ve spent the last four years at a Dutch Sanctuary after being seized at Schiphol Airport. They were detained because the owners had no CITES papers.

Porfell Wildlife Park & Sanctuary were asked if they would give a home to these cats, they certainly do not appear to condone the breeding.

This page gives more details... Confiscated cats get new home | Porfell

 

Well that link should certainly clear things up for you Shorts.

 

Thanks for that information, it's cleared any concerns I had about their display

 

Absolutely, gold star to Eddielargefc.