Helen Annetts, together with Charlie & Joe Statham, explores endangered species and family favourites.
On the last day of half-term we headed off to Twycross Zoo because, well, who doesn’t love a zoo when given the chance? And it seems we aren’t the only people who think so; it was definitely a busy day at the zoo.
Having been lucky enough to visit in 2022 for the opening of The Gruffalo Discovery Land, we checked our map and decide today’s visit would be all about the real-life animals. We headed to the furthest point on the map – Chimpanzee Eden – and meandered our way back down taking in gorillas, the tiger, orangutans, vicuna and more monkeys than we could dream of – we love a monkey – including some cheeky looking gibbons in Gibbon Forest.
After a picnic lunch we headed back to the top of the path to take on the other side of the zoo, starting with my favourites, the giraffes and winding our way back down spotting rhinos, zebra, tapirs and flamingos before making out way to new exhibit Close Encounters for some spiders, lizards and some pancake tortoises that moved with speed and could climb!
There were lots of opportunities during the day to find out more about different species, conservation and see animals being fed. We went along to the penguin talk and watched them gobble up fish, we admired the orangutan’s ability to hold a satsuma in his cheek and a leek in one foot and the highlight … the snow leopard.
To see the snow leopard being fed we picked a spot in the cafe and enjoyed the keepers bringing out and hiding a rabbit in a tree (easily found) and hanging the meat! The snow leopard was stunning, a beautiful animal to see close up.
There is much to learn about conservation at Twycross, as a charity zoo every visit is supporting endangered species across the world and the info points throughout the zoo are often surprising and always informative.
A basic adult ticket is £29.95 (online discounts are available) and a child ticket is £19.75, but this is an annual price which gives you twelve months access to the zoo (I believe booking is needed I) and we think it’s definitely worth it, as with seasonal events through the year there will always be a reason to return. Ticket information can be found here here.
