Planet of the Apes? No Monkey World! (Monkey World)

Member Name: Little Miss

Product:	Monkey World
Date:	20/08/01 (1277 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of cheeky monkeys, Excellent surroundings

Disadvantages: Rather sad to hear how badly they were treated

A friend recently suggested a trip to Monkey World, I've always been facinated by monkey's but I was a little apprehensive as I'm not keep on Zoo's. After some reassuarance that Monkey World's monkey's have all been rescued and are now living in nice surroundings as opposed to cages I was pursuaded to go. I'm glad I did. This park is excellent. It costs about 6 pounds for adults and 5 for children, they also do family tickets you can find details on their website so I won't list them.

The thing I noticed about the park was the enclosures, I've been to zoo's where they describe the cages as enclosures but at Monkey World enclosures seems a fitting term. The monkey's have lots of out door and indoor space and are free to go in and out as they please. They also have numerous trees, ropes, platforms, hamocks etc. to keep them amused. There is also one forest part where the visitors can walk through and the monkeys are totally free. You cannot take any food or drink into this part.

Each enclosure houses different types of Monkey's and gives details of all the monkeys including their names and their history. Now here's a warning like I mentioned earlier they are all rescued and reading their stories brought tears to my eyes, so if your like me a tissue maybe useful. I read every single story. All the monkeys now look very happy and healthy although some look a little strange due to their mistreatment in the past. Many of them were kept alone in small cages in dark rooms for many years. One in particular that stood out to me, had deformed teeth due to being mistreated, he now looked like count dracula.

Apart from walking around seeing the monkey's there are picnic areas (but no feeding the animals) and there is a childrens play area with swings, slides and one of those rope climbing frames which looke like fun. Sorry I think I was a little too big to try it out. They also
have childrens go karts. There is also the possibility to adopt a monkey and listen to talks. The talks are usually every hour on the hour and there are different ones throughout the day.

If you don't want to take a picnic there are a few places to buy food there, but it seemed to be mainly drinks, crisps, hotdogs and ice-cream. There is also a gift shop with the largest collection of monkey teddies I have ever seen, as well as your regular souvenirs of mugs, note paper, mobile phone covers... all in the monkey theme.

In all a grand day out, lots of fun and eye opening at the same time. I will never understand how people can be so cruel to any living thing but seeing the work that is done here, I'm not sure who enjoys it most. The monkey's really seem to love the attention they get from the visitors. One inparticular kept coming over to the glass window and seemed to be playing games with the children through the glass. This is a great day out for children adn adults alike.

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