Where are the Rhinos? (Newquay Zoo)

Member Name: thebigshowgt

Product:	Newquay Zoo
Date:	01/06/04 (247 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Not too costly, Some good talks, Ideal for taking kids around

Disadvantages: Very few 'big' animals

Spending last week in Newquay wasn’t all sun, sea and…um…sambuca’s you know. I did manage to get myself down to Newquay Zoo as I have always enjoyed seeing animals I would otherwise only see in books.

Now my opinion is on the actual zoo and not about people’s perceptions and the rights or wrongs about keeping wild animals in zoos. I think people will always agree to disagree on that one. Anyway, back to the zoo…

~ Publicity

The zoo is heavily publicised as an attraction for all those thousands of people who visit Newquay every year. You will see posters, leaflets and publicity discount vouchers everywhere you go. Unfortunately, we were given money off vouchers when we visited another attraction (Blue Reef Aquarium) the next day. Ah well.

~ Location

After picking up a leaflet at the Tourist Information in the town centre we decided to walk there as the map seemed pretty clear and it was only a 15-minute walk away. The Zoo is well sign posted and it is just off a busy main road with a lot of parking. A note about the parking – you do have to pay to park but this is refunded from your admission price (the car park is council owned and not by the zoo).

~ Admission

There are only two admission booths so I can imagine there being queues at peak times. Although there was only one person in front of us we had to wait 5/6 minutes as she decided to upgrade her day pass to a season ticket.

Like most zoos, Newquay encourages all visitors (tax paying) to Gift Aid. This basically means they can claim the tax back on admission but only if you give them your personal details (to check you are a tax payer). This is all well and good but it does hold up admission time a bit. I know of other zoos that ask you to do this
before you leave the park.

~ Prices

Adults £6.95
Children £4.45
Students and OAPs £5.45
Disabled £3.50
Under 3’s are free

A Family Ticket (2 Adults and 2 Kids) is available for £19.95

~ Souvenir Guide

We purchased a Souvenir Guide when we entered. It cost £1.50 and is great for children to look at but as for content for adults it is quite poor. It has a picture of the animals and a fact file (Habitat/Diet/Threats etc). The only thing we actually looked at was the park map (available free as a single sheet near the entrance).

~ Layout

The zoo is quite small in comparison to others I have visited in the past. The by-line tag that accompanies all advertising material from the zoo is ‘A great day out’, not the ‘great’ part is truly depending on the individual but as for the ‘day’ piece, I would find it hard to spend a whole day there. About 4 Hours is sufficient enough to cover the whole park.

~ Animals

The zoo had many of the animals you would find anywhere else, but being a ‘small’ zoo (it did start out as a pet’s corner 35 Years ago) it doesn’t have any of the large animals such as Giraffes, Hippos or Rhinos. It does have Lions and Zebras though.

The zoo has many of the smaller animals such as Apes, Raccoons, Penguins, Birds and Otters. The zoo also has free-roaming animals such as chickens and various birds.

~ Environment

The animals looked like they had sufficient space but you always had that thought in your mind that they could do with just that extra bit of room. In particular the zebras are on a man made hill fenced off with walkway all around and the tw
o lions in their enclosure looked big for their settings. I’m sure the officials would say they have plenty of space (after all, they have won many awards recently) but it’s just that feeling I had looking at them.

~ Special Features

My favourite bit of the zoo was an inside building called ‘Jungle Fever’. You walk in through doors warning of free moving (and flying) animals into a ‘rainforest’. All that separates you and the animals is a barrier that is about hip level. Some of the animals in there include tiny monkeys, fruit bats and a few birds.

Like I said, only a wooden barrier separates you, but it only does so if the animals decide not to come through. The Sloth had other ideas and decided to, slowly, check out the human visitors. With his body hanging about an inch above my head this was a pretty amazing experience, being so close to an animal like that. Although I’m sure he was not dangerous I was close enough to see the length of his claws and decided against getting any closer.

The zoo also has a section called ‘Wildlife At Night’ which is where you walk through a very dark building with animals the other side of the glass in a dimly lit enclosure. If was a bit hard to make out what you could see but there were bats and I think, an anteater in there. Something different.

In the Farm Yard section, as well as the usual animals such as goats and pigs, there was an Animal Hospital where they had poorly animals and information showing previously ill animals and how they recovered.

~ Animal Talks and Feeding

The talks by the staff were very good and informative. They lasted a good 10 minutes and the staff also stopped behind afterwards to answer questions. Thumbs up to the staff, they seemed to kno
w their stuff.

My only niggles about them was that the carried the speakerphone on them, as opposed to it being stationed somewhere in the area, which meant if you were not that close to the speaker you could not fully hear what was being said.

A note also to take is that the talks are only advertised at the entrance (or that’s the only place we saw them) and they are not advertised in your guide so its best to note them down otherwise you may miss them. The Lion feeding is good!

~ For the Kids

A children’s play area is located in the corner of the park if you decide to take your own monkeys to the zoo! There is also an ‘Educational Unit’ nearby; I presume this is for school bookings when they get to learn a bit more about the animals and zoo.

There is a hedge maze in the middle of the zoo suitable for kids as it is only about 4ft high so ideal for the parents to keep an eye on their kids.

~ Disabled

The zoo had quite good access throughout, with wide doors and flat surfaces. There are a couple of places that are not accessible such as the upstairs balcony for the rainforest and the owl enclosure is pretty steep.

~ Gardens

Next to the hedge maze, there are tropical gardens that contained various plants, trees and shrubs. This was on the small side and didn’t really interest me if I’m being honest. Included were bamboo, palms and ferns.

~ Signs and Information Sites

Each animal had an informative sign next to its enclosure giving details of it’s survival information, names, living patterns and so on. Some of these went into much detail that isn’t available in the Guide. Some of the information viewed was very interested and went for the ‘wow, I never knew that’ fact rather than the boring i
nfo.

~ Food

There was a food hall but we had eaten so we did not have anything there. The place looked clean and I think the prices are average, slightly overpriced. We did have an ice cream at one of the huts and they were priced the same. Barbequed food is available during the summer months (between £2 - £3 for a burger/hotdog).

~ Gift Shop

The shop had very few Newquay Zoo emblazed items. If I ever do buy something from one of these type of shops I tend to get something with the logo on, as a reminder of where I had been and also because most of the non branded stuff is available in the bargain shops for a quarter of the price.

~ Getting ‘involved’

The zoo has sponsorship and adoptions on most animals, price I am unsure of. You can also become a member for the year but again I am not sure of prices.

~ Opening Times

Newquay Zoo is open everyday of the year apart from Christmas Day. It opens at 9am and closes at 6pm with last admission at 5pm.

~Overall

I was slightly disappointed with my visit. The zoo was small and the animals they had were small, I find the larger animals more interesting. Certainly a half a day visit. I suppose this would be good for people with children as there is not a massive amount of walking to do and there is quite a few animals to see.

Price wise, at £7, I feel was acceptable. In comparison to Whipsnade Zoo for price, which I have visited recently, (£12.50 + parking fee) I thought Newquay Zoo wasn’t overpriced. To think that a visit to the cinema is about the same price (yes, hold your head in shame UCI!) this was value for money. Look out for discount vouchers (50p off per person).

I probably wouldn’t go ag
ain, but was glad to have visited the once. (If that makes sense ?!)

It is worth visiting, especially with children.

Thanks For Reading

tbsgt

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