Monkey Business! (Twycross Zoo)

Member Name: indigojade

Product:	Twycross Zoo
Date:	25/04/01 (386 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great day out for all ages

Disadvantages: smelly, mucky, can be expensive

Twycross Zoo is open!!

Opened in 1963 Twycross has become my second home throughout the summer
months, especially with James’ arrival on the scene - he loves it almost (but not quite) as much as me!

Twycross Zoo is situated near Atherstone, Warwickshire, 4 miles from the M42, and is set in 50 acres of park land. It is now one of Britains largest Zoos, hosting 400,000 visitors a year (from whom the revenue to run the zoo is gained as they receive no government funding) and boasts a collection of 1000+ animals, including many endangered species from the tiny pygmy marmosets to the enormous silverback western lowland gorillas, Twycross is also the only UK zoo to house the Bonobo (our closest primate relative).


On our arrival at the Zoo we were directed to one of their two car parks, one is hard standing, the other a field - not the best place to park when it is raining, but both car parks are with in easy walking distance of the zoo itself, and your car is always accessible during your visit to the zoo.

You pay on entrance to the car park, adults £6.50 children (3+) £4.50 senior citizens £ 5.00. There is another option regarding paying (no not to go over the fence!) and that is to become a member of the Zoo, the rates are single adult £25, joint adult £42 and Junior (age 3 to 16) or Full time Student £12.00. Members get Free entrance to the Zoo and
Reptile House, Free Newsletters, and Free admission to most organised monthly during the period of membership, certainly worth thinking about if you visit more than 3 times in a year.

Twycross is open every day of the year from 10am with the exception of Christmas day, then it is closed. You would be surprised at the number of visitors there on Boxing day!

The zoo has two cafes/tea bars but prepare to pay through the nose and queue for a long time for food and drinks, two average sandwiches a portion of chips a carton of juice and a coffee came
to almost £7! It would certainly be cheaper to take a picnic, or at least your own drinks when visiting. There are various hot dog/burger, ice-cream stands dotted through the zoo. I didn’t try the burgers myself so cannot comment on the cost, but the icecreams didn’t seem too expensive (exploding rocket lollipop was 60p).

The visitor shops were very well stocked but not very big so it would be difficult to manoeuvre a pram or pushchair around the shop. The items stocked were mainly soft toys and novelty items for children, quite expensive, naturally James spotted a huge tiger at the princely sum of £69.99 needless to say we went home without it!

The zoo is well adapted for disabled people, all the animal houses have ramps into them and the paths are well laid, there are also disabled toilet facilities. All the toilet facilities are very clean
considering the volume of people that pass through the park - they have never run out of toilet roll when I have visited!

At the entrance to the zoo there is a list of the various animal activities going on through the day, this is usually the feeding times, check this out as it is great to see the penguins and seals being
fed.

My particular favourite was the tiger feeding. They only feed the tiger 6 days a week and hide the food so he had to hunt for it, we went the day after his fast day and boy was he ready for a feed! At present there is only one make tiger at Twycross as the female has gone to Germany for
the breeding program.

There are a large number of primates at Twycross, more than any other animal, their facilities are fantastic. They have enormous enclosures with all manner of toys to play with. We spent at least and hour watching the Bonobos and it is not hard to see how closely we are related to them!

Another hit with James was the elephants bathing themselves both in the water and in the dust. As well as the endangered and exoti
c animals there is a pets corner with rabbits, guinea pigs etc. the cloven hoofed animals (horses, pigs, sheep and cows were all removed due to foot and mouth).There is a small children’s playground at Twycross, with fair style roundabouts (tea cups and ladybird rides) bouncy castles, donkey rides, and a small sit and ride train. Take plenty of money as
if you have more than one child you can end up spending loads here. The rides are generally 70-90p per go, which soon mounts up!

The general layout of the zoo is very good, with easy access for all. Having said that I think they should have signposts indicating where the animals are, as it is at the moment you wander around
and look at what you come across. Mind you I think part of the rational for not having signposts, is that the frequently move the animals around, especially the primates - so they would have to
keep moving the signposts! I have only mentioned a few of the fabulous array of animals on show at Twycross as to mention them all would take all day. In all the animal houses there is a brief description of the animals, where it comes from, how old they are and so on.

A couple of tips to bear in mind when visiting Twycross zoo,
~ take a picnic and or drinks to cut down on costs.

~ Wrap up warm! It is very open in places at the Zoo, you would do well to take a warm coat as it gets very windy even on the warmest of days!

~ Do wear sensible shoes, it was incredible to amount of women who were tottering around in high heels, it can get muddy and dirty - especially at the moment with walking through the disinfected straw and foam, to prevent foot and mouth spread. I saw countless women wearing peep toed sandals and the like and moaning that their feet hurt or were cold!

~ If you are offended by strong smells take a tissue with some Olbas oil or perfume on it, to smell whilst in animal houses!!! I had a cold on my last visit so was unabl
e to smell anything at all, but plenty of people were complaining about the smell!

~ Above all have fun!!

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