They say you shouldn’t play with your food – but at Living Coasts this Christmas, that’s exactly what kids are being encouraged to do. The coastal zoo’s Breakfast with Santa event features food, presents – and penguins.
Living Coasts spokesperson Phil Knowling said: “Children get a pancake to decorate. They can choose from things like banana, strawberries, chocolate drops, cream and...
Paignton Zoo has welcomed a new species – the wonderfully-named gentle lemur. There’s more than a little of the teddy bear about them, with their thick, grey-brown fur and beady amber eyes. The babies are said to be especially cute – and the zoo certainly hopes to see babies in due course.
The gentle lemur – more correctly, the Alaotran gentle lemur - is the only primate that lives...
We often reach for a heat pack to ease aches and pains, with maybe a bit of a massage if we’re lucky. This is exactly the treatment 35-year-old Sophie is getting right now. The only difference is – she’s a giant tortoise. Paignton Zoo’s Aldabra giant tortoise Sophie weighs 106 kilos, 233 pounds or 16 stones. She’s one of six confiscated by Customs from an illegal importation and handed to...
It sounds like the latest police drama – the Zoo Evidence Officer is on the case, searching for clues, combing through paperwork and tracking down the truth. In fact, the new post, based at Paignton Zoo in Devon, is about detecting science-based evidence for the best ways to care for, manage and breed animals in zoological collections for conservation purposes. Wild Planet Trust, the charity...
This tiger snail at Paignton Zoo weighs around 500 grams – equivalent to 50 garden snails. Individuals can live for ten years. You may not want to see this specimen in your garden, but Paignton Zoo keeper Lauren Lane is besotted with these amazing creatures – and has nick-named this individual Sausage…
Last month, a concert was held at Ivybridge Methodist Church to raise funds for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) Transcription Centre in Ivybridge.
Headlining the evening were the The Kingsmen Close Harmony Chorus who have chosen RNIB as their charity of the year. The group consists of over fifty men from South West Devon from anywhere from Torquay to Plymouth, who...
Paignton Zoo bird keeper Lisa Jones freely admits that she has an interest that borders on obsession. She’s fascinated by feathers.
“During the summer months, lots of birds at Paignton Zoo start to moult… I think feathers are among the natural world’s most incredible adaptations. While I was cleaning out the Ural owls, who are moulting heavily now, I wondered if anyone else would be as...
A major South West conservation charity has announced its patrons. Both are star names regionally and nationally.
Naturalist Nick Baker and broadcaster Judi Spiers have been unveiled as patrons of Wild Planet Trust, the charity that runs Paignton Zoo, Living Coasts in Torquay and Newquay Zoo in Cornwall.
These are the first patrons that the Trust, previously known as Whitley...
Two vets from Indonesia are the first to benefit from a unique new scholarship programme run by a Cornish vet charity. OVAID – Orang utan Veterinary Aid – is run by Nigel and Sara Hicks, based in Launceston. They help hard-pressed orang utan rescue centres and sanctuaries with veterinary support and donations of equipment.
The new OVAID Bronwyn Scholarship meant that two South East...
Money spent by guests having a great day out in South Devon is directly helping to protect some of Southern Africa’s most iconic animals.
Wild Planet Trust is the charity that runs Paignton Zoo, Living Coasts in Torquay and Newquay Zoo in Cornwall. It helps fund conservation on the ground in one of the hardest countries in the world to work in - Zimbabwe. The Matobo Hills area, in...
