This is an Nguru spiny pygmy chameleon. It’s just a few centimetres long. What could it possibly have in common with a black rhino? The answer is – Wild Planet Trust. The charity behind Paignton Zoo, Living Coasts and Newquay Zoo carries out conservation work in Tanzania, home to both species.
This minute chameleon - a species new to Paignton Zoo and sadly not yet on show to guests –...
Animals at Paignton Zoo will be getting their own festive dinners this Christmas – but you may not find them quite as appetising as your own…
So what’s on the menu? Well, the big cats could get a whole turkey, complete with feathers and entrails. Curator of Mammals Lisa Britton said: “It’s all good roughage, the bones, everything. It’s the sort of carcass they’d be eating in the wild...
If animal training makes you think of tricks and shows, think again. Top zoos use training to improve animal welfare, reduce the need for risky general anaesthetics and to keep both animals and people safe.
For example, bird keeper Sam Gray has trained Alfie Junior the Southern cassowary – as tall as a person and part bird, part dinosaur – to follow a target, which means she can get...
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...
National Tree Week - from 23rd November to 1st December – is the UK's largest annual tree celebration, and marks the start of the winter tree planting season. One locally-based conservation charity is using the occasion to shine a spotlight on some of the many trees in its care.
Wild Planet Trust is the conservation charity behind Paignton Zoo. The zoo is more famous for animals...
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 all love local. Local is about communities and families and neighbourhoods. Eating local reduces food miles. Shopping local stimulates the economy. Visiting local is great for attractions on your doorstep.
The weekend of 16th and 17th November is Locals’ Weekend at Living Coasts, when local people can visit Torquay’s coastal zoo for half price. On this occasion, local means anyone...
A Devon charity is inspiring young people to change the world – and they’re doing it for free.
Wild Planet Trust is launching new sustainability workshops for schools. The six free workshops – called All Our Futures – aim to empower children and young people to make good choices for the future. Group Education Manager Steve Nash explained:
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...
