Enjoyable first visit to Drayton Manor Theme Park Zoo today. £10 seems great value for what is there. I am not a theme park visitor so have never been there before; out of season the ride areas look a bit like someone is about to film / is filming a zombie movie or cutting an episode of CSI. Judging by all the car parks however, it must be a thoroughly mad place in the high season!
It was pretty quiet zoo visitor wise. There were three cars when I arrived and about fifteen when I left, a few people out and about in the zoo but overall it was a great day for some quiet spaces. The animals were surprisingly active. The staff seemed very friendly and a keeper shared some really interesting facts about some of the animals which I appreciated. The cafe was open which was handy for a coffee on a cold day.
Mindful of the fact there are lots of pictures in the gallery I've included a few that stood out to me while I was wandering around.
I started on the left hand side of the zoo, going through the unpreposessing entrance, past the lowland Anoa to find spacious paddocks for zoo staples rhea, capybara, mara and emu. The access to the flamingo pond and the prevost squirrels was blocked off but the flamingoes could still be seen next to the tapir (who was a no show). It's nice to start a zoo with some spacious enclosures and even though you see them in a lot of places, I like to see capybaras and Mara wandering around.
Going up past a bug / nature education space there were three nice aviaries for spectacled, great grey and snowy owls and a showy pair of taritic hornbills at the end. The whole zoo is really wood and wire but many of the enclosures are well planted and spacious (with a couple of exceptions).
A large dinosaur area runs past a vast Thomas the tank playground - I was glad I'd seen the map as there is a very nice Northern Tree Shrew enclosure at the back of all the dinosaur models. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing them outside as I've only seen them in inside enclosures before. Without paying attention to the map I'd certainly have missed them as I don't really do dinosaur loops!
I did like the enclosure animal signage; clear, nice photos and some interesting information and sizeable enough not to be missed. There were also a vast number of large signs about not feeding the animals (and the consequencs if you did) so I assumed this can be an issue on very busy days - they were more numerous than in other places. Perhaps it helps to remind people visiting a theme park zoo the animals are real!
There were a couple of not unusual but nice pheasants (Vietnamese and Golden) along with a pond with fish food (empty at this time of year, but an interesting touch I haven't seen anywhere else) and then a long wire and wood enclosure with a little stream for the fishing cat who was actually outside. I've not seen one before and it was lovely to be able to see her wandering around in the enclosure. I went back a couple of times and she was out and about each time which was awesome.
Opposite her were two Northern lynx in an enclosure I did think felt a bit cramped. It was the only space I thought wasn't comparable to other places I have seen, though the lynx were lounging about well enough. I didn't spend much time at that enclosure as it didn't seem the ideal (caveating I am only comparing as a zoo visitor). I did think in general that some of the enclosures were not designed for the animals to easily conceal themselves, but equally everything was sitting about looking pretty unpeturbed.
A showy couple of red pandas along the way had a better space than the lynx. While none of the enclosures have particular height they have decent furniture. Good signage about the pandas with their names and how they had arrived from Longleat; nice to see this sort of personal information along with the factual stuff.
The ring tailed lemurs were inside somewhere, but the lar gibbon, Rhesus Macaque and Colombian spider monkeys were all visible. The spider monkeys in particular were very active and had a youngster with them which was nice to see. Lots of furniture and things for them to do in their spaces, so while not a lot of planting, there was a lot of activity. Was lucky a keeper came along while I was standing there so the spider monkeys came out to see him, calling and playing about, really interesting to hear their vocalisations. The dik dik and cranes were also out and about which was nice to see. The Sulawesi macaques were out later on in the day and it was nice to get good views of them outside.
Another hornbill find was great; Malaysian Black Hornbills which I hadn't seen before and who were signed as having new arrivals. Really pretty birds.
There were indeed quite a few lovely birds I hadn't seen before or had only seen in a couple of places. The Jewels of Oz area was sadly shut all day and I would rather have loved to have seen the amazing finches hidden away inside, but there were lots of other things to enjoy. To make up for the lack of small birds, the Laysan Teal and Hawaian geese were active in their decent pond space. It was great to be able to see the weavers, starling and another first for me, Bruce's Green Pigeon, in their taller aviary (which looks more modern than some of the other areas but I may be mistaken). The latter were not in the main netted space due to the weather, but they were still outside in their sheltered area making for good views. The parrot area also had some good looking birds, with the more commonly seen grey parrots and conures alongside the newly arrived palm cockatoos which I hadn't seen before. Some of the parrot aviaries were quite basic spaces but pretty roomy in the main.
I was mindful of the comments made earlier in this thread about the Sumatran tiger being easily upset so after leaving the parrots I approached the long rectangular tiger area with a bit of caution. She was indeed growling in the house early on and swiping a bit at some kids, so I left her to it. Fortunately later on she was enjoying some of a horse so that made for some good undisturbed views (well for her and me not the horse). A few screening fences around her area, mostly on the side that looks more noisy as it runs up to the rides.
The meerkat house and outside space along from the parrots / tiger is a bit of a curious building, looking like a cross between a sandcastle and a wedding cake, but good viewing to be had.
Opposite them the dusky pademelon and parmas were sadly a no show and back on to the theme park which is probably quite noisy - I expect they get used to it! It's only at that end you really see the park / some of the rides though I suppose you'd hear them in season.
The well lit and spacious reptile house had some nice things to enjoy including a sizeable anaconda visible from the inside and outside. I enjoyed the chameleons in particular and as I hadn't managed to see a Henkels leaf tailed Gecko before that was super interesting.
Another visit highlight next door to the reptile house was the Tamarin trail. As a shameless Callitrichidae fan it was lovely to find so many examples in a well designed space. They were all out and about at different times during the day and the Emperor's in particular were super active - having added a youngster last year there was much playing and dashing about and the juvenile was clearly visible. Good signage about the newer arrival too.
I liked the walkway design around the Tamarins; it was easy to go back and forth and while I have seen some larger spaces (but also smaller ones), there were some nice features and planting and the inside accommodation is consistent and mostly private (a couple of viewing windows but also off show spaces). Overall a lovely area to head back to a few times for that small primate fix. On a busy day if there were lots of prams and sprinting junior humans the narrow spaces might not have been as much fun but today they were awesome. As mentioned earlier in the thread there were no silvery marmosets (though they are pictured at the entrance the board there is well out of date), but cotton tops, pygmy marmosets, goeldi's monkey (mixed with a lone Emperor tamarin), saki monkeys, Emperor, golden and golden headed lion tamarins made for great viewing.
Overall it was a fun day out. As a smaller zoo it was easy to go around a few times to see everything and there were some lovely animals I hadn't seen before in an interesting collection. Definitely recommended and I'd make another trip (particularly to see if I could glimpse the pigeons outside in their larger netted space and see if I could catch sight of the finches).
