An overview of Irish zoos

AthleticBinturong

AthleticBinturong

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Having seen recent posts in the Ireland forum and having noticed it particularly over the last few months, I feel it important to give a brief overview of zoos in Ireland today. The number of 'zoos' in the country has sky rocked in the past few years mostly due to a new licencing act which required many former pet farms to rebrand. Many of these collections receive little to no attention on here.

Dublin Zoo, Phoenix park, Dublin
Opened: 1831
Size: ~70 acres
Number of species: 76 (According to zootierliste)
Dublin zoo is Ireland's oldest and most visited zoo. Having overcome significant challenges in the 1990s, the zoo expanded signifcantly with the opening of the 'African Plains'. Today Dublin zoo, to its own directors admission is not home to a wide range of species but for the species it does have many of these are in world class exhibits. The Kaziranga trail home to the zoo's Asian elephants, The gorilla rainforest and a relatively new shared exhibit for orangutan and siamang gibbon are particular highlights. The zoo plans to open a new Himalayan area home to snow leopards and red pandas in the near future.

Fota wildlife park, Carrigtwohill, Cork
Opened: 1983
Size: 100 acres
Number of species: 114 species
Joint open by the Zoological Society of Ireland and University College Cork in 1983, Fota is Ireland's largest zoo. Famed for its incredible success for cheetah breeding, Fota acts as the zoo for the nearby city of Cork which can be easily accessed by the park's own train station. The opening of the Asian sanctuary in 2015 marked the start of a vast amount of changes in the park with the addition of Asiatic lions, Sumatran tigers and Indian rhinos as well as the upgrading of exhibits elsewhere in the park both for new and existing species including Tapir and drill.
 
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Tayto park, Ashbourne, Meath
Opened: 2010
Size: 55 acres
Species: 133
A theme park and zoo opened in 2010 and operated by Ireland’s largest crisp manufacturer, Tayto park had 750,000 visitors in 2015 and benefits by its close proximity to Dublin and to Northern Ireland. Opened with an ambition to showcase North American species, the park is currently home to a nice combination of ABCs like American bison, Amur tigers and Amur leopards with lesser seen species such as tayra and binturong. The park is certainly one to watch.
 
This is great! Irish zoos are so under appreciated even though there are so many good collections out there:)
I loved my time there and I enjoyed every zoo, some were very surprising like wild Ireland and Ardmore farm which were much better than expected.
 
Great idea, I hope you include most of the smaller zoos and if you need any help I can add some info.
On the number of species listed on Zootierliste, only Fota is reasonably accurate as Tayto species list would struggle to reach 100 and Dublin around 60.
Tayto park is fully owned by Ray Coyle as in 2015 he sold the crisps operation to Intersnack a German company, but there is still a strong connection as the park still markets the brand.
 
The National Reptile Zoo, Kilkenny City
Opened: 2020 (Relocation of site)
Size: >1 acre
Species: No reliable source found. The former species list found on Zootierliste for the Gowran site is probably the most accurate.
Relocating from Gowran, County Kilkenny in late 2019/early 2020, The national reptile zoo is Ireland's only dedicated reptile attraction. With over 50 exhibits and over 150 animals ranging from Saltwater crocodiles and venomous snakes to several tortoise and turtle species and numerous lizards. With a bigger site and a much more accessible location the future looks bright for the reptile zoo.
 
Secret Valley Wildlife Park, Clonroche, County Wexford
Opened: 2007 (As an open farm)
Size: 14 acres
Species: ~40
Located in rural County Wexford, Secret Valley is a small zoo with lots of potential. Home to a number of primates including capuchins, rhesus macaque, crab-eating macaque, ring tailed lemur and white fronted brown lemur several of whom are rescues as well a mammal collection that includes meerkats, crested porcupine, raccoon, corsac foxes and short clawed otters among others. The park is also home to an array of domestics and a reptile collection. With lots of expansion opportunities and being located in a very touristy part of Wexford, Secret Valley is one to watch.
 
Keep it going AB, still plenty of zoos to go, have you been to the Donegal zoos yet, I had planned a trip this year but was put off by the high incidence of covid in that region. One aspect of Irish zoos that bothers me, is there are so few rare or seldom seen species kept apart from Belfast or Taytos birds of prey collection. Anyway look forward to reading the rest of your reviews when posted.
 
Sorry for the recent lack of posts guys, been busy with uni work and part time zookeeping! Plan on visiting Ardmore over the next few weeks so will give a review of that soon. As for the two Donegal zoos @dublinlion I haven’t been to Wild Ireland but I’m very aware of the species and work they do having watched ‘the bearman of Buncranna’ as for tropical world in Letterkenny however I’m quite out of the loop.
 
Ardmore open farm and mini-zoo, Ardmore, County Waterford
Opened: 2013
Size: 22 acres
Number of species: ~45
Located in East county Waterford in the seaside resort village of Ardmore, Ardmore open farm and mini zoo is very quickly establishing itself as a very serious collection in Ireland. With the arrival of scimitar horned oryx and lowland tapir in the last year the park clearly has ambition. The collection has a focus on small mammals and birds with coati, lynx, turacos and crowned cranes some of around 45 species on site. I tried visiting the park today but it was closed. My first impressions having drove up the drive were good however. The entrance building looked impressive and exhibits for African crested porcupines and meerkats were the only ones viewable from the car park but looked good. If the park continues to add to its collection like it has throughout 2021 then i expect big things to come! I'll also make sure i visit on a weekend the next time i make the trip down!
 
Wild Ireland, Burnfoot, County Donegal
Opened: 2019
Size: 23 acres
Number of species: ~30
The envy of many zoochatters, Killian McLoughlin, a life long animal and zoo enthusiast opened his own zoo to the public in late 2019. Solely focused on providing a sanctuary for native and once native wildlife to the Island the park is home to brown bear, Eurasian lynx, Barbary macaque and Eurasian wolf as well as several others. A strong majority of the animals are rescues including the bears and macaques. Set among woodland the park looks like an interesting place and it looks as though it will continue to grow over the coming years. The construction of the zoo is showcased on a four part RTE series "The Bearman of Buncrana". I am yet to visit this collection, due to its location on the complete opposite side of Ireland to me as well as the covid pandemic soon after its opening.
 
AthleticBinturong said:
Update: so drove 1 hour to Ardmore today and the park was closed…
Click to expand...

Thats such a pain when that happens. Most of the smaller zoos have limited winter opening and its always advisable to double check before setting off.
Ardmore is certainly showing promise and as soon as the Pandemic eases
I intend to head to Cork and visit here as well as Fota.
 
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