This is primarily a children's attraction with all the farm park additions you would expect, including; softplay, adventure playgrounds, trampolines, mini golf etc etc but does hold some exotics with one notable rarity so I thought I would pop some thoughts down following my visit for anyone considering a trip.
It is very much a seasonal attraction, closing for large parts of the colder months and is only just awakening from its winter hibernation. This showed a bit with some overgrown areas, unassembled rides, empty flower beds etc but nothing a little TLC won't fix, ready for an influx of summer trade from the surrounding holiday parks in Brean, Berrow and Weston super Mare.
Domestics are split into two areas, a rabbit petting shed and one small paddock right at the front of the park which has lambs, goat kids, alpacas etc rotated through it over the course of the day from the nearby lambing shed.
This was a nice touch I thought as it meant that mobility limited visitors would still get a full experience without having to walk the farm fields.
The second section of domestics was at the rear of the site and set on a large square with pens around the perimeter. Old Macdonald would be in his element as all the farmyard favourites were accounted for and nothing of exceptional interest leapt out at me from the domestics stock.
There is a "reptile room" which was a farmyard barn with some tanks plonked around the walls, nothing of particular note, the inside of the vivariums were perfectly adequate but this area overall was a low point for the site, dirty, dusty, unkempt and unloved.
Reptiles I saw, Bearded Dragon, Corn Snake, Water Dragon, Hermann's Tortoise and Blue Tongued Skink. Elsewhere was a grass pen for Sulcata Tortoise who spent some of the day walking around a grassy area of the park being petted by a throng of children before being returned to their pen.
Also in the reptile barn were functional enclosures for Chinchilla, Budgerigar, and two more species signed but not seen, Prairie Dogs and Siberian Chipmunk. The chipmunk enclosure was small in my opinion and I saw no outdoor access for any of the species in this area.
In the centre of the park is a cage for a racoon, we saw only a single, it was of a passable size but not great considering this is supposedly a rescue facility. Wire mesh sides and no stand off barrier meant the raccoon rubbed itself on the bars and was touched by a number of visitors, it seemed docile enough but an accident waiting to happen IMO.
Behind the racoon was a meerkat enclosure, hexagonal, wood sides, deep substrate, enrichment items... it was a meerkat exhibit and hard to get too excited about as with most i encounter.
Next to this was my primary reason for visiting, an enclosure for Egyptian Mongoose, a species rarely seen in zoos (7 worldwide holdings as per ZTL).
Enclosure was much the same as the meerkat one next to it except there were some longer black PVC pipes laying across the surface in this one. We saw one mongoose laying just outside the indoor housing which was rudimentary consisting of a nest box and heat lamp.
When we walked the edge of the enclosure we essentially flushed them from their basking spot and they took refuge in one of the aforementioned long black pipes, never to emerge again.
Repeated visits did not turn up any more sightings so all i can confidently say is that there is at least one Egyptian Mongoose and it is flighty.
I seem to recall that the Axe Valley Wildlife Park sent mongoose here and i remember them being very showy there, but who knows... we have just been lucky with Egyptian Mongoose in the South West i guess.
At the far end of the park there are three well sized wood and wire enclosures for more exotics, Racoon Dogs, who's enclosure was roped off and hard to tell if it was in use or not, but certainly none seen by us on our visit. If there are none left then perhaps a move for the racoon might be in order..
Next door a trio of Silver Fox, in a significant enclosure with wooden frames, good elevation, tall grass etc. This was again roped on two sides preventing a 360 tour as a keeper experience was happening at the time.
The third enclosure was signed as "coming soon" on the map and I believe this has been the case for some time. There is no indication of what might be the eventual inhabitants but at the time of our visit it was occupied by five or so sheep who were being pressed into action as natural lawnmowers and keeping the grass short. They looked quite comical behind the tall fencing and stand off barriers they were just missing a sign for "man eating sheep".
Animals as lawnmowers was apparent elsewhere in the park as well where an alpaca or llama (i cant recall) was walking a closed go kart track trimming the meridians.
Fallow Deer in a white colour mutation were in a decent paddock. Permitted hand feeding meant that the area adjacent to the fence line was boggy as an unavoidable consequence.
1:5 as far as I could tell.
They had also done a fairly effective job of eating one of their plastic signs which hadn't been removed sadly.
The final exotic at the park were Bennett's Wallaby in reasonable numbers including an albino individual. These are permitted for hand feeding also and though they were bold at the start of the day had all retired to a roped off area free from grabbing children by the end of the day.
The parks website had images of zebra and lemurs but none were seen and I find it hard to believe they are/were held.
Overall thoughts;
- Egyptian Mongoose is tempting but the only real redeeming feature for this collection
- I would struggle to endorse people dropping in just to see the Egyptian Mongoose due to how un-showy they were
- I wouldn't be returning as a zoo enthusiast.
- I am likely to return as a parent.
It is very much a seasonal attraction, closing for large parts of the colder months and is only just awakening from its winter hibernation. This showed a bit with some overgrown areas, unassembled rides, empty flower beds etc but nothing a little TLC won't fix, ready for an influx of summer trade from the surrounding holiday parks in Brean, Berrow and Weston super Mare.
Domestics are split into two areas, a rabbit petting shed and one small paddock right at the front of the park which has lambs, goat kids, alpacas etc rotated through it over the course of the day from the nearby lambing shed.
This was a nice touch I thought as it meant that mobility limited visitors would still get a full experience without having to walk the farm fields.
The second section of domestics was at the rear of the site and set on a large square with pens around the perimeter. Old Macdonald would be in his element as all the farmyard favourites were accounted for and nothing of exceptional interest leapt out at me from the domestics stock.
There is a "reptile room" which was a farmyard barn with some tanks plonked around the walls, nothing of particular note, the inside of the vivariums were perfectly adequate but this area overall was a low point for the site, dirty, dusty, unkempt and unloved.
Reptiles I saw, Bearded Dragon, Corn Snake, Water Dragon, Hermann's Tortoise and Blue Tongued Skink. Elsewhere was a grass pen for Sulcata Tortoise who spent some of the day walking around a grassy area of the park being petted by a throng of children before being returned to their pen.
Also in the reptile barn were functional enclosures for Chinchilla, Budgerigar, and two more species signed but not seen, Prairie Dogs and Siberian Chipmunk. The chipmunk enclosure was small in my opinion and I saw no outdoor access for any of the species in this area.
In the centre of the park is a cage for a racoon, we saw only a single, it was of a passable size but not great considering this is supposedly a rescue facility. Wire mesh sides and no stand off barrier meant the raccoon rubbed itself on the bars and was touched by a number of visitors, it seemed docile enough but an accident waiting to happen IMO.
Behind the racoon was a meerkat enclosure, hexagonal, wood sides, deep substrate, enrichment items... it was a meerkat exhibit and hard to get too excited about as with most i encounter.
Next to this was my primary reason for visiting, an enclosure for Egyptian Mongoose, a species rarely seen in zoos (7 worldwide holdings as per ZTL).
Enclosure was much the same as the meerkat one next to it except there were some longer black PVC pipes laying across the surface in this one. We saw one mongoose laying just outside the indoor housing which was rudimentary consisting of a nest box and heat lamp.
When we walked the edge of the enclosure we essentially flushed them from their basking spot and they took refuge in one of the aforementioned long black pipes, never to emerge again.
Repeated visits did not turn up any more sightings so all i can confidently say is that there is at least one Egyptian Mongoose and it is flighty.
I seem to recall that the Axe Valley Wildlife Park sent mongoose here and i remember them being very showy there, but who knows... we have just been lucky with Egyptian Mongoose in the South West i guess.
At the far end of the park there are three well sized wood and wire enclosures for more exotics, Racoon Dogs, who's enclosure was roped off and hard to tell if it was in use or not, but certainly none seen by us on our visit. If there are none left then perhaps a move for the racoon might be in order..
Next door a trio of Silver Fox, in a significant enclosure with wooden frames, good elevation, tall grass etc. This was again roped on two sides preventing a 360 tour as a keeper experience was happening at the time.
The third enclosure was signed as "coming soon" on the map and I believe this has been the case for some time. There is no indication of what might be the eventual inhabitants but at the time of our visit it was occupied by five or so sheep who were being pressed into action as natural lawnmowers and keeping the grass short. They looked quite comical behind the tall fencing and stand off barriers they were just missing a sign for "man eating sheep".
Animals as lawnmowers was apparent elsewhere in the park as well where an alpaca or llama (i cant recall) was walking a closed go kart track trimming the meridians.
Fallow Deer in a white colour mutation were in a decent paddock. Permitted hand feeding meant that the area adjacent to the fence line was boggy as an unavoidable consequence.
1:5 as far as I could tell.
They had also done a fairly effective job of eating one of their plastic signs which hadn't been removed sadly.
The final exotic at the park were Bennett's Wallaby in reasonable numbers including an albino individual. These are permitted for hand feeding also and though they were bold at the start of the day had all retired to a roped off area free from grabbing children by the end of the day.
The parks website had images of zebra and lemurs but none were seen and I find it hard to believe they are/were held.
Overall thoughts;
- Egyptian Mongoose is tempting but the only real redeeming feature for this collection
- I would struggle to endorse people dropping in just to see the Egyptian Mongoose due to how un-showy they were
- I wouldn't be returning as a zoo enthusiast.
- I am likely to return as a parent.
