Berkshire College of Agriculture

Crowthorne

Crowthorne

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The Berkshire College of Agriculture near Maidenhead are holding several open days of their teaching zoo collection this year, following a few successful days last year. Tickets need to be booked in advance, for either morning or afternoon, but it looks like an interesting little collection (the usual meerkats, but also Bengal Slow Loris and Round-eared Elephant Shrew as listed on Zootierliste)

Dates and tickets can be found at the link

Events - BCA
 
Us too! We're booked for the morning :)
 
We're there in the morning too :-) Not sure where we're heading in the afternoon yet...
 
The Living Rainforest isn't too far away, just the other side of Reading if I recall :)
 
Had a lovely morning at the college teaching zoo. Just uploaded some photos to the UK - Other gallery.

The zoo was, I thought, of very high quality, despite its small size. A nice collection of animals, some common, some a little more unusual. The real highlight for me was the unexpected nocturnal house, with round-eared elephant shrew (a first for me), active pygmy slow loris (I usually have such bad luck with them), grey mouse lemurs and wonder of wonders, a common genet (another first!)

The college are planning to hold these zoo days pretty regularly this year, and for £8 adult entrance, is well worth the trip. They put details on the college website and Facebook page
 
Seems like a very high quality little collection based on your pictures, great signage and superb enclosures!
Do you have an idea of an approximate species list for the tropical house?
 
Thanks @Swampy yes it's a great little place, if you can get to one of their open days I recommend it!

Species lists aren't really my thing, so I'm afraid I didn't make one. However their Zootierliste entry seems to be pretty up to date, maybe one of their staff keeps it updated?
 
We really enjoyed the morning there too, shame we didn't bump into you @Crowthorne. The enclosures were all to a decent standard, the only animal we didn't see were the skunks. The nocturnal house was great: The Northern flying squirrels were a first for us (no holdings in Europe according to Zootierliste). The Exotic House was also great, with some really good enclosures for the reptiles.
 
Yea sorry to miss you too @migdog ah, hadn't realised that about the flying squirrels, that's great to know they're another zoo rarity. We didn't see the skunks either, but we did hear other people watching them so they did venture out at some point. Did you find another collection nearby to finish the day?
 
Crowthorne said:
Yea sorry to miss you too @migdog ah, hadn't realised that about the flying squirrels, that's great to know they're another zoo rarity. We didn't see the skunks either, but we did hear other people watching them so they did venture out at some point. Did you find another collection nearby to finish the day?
Click to expand...

Yes, we popped to Cedars Nature Centre to see Stubeanz and meet Oswald the Virginia Opossum :-)

Did you go anywhere after?
 
We love locally so came home and spent the afternoon on the allotment. Was a lovely day for zoo-ing :) Cedars is still on our radar, the one time we were in the area (after a visit to Ventura) the car park and surrounding streets were full so had to call it a day. Will be back to try again someday :)
 
You should, Stu and Nick are great, and very friendly. In fact, Stu only came back from his hols this morning, but spent a couple of hours with us, trying to get Oswald and Ziggy to show their cute faces :-)
 
Will definitely try again someday :D
 
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