Hoo Farm Hoo Farm zoo news

When I went a few weeks ago I was there before opening time and only left at closing. It's not a big place but either need to have patience and spend a while at enclosures or go round a few times as cats being cats they sleep a lot.
Wild Zoological Park I think from memory is only about half hour away, just depends if it's half an hour further out of your way as that too is only small. I did both in a day once before the pre-booking arrival time slots days
 
When I went a few weeks ago I was there before opening time and only left at closing. It's not a big place but either need to have patience and spend a while at enclosures or go round a few times as cats being cats they sleep a lot.
Yes, I was just about to add, with having to book in advance for places, you can get torn between losing the admission fee to your second destination in order to see those late risers, or not see the late risers and find nothing of real interest at the second destination.
 
Yes, I was just about to add, with having to book in advance for places, you can get torn between losing the admission fee to your second destination in order to see those late risers, or not see the late risers and find nothing of real interest at the second destination.
yeah thats the situation i am in, i would like to see two zoo;s if i can get the time to do so but as with time slots, saying i went to gentleshaw or exotic and i was there for 2 hrs i could go to hoo zoo for the rest of the day, but would there be any time slots left on that day is the problem, i would normally got to a zoo all day but i normally go to bigger zoo's so i would know, hence the question is hoo zoo an all day job?
 
Visited for the first time today and had a really enjoyable time. Weather was glorious, staff very friendly and great to see a good variety of cat species. Also great to see the Binturongs active - the ones at Dudley have always been asleep! I though the signage was very good - not only in terms of providing information about the individuals and species but identifying animals that were undergoing veterinary treatment and areas that were being refurbished. Won't be the last time I visit.
 
Visited on the 28th of June and was pleasantly surprised to see that they've bred the Bobcats with the young being housed in the former Binturong enclosure, and the Binturong having been moved to an open-topped enclosure next to the Raccoons which looks really good, photo in the gallery.
Also new since my last visit - the Raccoon Dogs have a new enclosure by the Meerkats, there's now an extension to the Caracal exhibit, there is work going on on a Lorikeet Walkthrough, and the zoo now have Eurasian Lynx in the enclosure next to the original Bobcat pair. Think that's it for news but if I remember anything else I'll be back. :)
 
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A walkthrough bird aviary housing 20 Rainbow lorikeets has opened:

Telford zoo welcomes colourful new residents

Twenty rainbow lorikeets have joined the zoo's resident cockatiels and budgies in a new, walk-through enclosure. Guests can also feed the lorikeets with nectar purchased from the zoo.

The new birds, renowned for being sweet-natured and playful, arrived at the zoo around two months ago.
 
We went here last Sunday.
I had only found out about it the week before.
Since we're on a motorbike and it's about 1h20 drive, we only booked the tickets in the morning before we left, as needed to make sure it wasn't going to rain. I don't mind being somewhere when it rains, but I don't want to be on the bike when raining the entire drive.

Anyway, it was open from 10am-5pm and we arrived around 10.30 and stayed for the entire day!
We really enjoyed this place so much.
Staff very friendly, the signage & infoboards I thought was really great and was such a nice touch to have all the animals names on it and where most came from/bit of history about them.
We ended up seeing all the animals, accept for the Zorilla, who we did see move about in it's box as the hay was moving, but it didn't came out all the times we passed by it, and the Coati, we did (barely) see them sleeping inside the shelter.
A few animals I had never seen before, Civet and Genet.

I spend lots of time looking at Asha, their black Jungle Cat. There's something about black cats, I just love, their expressions/looks to me are so different, and I thought it was "odd" that with her, for being a much bigger cat then a regular pet, it was the same way.

You "need" to download the app, so you can use the interactive map, which we thought was a really good idea.
You could check which animals you hadn't seen yet, and it would show you from the point where you are, the route to where the next animals you hadn't seen yet was.
Making sure you really wouldn't miss out! Even though it's not that big, I always feel with most places we miss out on things that are more located in the middle.

All animals were quite active, the Rusty Spotted Cats, we've finally managed to really get to see some running around and playing, so much cuteness!

By the end of the day, the 3 Bobcats who are next to the Jungle Cats were out playing with each other and running around.

The only odd thing I'd say was, when you reach where the Serval is, you can see the Lynx enclosure in the distance, another Serval enclosure and some Bobcat enclosures, but it was fenced off, so had to go all the way around through the Wallabywalk/forest to get to the Lynx. Not a massive pain or anything, just thought it was a bit odd, but probably for good reasons :)
And it was like walking through a forest, it looked so nice. I think you could do a much bigger walk around, but we didn't do that, as wanted to make sure since it was our first time there, we saw everything we wanted to see.

I don't really care for the dinosaur bits that many zoo's have put in now, but this one I think was one of the nicest we've seen so far.
(love Jurassic Park & Land before time, but not really interested seeing it at the zoo).

Food wise, quite some options, and not really that expensive.
Boyfriend had some chips and pulled pork, it was a lot of food he got.

When we arrived, I was immidiately greeted by one of their "zoo cats" lol.
Upon leaving, that same one thought the seat of the bike was a great spot to lay down, and even when gently pushing it off, it wasn't going anywhere. I took it up, put him on the ground, and he jumped straight back onto the seat :D

We will definately be back next year when the weather starts to get a bit warmer again.
If I had a way of getting there by public transport, I'd get a season pass, but it's not an easy commute sadly.
 
By the end of the day, the 3 Bobcats who are next to the Jungle Cats were out playing with each other and running around.
Is this a new enclosure then? They were in the Binturong enclosure according to previous posts, which put me off going to see them.
 
Is this a new enclosure then? They were in the Binturong enclosure according to previous posts, which put me off going to see them.

I'd love to answer you, but I don't know, haha.
As it was our first visit.

The Bintorungs were accross the Lemurs.

So there was the one with 3 Bobcats, next to the Jungle Cats.
And then when you go around the corner to the left, you go to the Serval (and the big field with the sheep), there was another enclosure in which we saw 2 Bobcats, and the Lynx is next to that on the end and another Serval in between. But you could only see the 2 Bobcats from 1 side, as it was fenced of, so you couldn't see the 2nd Serval at all, and had to go all the way around to go and see the Lynx.
 
Jungle cats are now where coatis used to be next to Bobcats, who are in the old binturong enclosure. Map app is up to date, so checked that.
 
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Haha, sorry :p

Does this help?
I've now also seen the big difference with the map they have on show, and what's on the app.

It did say on the website to only book online, so that's what we did. Don't want to drive up and risk being sent away if they would be that strict.

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On August 4th, the zoo announced that a (0.1) Kunekune pig named Cilla passed away.

Cilla the Kune Kune pig.... - Hoo Zoo and Dinosaur World

On July 1st, the zoo announced that a (0.0.1) ring-tailed lemur was born and is now on exhibit.

Tongue out Tuesday Open... - Hoo Zoo and Dinosaur World

On August 1st, the zoo announced that a (0.0.1) albino red-necked wallaby was born and is now on exhibit. On August 8th, the zoo announced that another (0.0.1) red-necked wallaby was born.

What a great picture of our... - Hoo Zoo and Dinosaur World
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=630863782570176&set=a.515828067407082
 
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