If animal training makes you think of tricks and shows, think again. Top zoos use training to improve animal welfare, reduce the need for risky general anaesthetics and to keep both animals and people safe.
For example, bird keeper Sam Gray has trained Alfie Junior the Southern cassowary – as tall as a person and part bird, part dinosaur – to follow a target, which means she can get...
Paignton Zoo has welcomed a new species – the wonderfully-named gentle lemur. There’s more than a little of the teddy bear about them, with their thick, grey-brown fur and beady amber eyes. The babies are said to be especially cute – and the zoo certainly hopes to see babies in due course.
The gentle lemur – more correctly, the Alaotran gentle lemur - is the only primate that lives...
We all love local. Local is about communities and families and neighbourhoods. Eating local reduces food miles. Shopping local stimulates the economy. Visiting local is great for attractions on your doorstep.
The weekend of 16th and 17th November is Locals’ Weekend at Living Coasts, when local people can visit Torquay’s coastal zoo for half price. On this occasion, local means anyone...
Paignton Zoo bird keeper Lisa Jones freely admits that she has an interest that borders on obsession. She’s fascinated by feathers.
“During the summer months, lots of birds at Paignton Zoo start to moult… I think feathers are among the natural world’s most incredible adaptations. While I was cleaning out the Ural owls, who are moulting heavily now, I wondered if anyone else would be as...
A major South West conservation charity has announced its patrons. Both are star names regionally and nationally.
Naturalist Nick Baker and broadcaster Judi Spiers have been unveiled as patrons of Wild Planet Trust, the charity that runs Paignton Zoo, Living Coasts in Torquay and Newquay Zoo in Cornwall.
These are the first patrons that the Trust, previously known as Whitley...
Two vets from Indonesia are the first to benefit from a unique new scholarship programme run by a Cornish vet charity. OVAID – Orang utan Veterinary Aid – is run by Nigel and Sara Hicks, based in Launceston. They help hard-pressed orang utan rescue centres and sanctuaries with veterinary support and donations of equipment.
The new OVAID Bronwyn Scholarship meant that two South East...
England’s Seafood Coast is hosting England’s Seafood FEAST – and Torquay’s coastal zoo has a seat at the table.
Of course, seafood is always on the menu at Living Coasts – the penguins, seals and others all love fish. Penguins eat sprats, for example, seals eat mackerel. Guests, meanwhile, can try a local delicacy – mussels.
Spokesperson Phil Knowling said: “As part of England’...
England’s chances in the Rugby World Cup would be greatly improved if they had this chap in the line-up.
Male Western lowland gorilla Pertinax lives at Paignton Zoo in Devon. He‘s around 6 feet from head to toe – modest for a professional rugby player these days, but he weighs in at a hefty 190 kilos - and it’s pretty much all muscle. At 37 he’s a bit of a senior now, but even the All...
Naomi the grey gibbon, one of the oldest residents of Paignton Zoo, has died.
Animal staff and in-house vets took the difficult decision to put her to sleep after she became seriously ill. Zoo spokesperson Phil Knowling: “She went downhill quickly. Clinical signs suggested she might have had a urinary tract problem, which can lead to complications such as kidney failure in older...
