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Paignton Zoo is a zoo in Paignton, Devon, England. The zoo is part of South West Environmental Parks Ltd which is owned by the charity Wild Planet Trust, formerly known as the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust. The charity also runs Newquay Zoo in Newquay, Cornwall, and ran Living Coasts in Torquay, Devon until its closure in 2020.

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Paignton Zoo

Date opened	1923
Location	Paignton, Devon, England
Coordinates	50°25′44″N 3°35′4″W
Land area	80 acres (32 ha)
No. of animals	Over 2000
No. of species	Over 250
Major exhibits	Reptile Tropics, Crocodile Swamp, Ape Centre, Lemur Wood, Monkey Heights
Website	www.paigntonzoo.org.uk

The zoo is a registered educational and scientific charity that has a collection of about 2,000 animals representing nearly 300 species, and it also cultivates about 1,600 different species of plant.^{[citation needed]} It currently^[when?] employs over 100 permanent staff and an additional 120 seasonally.^{[citation needed]}

Animals

The zoo has a large collection of animals (mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians) across many different, naturally-themed exhibits.[1]

• Animals at Paignton Zoo
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History

Paignton Zoo was one of the earliest combined zoological and botanical gardens in Britain and the first that was opened with education as its mission. It was founded by Herbert Whitley, initially as his private collection. Whitley was an early conservationist and a contemporary of people such as Sir Peter Scott and Jean Delacour, the French ornithologist. Paignton Zoo first opened to the public in 1923. After various name changes, it became Paignton Zoo Environmental Park in 1996.[2]

A five-year redevelopment programme, funded by the European Regional Development Fund, refurbished large parts of the zoo and was completed in 2001. A new 10-year plan is now^[when?] in place to redevelop the remaining areas to ensure that all animals are housed in modern enclosures of the highest standard.^{[citation needed]}

Timeline

• 1923 – Paignton Zoo opened to the public
• 1940 – Miniature railway opened[3]
• 1955 – Herbert Whitley died
• 1995 – European Regional Development Fund grant started redevelopment of Zoo
• 1996 – Became Paignton Zoo Environmental Park^{[citation needed]}
• 1998 – Zoo Keepers BBC TV documentary series broadcast
• 2004 – Zoo Story ITV TV documentary series broadcast
• 2005 – Monkey Heights, the state-of-the-art monkey exhibit, opened
• 2008 – Crocodile Swamp exhibit opened
• 2012 – Dr David Stradling, chairman of WWCT, died; the zoo became the first in the UK to witness a giant Titan arum bloom[4]
• 2013 – In the Great Gorilla Project, life-sized gorillas were placed across Devon for charity and £100,000 was raised[5]
• 2016 – Great Big Rhino Project raised £123,000 for conservation[6]
• 2019 – The Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust is re-named and re-branded as the Wild Planet Trust
• 2019 – Duchess, the zoo's only African Elephant, died[7]
• 2020 - Miniature railway closed[8]

Conservation

Paignton Zoo is a member of the British & Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA), the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA). Its gardens are members of PLANTNETWORK, Plant Heritage and Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). It works with partner zoos and gardens in these organisations on the management of captive breeding and plant conservation programmes for endangered species.

Education and research

The zoo has a large education team which teaches approximately 40,000 students each year from under-5s to post-16s, as well as adult community groups.^{[citation needed]}

The Education Department was founded in 1961 and the Paignton Zoo Science Department was established in 1997, during the redevelopment programme.[4] Now renamed the Field Conservation and Research Department, it has grown to become a well-known zoo science departments in Europe,[4] with staff engaged in a programme of projects within the zoo, at Wild Planet Trust's other sites in the UK, and at various sites overseas. Projects are carried out at 'A' level, undergraduate and post graduate level.[9][10][11]

Botanical gardens

Garden themes and plant collections include a broad collection of temperate hardy trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants arranged by habitat type. The indoor growing areas allow the zoo to grow plants from all over the world, ranging from small critically endangered cactus in the desert house, through to the massive Titan arum, giant bamboo and giant water lilies located in the tropical houses.^{[citation needed]}

Awards

Paignton Zoo was, based on visitor feedback, named by TripAdvisor as the third best zoo in the UK (behind Chester and Colchester) and ninth best zoo in Europe in 2014.[12][13]

CBBC's The Zoo

In 2017, children's television channel CBBC, in partnership with DHX Media, announced that a episodic comedy show filmed at Paignton Zoo, England, from the point of view of animals, would air in the summer of the same year.[14]

References

External links

• Official website
• The Great Big Rhinos Project
• The Great Gorillas Project

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