A Day Out at Exmoor Zoo

While on holiday, we wanted to do a few activities that the children picked! One of the things that all three of them kept asking to do was go to a zoo. As we are a child-focused house, we looked up the local zoos (there were two) and picked the one that we felt was best – Exmoor Zoo. We went to Exmoor Zoo on a slightly overcast day, where the weather wasn’t very hot and there were a few drizzles of rain. The staff at the zoo said this was the best time to visit animals, as they wouldn’t be hiding from the sun and would be out getting fresh air – and they were right!

When we got to Exmoor Zoo, we picked up a bingo / scavenger hunt, which we could fill out to get a prize. Dotted around the zoo there were a bunch of boards with information, and some had red butterflies on them. These butterfly ones had the information to answer the scavenger hunt, which had questions that required you to know the information on the card. Our scavenger hunt also told us what areas to go for each question, which was helpful. This Robin, Kai and Amelia learning all about bugs and their uses in real life, filling in questions and coloring in bugs. There is also a bug bingo where you can spot bugs and mark them off.

We did mainly go to look at animals, though there are a bunch of talks throughout the day, at various animal areas, on those specific animals. Exmoor Zoo is sort of like a maze, as there are just so many different animals and so many different areas for them. We instantly saw some monkeys, who were jumping around and playing with each other, along with some big cats, and tropical birds. There are just a lot to see, which is the most fun thing at a zoo! The red pandas were out and about – something that I have never seen at other zoos – and a black leopard was walking around his pen! Cheetahs, lemurs, love birds… we spent so long looking around and checking out each area. There is a massive walk with pelicans that we all took a break at. We watched the pelicans play around, picking up sticks to build a sort of nest, while the others took away the sticks. We made up names for them and what they’d be saying if they spoke English.

We went to one of the nature talks, in a large building away from the cages, by a playpark. Amelia, Robin and Kai enjoyed playing on the playpark before going in, where they could see lots of reptile aquariums. When the discovery presentation started, we were told that the one in the morning was for spiders, and this one was for reptiles! We learned all about snakes, how snakes got to England, and how snakes need to be treated when raising them. Then, we all got to touch a snake. Next, the zoo keeper took out a chameleon, which an audience member held on a stick, and then we watched the reptile eat a bug! It’s tongue was so long and our family was really surprised by the way the chameleon ate it.

We then continued to walk around, finding a beautiful nature walk that was hidden in the zoo. This had lots of wild flowers, nature rivers and little babbling brooks. Amelia and Robin made this into a photo walk, taking lots of pictures of flowers, while Dann and Kai kept making “dad jokes” about the various plants they see being wild animals not yet invented or something.

We spent a lot of time checking out more animals, with our children picking the Sand Cats as their favorites – these were little cats that were so beautiful. I can totally get why everyone loved seeing them! In second place was the pelicans and the otters, which were both so fun to watch interact with each other. There was a few animals that we couldn’t spot, but over all, there was so many more than we have seen at other zoos! There were even animals that I had not seen before, which was great to experience. The prizes at the end included a lollypop and a post card, if you’re wondering. The Exmoor Zoo is also really affordable, which is always a plus.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!