A Day Out at Shepreth Wildlife Park

In the summertime, we do enjoy going off and seeing places that have animals in them! There is so much joy that can be found in seeing animals interact with each other, be fed, and so much to learn from keepers. One of the little wildlife parks near us, that feels super understated, is Shepreth Wildlife Park. Dann and I have gone a few times as a little date night, but recently we took our kids along for the adventure! Shepreth is a really reasonably priced wildlife park with a big focus on the animals there.

Shepreth Wildlife Park has so many different animals – which is a big focus at a wildlife park. When we first entered it, I was a bit… confused by the giant plastic dinosaurs on the hill in the middle of the park, but really this is the only decoration in the area, and all around these dinosaurs, there are tons and tons of prairie dogs. These prairie dogs are actually all along the main area of the park, as they can easily come out from under the fences. You can see them bugging the capibara nearby or wandering around in between areas, when there are less people around. This sort of free-form enclosures are so fun to look through and watch – a feature that we have only seen at Shepreth Wildlife Park.

When we went with Robin, Amelia and Kai, Robin did spot the various playparks right by the entrance, so we went over there for a bit. They have a zip line, a few trampolines, and some designated play parks by the cafe. Inside the cafe, there is a soft play, but as Amelia and Kai were a bit big for the softplay, we skipped out on it with a bigger focus on the animals.

There are tons of different signs at cages that let you know when talks and feedings are, which is a real highlight. There were Scottish Big Cats in a cage, but we weren’t able to see them at the time we went there, and instead opted to come back for the talk about this cat. When the talk started, it became very clear on why the cat wasn’t roaming around – she had recently had three babies, as apart of a breeding program to get these cats back in the wild, so she was off protecting them as they aren’t use to humans being around. They came out for the talk, as their handler had treats, letting us see not only the mother and father cat, but also all of the little babies! It was wonderful learning about their population and their breeding program! Kai has a soft spot for cats, especially baby cats, so he really enjoyed this area and found it really interesting.

Walking around the park, we also saw tigers, meerkats, pigmy monkeys, red pandas, bats, rabbits, reptiles and so many more. There are just so many different animals all around! We ended up going to the otter feeding, to watch all of the little otters get their foods and break them open! Otters are fed a bunch of different shelled creatures, which they then break open and get very excited about, which is so much fun to see. We also learned a lot about otters in captivity and how many otters they are freeing to send back out in the wild.

The bunny area is one very much worth taking a look at, called Bunny Kingdom. These bunny rabbits are free roaming, all around us, so that we can see them jumping and playing. You can even go and pet them for a bit, which is quite fun, as long as it’s later in the day. I could not believe that we were able to just walk among them. Beyond Bunny Kingdom there is a bat area, where similarly, you can walk through an area full of bats flying around you, exploring, and eating. Once your eyes adjust, you can watch them hang upside down and see the fruit they are eating. Robin really loved this area and thought it was so cool that the bats flew so close to her head.

There are many large walks around the area too, like an area that has Parma Wallabies just hanging out around you, and another that has you pretty close to lemurs! There are some really interesting animals I haven’t seen before as well, including a few waldrapp ibis and coatis. This variety feels really impressive for the scale of the zoo itself, and we often find ourselves really enjoying seeing all of the different animals playing in their various habitats. We also watched some monkeys get their food, which was super fun, and learned about the way their dynamic works. With so many fun animals to enjoy, you can easily spend an entire day at Shepreth Wildlife Park.

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