Exmoor Zoo

About

Enjoy a day out Exmoor Zoo, one of the “West-country’s hidden gems” on the edge of the National Park. Here you can experience a truly unique rural zoo set into a valley in North Devon. Discover rare and unusual animals seldom found in other zoos like Sand Cats, Binturong and Clouded Leopard, along with everybody's favourites too, Meerkats and Red Pandas.

There are animal feedings and interactive encounter sessions running at timed intervals all day – some of which you can join in with, such as our educational encounter activities and talks about the animals we look after! This makes for a real fun and memorable day out for everyone who comes to visit.

The zoo also has probably one of the rarest breeding program birds in the world – the Shoebill (just one of nine birds in Europe), Dingo’s from the European breeding program and the cute & cuddly Red Panda’s “Shifumi & Pan”!  Don’t forget, when you visit be sure to look out for new babies being born, just this past year we have had a baby a litter of Bat Eared Foxes, a Margay kitten, Lar Gibbon baby and our first ever Pelican chick.

Our zoo is set in the North Devon countryside, which in the summertime means the winding paths lined with flowers, shrubs and trees keep some of the exhibits hidden from immediate view. This creates a lovely native like jungle feel and can turn you into an expedition explorer in the summer months! Or for those taking a relaxing stroll and leisurely explore you never quite know what is around the next corner and how close you will get! It is not only the zoos exhibited animals, but our own native wildlife that thrives inside the safety of the zoo, like fritillary butterflies, and sparrows which have been declining recently in places all over the UK that you could bump into!

Exmoor Zoo exhibits the notorious ‘Exmoor Beast’ a Black Leopard, with a special ‘Beast’ talk at 3.00pm. What about our scarier creatures? Are you brave enough to hold a spider or one of our snakes at the mid-day encounter session? There is always the possibility it could be the cuter and more adorable ambassadors, such as some of our furry and zoo babies.

You even have a chance to see animals that used to be at home in the medieval wilds of the UK like grey wolves, wolverine, and lynx! It’s the fun and exploration of a lovely natural zoo that makes this a visit have something for everyone to take part in and enjoy, the café even boasts a “mean” cream tea among the many meals, from paninis to burgers and” kids lunch boxes” there is lots of choice for everyone.

Some other conservation programmes we participate in and around the zoo are the house sparrow project. This is very close to our hearts as we host over 250 pairs of these on the zoo and as such, we are supporting the British Trust for Ornithology in their studies to help raise awareness of their disappearance UK wide.  We also participate in the UK rewilding white stork project. As well as this we promote conservation efforts further afield supporting the Cheetah Conservation Fund and the Painted Dog Foundation in Africa.

Why not come and visit us it’ll be a wild time!