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30th Birthday Celebrations

We marked our 30th birthday weekend on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th March in style, with hundreds of visitors enjoying the amazing array of animal-themed, family-friendly activities taking place over the weekend. Our two-day birthday celebration’s special guest appearances saw a brightly-coloured butterfly stilt walker beautifully adorn the butterfly house and excited children immerse themselves in a giant bubble-blowing display in the park’s arena!

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Visitors also enjoyed daily keeper talks and feeds, tractor-trailer rides and meeting everyone's favourite mascots Lizzie the Lemur and Mrs Meerkat.

The much-loved Animal Antics show was a chance to see some of the park’s spectacular birds, Jester the African Spotted Eagle Owl, Kookie the Kookaburra and our incredible Macaws in flight!

Youngsters brightened up everyone’s day in fantastic fancy dress and with their smiling faces painted as a butterfly, bug or bee, eager to search for the prize birthday butterflies hidden around the park to win fantastic spot prizes on the day!

Famous park resident, Odin the Raven, painted a special 30th birthday masterpiece entitled ‘Daffodils’ which is to be auctioned with all proceeds donated to the RSPB.

As part of our anniversary celebrations, we received a great response from our visitors on social media sharing their special memories of the park.

Jade Riley, a visitor to the park for 30 years, shared her inspirational memory:

“I used to come as a baby when it first opened! My grandparents used to take me and I still remember the farm animals and falconry displays to this day! It's what made me want to work with animals and in zoos. Now I'll be bringing my toddler and I'm a zookeeper!”

Jo McDonough, Director and Head of Animals at the Tropical Butterfly House, who has been working at the park for 24 years, was thrilled to see so many visitors experience all the exciting changes:

“My passion for all animals and wildlife has led me to head-up our conservation team here at the park. We also manage 3 external conservation sites, spanning over 46.5 acres across the region, dedicated to protecting native wildlife. A percentage of the entrance fee to the Tropical Butterfly House is invested directly back into these sites, and so it’s fantastic to see so many visitors here celebrating our birthday because everyone is helping to support wildlife closer to home. We can’t wait to see what can be achieved in the next 30 years!”

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Wildlife conservation at the heart of everything we do

Wildlife conservation at the heart of everything we do