Newquay Zoo is a

zoological garden A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zool ...

located within Trenance Leisure Park in

Newquay Newquay ( ; kw, Tewynblustri) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, in the south west of England. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries, spaceport and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast of ...

, England. The zoo was opened in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

on Whit Monday, 26 May 1969 by the local council (Newquay Urban District Council, later

Restormel Restormel ( kw, Rostorrmel) was a borough of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, one of the six administrative divisions that made up the county. Its council was based in St Austell; its other towns included Newquay. The borough was named after ...

District Council). It was privately owned by Mike Thomas and Roger Martin from 1993 until 2003. In August 2003 Stewart Muir became the new Director and the zoo became part of the

Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust Wild Planet Trust, formerly known as the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust (WWCT), is a registered charity, set up to run Paignton Zoo after the death of its founder, Herbert Whitley, who established the zoo on his estate at Primley, Paignt ...

, alongside

Paignton Zoo 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 ...

and

Living Coasts Living Coasts was a coastal zoo at the site of Torquay Marine Spa in Devon, England. It was owned by South West Environmental Parks as part of the Wild Planet Trust, formerly known as Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust, which also operates Newq ...

. The zoo is part of a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...

, and was awarded various South West and Cornwall 'Visitor Attraction of The Year' and 'Sustainable Tourism' awards for excellence in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Newquay Zoo is now run as part of the Wild Planet Trust, the new name for the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust.

Cooperative links and awards

The zoo has been recognised for providing sustainable tourism and was one of the first few British zoos to gain an

ISO 14001 ISO 14000 is a family of standards related to environmental management that exists to help organizations (a) minimize how their operations (processes, etc.) negatively affect the environment (i.e. cause adverse changes to air, water, or land); (b ...

certificate for its environmental management systems along with a recent Gold award for GTBS Green Tourism Business Scheme. The zoo works within the

BIAZA The British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) (formerly the Federation of Zoological Gardens of Great Britain and Ireland) is a registered charity and the professional body representing over 100 zoos and aquariums in Britain and ...

and

EAZA The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), is an organisation for the European zoo and aquarium community that links over 340 member organisations in 41 countries. EAZA membership is open to all zoos and aquaria across Europe that compl ...

zoo networks in Britain and Europe but has other

ex-situ conservation Svalbard GLOBAL SEED BANK, an ''ex situ'' conservation. ''Ex situ'' conservation literally means, "off-site conservation". It is the process of protecting an endangered species, variety or breed, of plant or animal outside its natural habitat; ...

links overseas. A recent Cornwall Sustainable Tourism award and BIAZA award for sustainability projects recognised an interactive map of Newquay promoting self-guided walking tours around the town and Newquay area, featuring its history, heritage, wildlife and public transport links.

The Zoo today

Newquay Zoo is

's largest zoo and now covers over of land, as well as housing over 130 species. The original zoo was around . An expansion of opened as an African Savanna area from Easter 2009 followed by a central new Philippines area housing endangered

fishing cat The fishing cat (''Prionailurus viverrinus'') is a medium-sized wild cat of South and Southeast Asia. Since 2016, it is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Fishing cat populations are threatened by destruction of wetlands and have declin ...

Visayan warty pig The Visayan warty pig (''Sus cebifrons'') is a critically endangered species in the pig genus ('' Sus''). It is endemic to six of the Visayan Islands (Cebu, Negros, Panay, Masbate, Guimaras, and Siquijor) in the central Philippines. It is known ...

and

Philippine spotted deer The Visayan spotted deer (''Rusa alfredi''), also known as the Visayan deer, the Philippine spotted deer or Prince Alfred's deer, is a nocturnal and endangered species of deer located primarily in the rainforests of the Visayan islands of P ...

Animals

The animal collection at Newquay consists of many species, including

breeding programmes for endangered

red panda The red panda (''Ailurus fulgens''), also known as the lesser panda, is a small mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It has dense reddish-brown fur with a black belly and legs, white-lined ears, a mostly white muzzle ...

lemur Lemurs ( ) (from Latin ''lemures'' – ghosts or spirits) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea (), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 exist ...

Humboldt penguin The Humboldt penguin (''Spheniscus humboldti'') is a medium-sized penguin. It resides in South America, its range mainly contains most of coastal Peru. Its nearest relatives are the African penguin, the Magellanic penguin and the Galápagos peng ...

marmoset The marmosets (), also known as zaris or sagoin, are 22 New World monkey species of the genera ''Callithrix'', ''Cebuella'', ''Callibella'', and ''Mico''. All four genera are part of the biological family Callitrichidae. The term "marmoset" is ...

tamarin The tamarins are squirrel-sized New World monkeys from the family Callitrichidae in the genus ''Saguinus''. They are the first offshoot in the Callitrichidae tree, and therefore are the sister group of a clade formed by the lion tamarins, Goel ...

s and

tapir Tapirs ( ) are large, herbivorous mammals belonging to the family Tapiridae. They are similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South and Central America, with one species inhabit ...

The zoo is home to part of an international breeding programme for some endangered species such as

Owston's palm civet Owston's palm civet (''Chrotogale owstoni'') is a civet native to Vietnam, Laos and southern China. It is listed as Endangered by IUCN because of an ongoing population decline, estimated to be more than 50% over the last three generations, inferr ...

s for which an overseas

in-situ conservation ''In-situ'' conservation is the on-site conservation or the conservation of genetic resources in natural populations of plant or animal species, such as forest genetic resources in natural populations of Teagan species. This process protects th ...

support programme of funding and skills exchange exists, along with support for the unau sloth project and

pacarana The pacarana (''Dinomys branickii'') is a rare and slow-moving Hystricognathi, hystricognath rodent indigenous to South America. Native Tupian languages, Tupi people call it the ''pacarana'' (false paca) because it is superficially similar to the ...

in South America,

pangolin Pangolins, sometimes known as scaly anteaters, are mammals of the order Pholidota (, from Ancient Greek ϕολιδωτός – "clad in scales"). The one extant family, the Manidae, has three genera: '' Manis'', '' Phataginus'', and '' Smut ...

and small carnivore conservation programme in Southeast Asia. The

World Land Trust The World Land Trust is a UK registered charity. It raises money to buy and then protect environmentally-threatened land in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. In 2018 it claimed to have raised more than £25 million and to have bought ...

BIAZA zoo reserve in South America is also supported through the wild spaces scheme. The

campaign is supported annually. Recent overseas project information can be found for each project on the zoo website. Increasingly animal species held at the zoo are listed as threatened or

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

on the Red Data lists produced by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

. ;Mammals *

Asian small-clawed otter The Asian small-clawed otter (''Aonyx cinereus''), also known as the oriental small-clawed otter and the small-clawed otter, is an otter species native to South and Southeast Asia. It has short claws that do not extend beyond the pads of its web ...

Azara's agouti Azara's agouti (''Dasyprocta azarae'') is an agouti species from the family Dasyproctidae. Found in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, it is named after Spanish naturalist Félix de Azara Félix Manuel de Azara y Perera (18 May 1746 – 20 Octo ...

Black-and-white ruffed lemur The black-and-white ruffed lemur (''Varecia variegata'') is an endangered species of ruffed lemur, one of two which are endemic to the island of Madagascar. Despite having a larger range than the red ruffed lemur, it has a much smaller populati ...

Black wildebeest The black wildebeest or white-tailed gnu (''Connochaetes gnou'') is one of the two closely related wildebeest species. It is a member of the genus '' Connochaetes'' and family Bovidae. It was first described in 1780 by Eberhard August Wilhelm ...

* Brazilian guinea pig *

Capybara The capybaraAlso called capivara (in Brazil), capiguara (in Bolivia), chigüire, chigüiro, or fercho (in Colombia and Venezuela), carpincho (in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) and ronsoco (in Peru). or greater capybara (''Hydrochoerus hydro ...

Carpathian lynx The Carpathian lynx (''Lynx lynx carpathicus'') is a subspecies of the Eurasian lynx found in the Carpathian Basin of Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine and Bulgaria. Description thumb The Carpathian lynx is quite large compared to other cat ...

Chapman's zebra Chapman's zebra (''Equus quagga chapmani''), named after its describer James Chapman, is a subspecies of the plains zebra. They, like their relatives, are native to the savannah of north-east South Africa, north to Zimbabwe, west into Botswan ...

Colombian white-faced capuchin The Colombian white-faced capuchin (''Cebus capucinus''), also known as the Colombian white-headed capuchin or Colombian white-throated capuchin, is a medium-sized New World monkey of the family Cebidae, subfamily Cebinae. It is native to the ext ...

Coppery titi The coppery titi monkey (''Plecturocebus cupreus''), or red titi monkey, is a species of titi monkey, a type of New World monkey, from South America. They are found in the Amazon of Brazil and Peru, and perhaps northern Bolivia. It was described ...

Crowned lemur The crowned lemur (''Eulemur coronatus'') is a lemur that is long and weighs . Its tail is about long. Description The crowned lemur is endemic to the dry deciduous forests of the northern tip of Madagascar. It eats a diet of mostly flowers, f ...

Dusky pademelon The dusky pademelon or dusky wallaby (''Thylogale brunii'') is a species of marsupial in the family Macropodidae. It is found in the Aru and Kai islands and the Trans-Fly savanna and grasslands ecoregion of New Guinea. Its natural habitats are ...

*Fishing cat *

Goeldi's marmoset The Goeldi's marmoset or Goeldi's monkey (''Callimico goeldii'') is a small, South American New World monkey that lives in the upper Amazon basin region of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. It is the only species classified in the genus ''C ...

Gray slender loris The gray slender loris (''Loris lydekkerianus'') is a species of primate in the family Loridae. It is native to India and Sri Lanka and inhabits subtropical and tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is threa ...

Hoffmann's two-toed sloth Hoffmann's two-toed sloth (''Choloepus hoffmanni''), also known as the northern two-toed sloth is a species of sloth from Central and South America. It is a solitary, largely nocturnal and arboreal animal, found in mature and secondary rainf ...

Long-nosed potoroo The long-nosed potoroo (''Potorous tridactylus'') is a small, hopping, gerbil-like mammal native to forests and shrubland of southeastern Australia and Tasmania. A member of the rat-kangaroo family (Potoroidae), it lives alone and digs at night f ...

Meerkat MeerKAT, originally the Karoo Array Telescope, is a radio telescope consisting of 64 antennas in the Meerkat National Park, in the Northern Cape of South Africa. In 2003, South Africa submitted an expression of interest to host the Square Kilom ...

Nyala The lowland nyala or simply nyala (''Tragelaphus angasii'') is a spiral-horned antelope native to southern Africa. It is a species of the family Bovidae and genus ''Tragelaphus'', previously placed in genus ''Nyala''. It was first described in ...

*Owston's palm civet *

Parma wallaby The parma wallaby (''Notamacropus parma'') is a small, hopping, kangaroo-like mammal native to forests of southeastern Australia. About the size of a stout cat, it lives in dense shrub and is only active at night to feed on grasses and small plan ...

Prevost's squirrel Prevost's squirrel or Asian tri-colored squirrel (''Callosciurus prevostii'') is a colourful species of rodent in the family Sciuridae. It is found in forests in the Thai-Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo and nearby smaller islands, with an intro ...

Pygmy marmoset Pygmy marmosets are two species of small New World monkeys in the genus ''Cebuella''. They are native to rainforests of the western Amazon Basin in South America. These primates are notable for being the smallest monkeys in the world, at just ov ...

*Red panda *

Ring-tailed lemur The ring-tailed lemur (''Lemur catta'') is a large strepsirrhine primate and the most recognized lemur due to its long, black and white ringed tail. It belongs to Lemuridae, one of five lemur families, and is the only member of the ''Lemur'' ge ...

Silvery marmoset The silvery marmoset (''Mico argentatus'') is a New World monkey that lives in the eastern Amazon Rainforest in Brazil. The fur of the silvery marmoset is colored whitish silver-grey except for a dark tail. Remarkable are its naked, flesh-color ...

Six-banded armadillo The six-banded armadillo (''Euphractus sexcinctus''), also known as the yellow armadillo, is an armadillo found in South America. The sole extant member of its genus, it was first described by Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus in 1758. The six-b ...

South American tapir The South American tapir (''Tapirus terrestris''), also commonly called the Brazilian tapir (from the Tupi ''tapi'ira''), the Amazonian tapir, the maned tapir, the lowland tapir, the ''anta'' (Portuguese), and ''la sachavaca'' (literally "bushcow ...

Swinhoe's striped squirrel Swinhoe's striped squirrel (''Tamiops swinhoei'') is a small species of rodent in the family Squirrel, Sciuridae. This species is found mostly in China and Southeast Asia. Their diet consists of mostly seeds, fruits, nuts and ginger nectar. Like ...

Visayan spotted deer The Visayan spotted deer (''Rusa alfredi''), also known as the Visayan deer, the Philippine spotted deer or Prince Alfred's deer, is a nocturnal and endangered species of deer located primarily in the rainforests of the Visayan islands of Panay ...

Yellow mongoose The yellow mongoose (''Cynictis penicillata''), sometimes referred to as the red meerkat, is a member of the mongoose family. It averages about in weight and about in length. It lives in open country, semi-desert scrubland and grasslands in A ...

;Birds *

Asian fairy-bluebird The Asian fairy-bluebird (''Irena puella'') is a medium-sized, arboreal passerine bird. This fairy-bluebird is found in forests across tropical southern Asia, Indochina and the Greater Sundas. Two or three eggs are laid in a small cup nest in a t ...

Black-necked swan The black-necked swan (''Cygnus melancoryphus'') is a species of waterfowl in tribe Cygnini of subfamily Anserinae.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the bird ...

Blue-crowned hanging parrot The blue-crowned hanging parrot (''Loriculus galgulus'') is a parrot species endemic to southern Burma and Thailand, Malaya, Singapore, and Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, Borneo). These parrots are 12cm in height and weight 28g and have a longevity o ...

Blue-crowned laughingthrush The blue-crowned laughingthrush or Courtois's laughingbird (''Pterorhinus courtoisi'') is a species of bird in the family Leiothrichidae. It is now found only in Jiangxi, China. Until recently, this critically endangered species was generally ...

Great white pelican The great white pelican (''Pelecanus onocrotalus'') also known as the eastern white pelican, rosy pelican or white pelican is a bird in the pelican family. It breeds from southeastern Europe through Asia and Africa, in swamps and shallow lakes. ...

Greater vasa parrot The greater vasa parrot (''Coracopsis vasa'') is one of two species of vasa parrot, the other being the lesser vasa parrot ''C. nigra''. The greater vasa parrot can be found throughout Madagascar and the Comoros. Taxonomy The bird was describe ...

Grosbeak starling The grosbeak starling (''Scissirostrum dubium''), also known as the grosbeak myna, finch-billed myna, or scissor-billed starling, is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is monotypic in the genus ''Scissirostrum''.Feare, C., Craig, ...

*Humboldt penguin *

Indian peafowl The Indian peafowl (''Pavo cristatus''), also known as the common peafowl, and blue peafowl, is a peafowl species native to the Indian subcontinent. It has been introduced to many other countries. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and ...

Javan green magpie The Javan green magpie (''Cissa thalassina'') is a passerine bird in the crow family, Corvidae. This critically endangered species is endemic to montane forests on the Indonesian island of Java.Van Balen S et al., 2011. Biology, taxonomy and con ...

Lilacine amazon The lilacine amazon (''Amazona autumnalis lilacina'') or Ecuadorian red-lored amazon is an amazon parrot native to Ecuador in South America. According to the IOC World Bird List, it is still considered to be a subspecies of the red-lored amazon, ...

Luzon bleeding-heart The Luzon bleeding-heart or punay (''Gallicolumba luzonica'') is one of a number of species of ground dove in the genus ''Gallicolumba'' that are called "bleeding-hearts". The native name in Tagalog is punay. It is also known as ''paloma de pun ...

Papuan hornbill Blyth's hornbill (''Rhyticeros plicatus''), also known as the Papuan hornbill, is a large hornbill inhabiting the forest canopy in Wallacea and Melanesia. Its local name in Tok Pisin is ''kokomo''. Previously, this hornbill was placed in the gen ...

Pink-headed fruit dove The pink-headed fruit dove (''Ptilinopus porphyreus'') also known as pink-necked fruit dove or Temminck's fruit pigeon, is a small colourful dove. The pink-headed fruit dove is a resident breeding endemic bird in Indonesia where it occurs in the ...

Scarlet macaw The scarlet macaw (''Ara macao'') is a large red, yellow, and blue Central and South American parrot, a member of a large group of Neotropical parrots called macaws. It is native to humid evergreen forests of the Neotropics. Its range extends from ...

Snowy owl The snowy owl (''Bubo scandiacus''), also known as the polar owl, the white owl and the Arctic owl, is a large, white owl of the true owl family. Snowy owls are native to the Arctic regions of both North America and the Palearctic, breeding mos ...

Sumatran laughingthrush The Sumatran laughingthrush (''Garrulax bicolor''), also known as the black-and-white laughingthrush, is a member of the family Leiothrichidae. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the white-crested laughingthrush (''G. leucolophus''), but ...

;Herps *

Amazon milk frog The Mission golden-eyed tree frog or Amazon milk frog (''Trachycephalus resinifictrix'') is a large species of arboreal frog native to the Amazon Rainforest in South America. It is sometimes referred to as the blue milk frog due to a sticky, mil ...

Black tree monitor The black tree monitor or Beccari's monitor (''Varanus beccarii)'' is a species of lizard in the family Varanidae. The species is a relatively small member of the family, growing to about in total length (including tail). ''V. beccarii'' is en ...

* Electric blue gecko *

Fiji banded iguana ''Brachylophus bulabula'', commonly known as the Central Fijian Banded Iguana is a species of iguanid lizard endemic to some of the larger central and northwestern islands of Fiji ( Ovalau, Kadavu and Viti Levu), where it occurs in Fijian wet ...

Panther chameleon The panther chameleon (''Furcifer pardalis'') is a species of chameleon found in the eastern and northern parts of Madagascar in a tropical forest biome. Additionally, it has been Introduced species, introduced to Réunion and Mauritius. Taxono ...

Radiated tortoise The radiated tortoise (''Astrochelys radiata'') is a tortoise species in the family Testudinidae. Although this species is native to and most abundant in southern Madagascar, it can also be found in the rest of this island, and has been intro ...

* Red-tailed racer ;Invertebrates * Curlyhair tarantula

Developments since 2009

An additional paddock enclosure area of several acres (formerly a disused school playing field) was added to form the African Savanna area for African hoofstock. This small 2009 expansion created the opportunity to reuse the old mixed African Plains exhibit, redeveloped into an enclosure for endangered Philippine endemic island animals such as Philippine spotted deer and Visayan warty pigs along with fishing cats. In 2016 a new walkthrough aviary Gems of the Jungle was created for endangered Southeast Asian song birds. This new aviary replaced a former 1969 cat house turned aviary and the role of the now demolished 1969 Walkthrough Aviary, modelled on the Snowden Aviary at London Zoo.

Other interesting features

Animal encounters and feeding time talks are also available throughout the year. A Tarzan Trail activity adventure trail, Children's Play Area and the Dragon Maze (

hedge maze A hedge maze is an outdoor garden maze or labyrinth in which the "walls" or dividers between passages are made of vertical hedges. History Hedge mazes evolved from the knot gardens of Renaissance Europe, and were first constructed during the mi ...

Cooperative projects

Newquay Zoo works with other organisations on events and educational projects such as the

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

bicentenary year events in 2009. It partnered

Falmouth Art Gallery Falmouth Art Gallery is a publicly funded art gallery in Cornwall, with one of the leading art collections in Cornwall and southwest England, which features work by old masters, major Victorian artists, British and French Impressionists, leadin ...

in hosting Cornish artists including

John Dyer John Dyer (1699 – 15 December 1757) was a painter and Welsh poet who became a priest in the Church of England.Shaw, Thomas B. ''A Complete Manual of English Literature''. Ed. William Smith. New York: Sheldon & Co., 1872. 372. Print. He was m ...

to produce material for four 2009 exhibitions at Falmouth, the port where Charles Darwin left at the end of his voyage in 1836. Some material was lent from the growing Newquay Zoo Archive of zoo historical material for these exhibitions and displays at Falmouth and Newquay Zoo.

Education projects

Since 2000 Newquay Zoo has provided teaching input and practical opportunities for FE and HE students enrolled at the adjacent Newquay Centre for Applied Zoology

Cornwall College Newquay Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

on zoological conservation, education and media courses. The campus is based next to Newquay Zoo. This unusual and innovative partnership project was recognised by a

zoo education award in 2003 and 2016.

References

External links

Official site

Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust Website

Newquay Zoo History and Archive Website

Timeline

Wild Planet Trust Website
{{authority control Newquay Zoos in England Organisations based in Cornwall Tourist attractions in Cornwall Buildings and structures in Cornwall Charities based in Cornwall Zoos established in 1969 1969 establishments in England