Paignton zoo trip

This year for my 30th birthday I recieved a partner membership to Paignton Zoo. This entitles Kelly and myself to free access to the zoo as well as Newquay Zoo and the newer living coasts exhibit in Torquay. Well we jumped at the chance of visiting Paignton Zoo again and headed over there yesterday morning.

The zoo is massive, there is a good 80 acres of natural habitat that is home to thousands of animals. The Zoo is divided up to separate habitat zones:

Primley

Primley is the oldest part of the zoo and houses plants and animals form many different 

habitats. The area is named after the Primley Estate, which was home to the Zoo's founder, Herbert Whitley.

Savannah

Savannah is tropical grassland. The vegetation is made up of grasses with some scattered trees, shrubs and drought-resistant undergrowth. The savannah has two seasons one hot and dry, the other cooler and wet.

Forest

Forest once covered half of the world's land surface. The tallest, heaviest and oldest living things are trees. They provide food and shelter for countless animal species. Now the world's trees are 

disappearing at an alarming rate, threatened by logging, clearance for agriculture and the spread of towns and cities.

Wetland

Wetlands are found where water meets land. they may be beach or bog, pond or pool, coast or canal. They provide sheltered waters, lush vegetation and lots of wildlife.

Tropical Forest

Heat and high rainfall characterise tropical forest ecosystems - the most ancient and biodiverse on earth. Lush, lowland rainforest and higher altitude cloud forests are always green and leafy, while deciduous forests further from the equator have a dry season when tress lose leaves.

Desert

Desert areas have very low rainfall and little surface water. there is little soil, vegatation or animal life. Most are very hot but, wether hot or cold, conditions are harsh. the landscape may be stony plains, sand or bare rock. Weathering may create spectacular landforms.

All are pretty spectacular to behold and will take a good amount of time to walk each one and really see everything. The plants themselves are pretty incredible in places and the attention to detail in some of the enclosures is great.

I only managed to get a few pictures of worth as I'm still trying to figure out the best shooting mode on my new camera but below are some of the pictures that did make the cut:

A Cuban crocodile, Crocodylus rhombifer

 One of the huge reticulated pythons in the crocodile swamp building:

 A shot underwater from the croc house of the hundreds of Malawi cichlids in the water:

 A huge Nile female guarding her clutch of eggs:

 and said eggs:

One of the huge giant tortoises of which there are 6 or 7:

 One of the many Peacocks showing off to the girls that were nearby:

 A couple of Amazon Milk frogs

 Some gorgeous golden mantella (of which they had hundreds and hundreds):

The waterfall at the entrance to the tropical forest reptile house:

 The Dendrobates Azureus Vivarium... they were fricken HUGE frogs.. bigger than most I've seen:

One of the elusive red panda's, there are 3 shots as you don't get to see them very often at all:

The giant lily pads inside the croc swamp building:

The whites tree frog enclosure in the newly opened amphibian ark:

This tank is home to 2 Anderson's salamanders:

This viv was home to some Amazon milk frogs:

In the left side of this tank was some Dendrobates Auratus 'green and black', some Epipidobates Tricolor AND some Amazon milk frogs... I personally don't like that they were mixed up when there are so many enclosures with each species kept individually... on the right were some of the seemingly millions of golden mantella:

A closer shot of the mixed enclosure side from above:

A trio of Dendrobates Leucomelas occupied this enclosure... the boy was calling for ages at a time and it paid off when a huge girl came thumping over for some back stroking fun times ><

This viv had a couple of Ranitomeya reticulata poison dart frogs in, they are called 'thumbnails' as they are tiny tiny little guys:

This tank had a couple of Phylobates Vitatus:

And this tank had loads of Epipidobates Tricolor bouncing around inside:

The newly opened amphibian ark is probably my favourite place in the Zoo but they have a whole load more to see and do and hopefully I'll be able to cram it all in this year with my new present!!