Welcome to Dartmoor Zoo, winner of the Eden Channel's Top Wildlife Attraction of the Year 2011, and subject of the the Hollywood movie We Bought A Zoo directed by Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous), starring Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson.
Set in 33 acres of beautiful woodland with stunning views of the
surrounding countryside, Dartmoor Zoo is a unique, family owned zoo with
a fantastic collection of animals including the widest variety of big
cats in the south west of England.
Formerly known as Dartmoor Wildlife Park, the zoo was purchased by
the Mee family and following major refurbishment work, reopened in July
2007 as Dartmoor Zoological Park. The story of those early days can be
found here. It was also captured in the BBC documentary, Ben's Zoo and in Benjamin Mee's book, We Bought a Zoo which has been published in over 20 countries. In the Hollywood adaptation of We Bought A Zoo, Dartmoor Zoological Park becomes, "Rosemoor Wildlife Park" set in California.
The animals here include tigers, lions, jaguar, lynx and cheetah,
bears, wolves, tapir, capybara, raccoons, meerkats, monkeys, deer, owls,
ostrich, lechwe, a fantastic collection of bugs and reptiles and
much, much more.
Our Education Centre is manned by a dedicated team of award-winning staff and volunteers.
The animals in the centre include a fascinating variety of stick
insects, a great collection of snakes, tortoises, bearded dragons,
gerbils, poison dart frogs and geckos, many of which feature in Close
Encounters. The team also provides an excellent education programme for schools both at the zoo and as an outreach service.
The special design of our enclosures means that you can feel closer
to the animals than at some other zoos, with great opportunities for
unobstructed wildlife photography. We have a range of fantastic experiences which get you behind the scenes and even closer to the animals than you would believe was possible. Our Big Cat Keeper For A Day is a firm favourite!
We
work very hard to ensure that the development of the zoo does not have
an adverse effect on the beautiful woodland environment which makes it
quite unique among zoos. As a consequence we have plenty of open spaces
for the kids to run free and visitors are very welcome to bring a picnic
and simply enjoy the surroundings.
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