Summer holidays at Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm
With tropical hot temperatures, stormy skies and media reports of a heatwave, it seems like summer is truly here! At Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm we are gearing up for the start of the summer holidays, when we offer fantastic family days out in Bristol – with everything from mighty African animals through to our fantastic play areas and picnic spots.
For the summer season, we’ve been working behind the scenes to improve visitor facilities to make a day out here even more special. We’ve now got upgraded café facilities, so you can enjoy healthy lunches, snacks and drinks in even more comfortable surroundings. And as the site is so large, we’ve introduced a new Trunk Stop kiosk offering drinks and ice creams so you can cool off when on the move exploring Noah’s Ark! New toilets have also been built to cut queues and ensure you have the most time possible to enjoy the animals, parks and playgrounds here on the farm.
As well as our vibrant shows and talks running daily, we’ve got a series of summer events shining the spotlight on some of the incredible animals we have here on the Ark. We’ll be marking International Tiger Day on Tuesday, July 29, with a special talk at the Big Cat sanctuary, where visitors will also get the chance to see the tigers get some new enrichment toys. Enrichment is an important part of the management plans for all our animals at Noah’s Ark.
This ranges from offering the animals interesting new items to play with to hiding food in novel places to bring out their hunting or scavenging instincts. It’s a great way to keep Bengal tigers Tiana and Khan stimulated, engaged with their surroundings, active and healthy both physically and mentally. The pair always enjoy tearing apart their carved pumpkins (filled with meat) during Halloween enrichment, footballs for the World Cup and sniffing, clawing and scent-marking on their Christmas pine trees.
For the daring, we are running the ever-popular Reptile Fortnight again this summer, from Monday, August 4 to Saturday, August 16. We’ll have daily Venomous Snake Shows at 12.30pm and 2pm in the Ark Arena. The shows feature the deadliest snakes from across the world including the black mamba, king cobra and gaboon viper. These are the only shows of their kind in the South West! There will also be a chance to meet and have your photograph taken with the friendly non-venomous reptiles including a mississippi alligator, panther chameleon and burmese python!
Many of our small animals will be taking a trip from the Ark to visit the beautiful Ashton Court estate for the annual Bristol Balloon Fiesta on the weekend of August 9 and 10. We love visiting the incredible balloon show and letting more people find out about Noah’s Ark. Then on Tuesday, August 12, we’ll be celebrating our beautiful elephant Buta on World Elephant Day. We’re running a fun-packed day at Elephant Eden featuring keeper talks and a competition to win a chance to go into the elephant keeper area and hide some enrichment treats for Buta! With so much on at Noah’s Ark these summer holidays, make sure you book your tickets online, where you’ll be given a bonus 5% off your entrance!
For more information please visit the Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm website or call 01275 852606.