Newquay Zoo is a zoo located within Trenance Leisure Park in Newquay, England. The zoo was opened in Cornwall on Whit Monday, 26 May 1969 by the local council (Newquay Urban District Council, later Restormel 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, alongside Paignton Zoo and Living Coasts. The zoo is part of a registered charity,
In October 2025, the zoo was put up for sale along with Paignton Zoo.
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 certificate for its environmental management systems along with a recent Gold award for GTBS Green Tourism Business Scheme.
The zoo works within the
BIAZA and
EAZA zoo networks in Britain and Europe but has other ex-situ conservation 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
Cornwall'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, Visayan warty pig and Philippine spotted deer.
Animals
The animal collection at Newquay consists of many species, including ex-situ conservation breeding programmes for endangered
,
,
,
,
and
.
The zoo is home to part of an international breeding programme for some endangered species such as Owston's palm civets for which an overseas in-situ conservation support programme of funding and skills exchange exists, along with support for the
unau sloth project and
pacarana in South America,
pangolin and small carnivore conservation programme in Southeast Asia. The World Land Trust BIAZA zoo reserve in South America is also supported through the wild spaces scheme.
The EAZA 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 on the Red Data lists produced by the IUCN.
- Mammals
- Birds
- Herps
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Amazon milk frog
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Black tree monitor
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Electric blue gecko
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Fiji banded iguana
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Panther chameleon
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Radiated tortoise
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Red-tailed racer
- Invertebrates
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, and Children's Play Areas. It used to have a Dragon Maze (
hedge maze designed by mazemaker Adrian Fisher in 1983) are provided for children's entertainment.
Cooperative projects
Newquay Zoo works with other organisations on events and educational projects such as the
Charles Darwin bicentenary year events in 2009. It partnered Falmouth Art Gallery in hosting
Cornwall artists including
John Dyer 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 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
BIAZA zoo education award in 2003 and 2016.
External links
