A taste of ZSL Whipsnade Zoo

This weekend saw ZSL Whipsnade Zoo hold their Elephantastic event. Supported by Mr Kipling, this celebration was in aid of Elephant Appreciation Weekend to raise money for international science and conservation charity ZSL’s Asian elephant conservation and research projects.

Elephantastic treated visitors to elephant encounters, family activities and fascinating talks that help make a difference to elephant conservation. This included feeding an elephant a snack, a behind-the-scenes guided tour of the elephant barn and learning how the zoo’s vets keep the elephants healthy. In addition, there were a whole host of activities on offer. The conservation station was a great way to educate children about elephants including how much they eat and drink. There was also a jumbo crafts tent where POD got to make her own elephant mask to the sounds of Africa.

While everyone loved baby elephant Sam, it was fascinating to watch these gentle giants up close and better understand each of their personalities. You could tell the keepers absolutely love these wonderful creatures and you could sense the level of trust between them.

We spent a while enjoying everything Elephantastic had to offer (read the post here) and also managed to see some of the other animals too.

We’d usually grab a snack at Base Camp as a first port of call where you’ll find the Hullabazoo children’s farm and play zone. There are red pandas, ring-tailed lemurs, chimps, otters and sealions close by too as well as the Butterfly House.

Base Camp is the nearest to the entrance and connects the Africa, Asia and Europe zones. It’s good to get your bearings before you set off so you know which way you’re heading and what else you’d like to do. You can see the lemurs have their breakfast, penguins have an afternoon feast, hear chimp, rhino, cheetah and giraffe talks, witness birds of the world swoop above you or join in the fun with a sealion splash.

Africa is a great zone to start with where you’ll find giraffes, cheetah’s, hippos, white rhinos, zebras, lions and meerkats. As we were in the Asia zone to see the elephants, we headed straight to the Amur tigers first before grabbing food and then making our way to Africa.

With it being such a glorious day, some of the animals in the Africa zone were enjoying a bask in sunshine. The cheetahs and lions in particular were very comfortable – some more than others! The meerkats however were as always on full alert as always!

We always enjoy the views at Whipsnade Zoo and today was no different. A quick pitstop to take in the wonderful countryside before heading to see the zebras and giraffes. We even spotted a wallaby on the way having a good belly scratch much to our amusement!
There is a whole herd of zebras at Whipsnade Zoo all of which seemed to have the most perfect stripes! Giraffes are always fascinating to watch and we even got to see the baby one. We love the giraffe platform and viewing area as it enables visitors to get really close to these fabulous animals.

After wolves, moose and bison, we embarked on a spot of silliness which mostly involved running around and hiding before exploring more of the Europe zone.
We were lucky enough to catch the lemurs being fed – who knew their flick their tails over their shoulder while they’re eating! We spent time with the chimpanzees too before the lynx and brown bears. Last stop was a visit to the shop for ice-cream and a few gifts.

We absolutely loved the Elephantastic event at Whipsnade Zoo and it was great to do a whistle stop tour to see some of the other animals as well. It really is a special place and I’m sure we’ll be back again before too long, POD loves it.