My theme for the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge is – Places I Have Been. After some contemplation I decided to limit it to Places I Have been in the UK, this is because I have been to far more places in the UK and have very limited experience of places outside of the UK. I hope you enjoy my post.

Zoo

I love going to the Zoo and I have a great Zoo just up the road from where I live.

Twycross Zoo.

Twycross Zoo has the largest collection of monkeys and apes in Europe. It was established in the 1960’s by Molly Molly Badham and Nathalie Evans. Molly Badham was an expert in primates in captivity and was highly regarded in her field. Molly achieved many world firsts from breeding animals successfully through to being a founder member of the National Federation of Zoological Gardens of Great Britain and Ireland. Molly also trained the chimpanzees to mimic human characteristics, such as riding bikes or have tea parties. It was the chimps from Twycross that appeared in the PG Tips Adverts. One of the chimps even starred in a horror movie along side Peter Cushing. Now, of course we know that training chimps or any animal to mimic humans is not good for them, and Zoos are now about conservation, preserving both the animals and their habitats.

Twycross Zoo is now a conservation and education centre, teaching the next generation how to look after nature and conserve the planet and all its inhabitants. They have around 150 different species so there are plenty animals to see. One of our favourite animals to visit has always been the giraffes and you can watch them being fed.

The penguins and meercats are always fun too. They are always comical to watch. If you are lucky enough to visit on a hot day, then you get to see the meercats sun bath.

As I mentioned I love visiting Zoos, so long as the animals are well looked after, have lots of enrichment and space. Zoo’s are mainly used now for breeding endangered species who thanks to us humans mainly, are on the brink of extinction. Twycross Zoo is a nice place to visit for the day, but I would avoid visiting during the school holidays, as it gets very busy.

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Thank you for reading x