South Lakes Safari Zoo
South Lakes Safari Zoo (Cumbria Zoo)
Date of visit - 16/09/2024
Part of the reason we had booked our week in Cumbria, was to visit South Lakes Safari Zoo. The booking we had made at our accommodation, Brockholes Farm, included hands on experiences, of our choosing. My wife has a bit of a thing about giraffes and really wanted to feed one again, having previously done so at Colchester Zoo, we also got the chance to feed a Jaguar, a Giant Otter and a Lemur.
Anyway, getting ahead of myself. South Lakes Zoo is based near Ulverston, Cumbria. The zoo has gone through several changes of name over its 30 year existence and currently has an interesting selection of animals. As mentioned earlier, it was a chance for us to have some up close experiences that tempted us to visit.
For Little One it was another chance to see if he would interact with any of the animals that he came into contact with. He was quite happy to hold out a branch to a giraffe, but not quite so keen to be up close with a wallaby - I am not sure what he understands of the creatures he meets, as by and large he doesn't take a lot of notice, until they are in 'his space' that is.
There are quite a lot of loose wildlife around the zoo, to be fair, mainly peacocks and ducks, and of course seagulls when you are carrying out the feeding sessions.
Of note to visitors you are NOT allowed to take food into the zoo. There are several, what look like picnic areas within the zoo, but apparently visitors couldn't be trusted not to feed the animals with their pack-lunch, so the zoo have taken a zero tolerance approach - there is nothing to stop you, doing like we did, popping back to the car to have our lunch, but to be honest, it's not the same and a shame people can't be trusted!
We started off our experience entering the large aviary - not to feed birds though, but the friendly Capybara that are in the aviary with the birds. We did get a close up of the Inca Tern, which are quite majestic birds, with a very distinctive moustache. Little One was quite happy to visit the aviary, but refused to hold out a green pepper to feed the Capybara.
Face masks
We moved on from aviary to feed one of the big cats, a Jaguar - due to Covid restrictions, and the fact that some animals are vulnerable to catching it from humans, it is a necessity to wear a face mask when feeding the big cats and the giant otter. This was a problem for our Little One, as he won't wear a mask, but we knew this in advance, and also that with the other animals were were feeding later in the day wearing a mask wasn't necessary!
The giant otter was happy to eat his diet of fish, while the Jaguar, much to my wife's disgust, devoured loads of chicks, handed to it on a pair of cooking tongs!
From the otters and Jaguar we moved on to what my wife had come for, feeding the giraffe. Face masks came off here, and we all joined in feeding these elegant creatures. Little One even joined in, if a little reluctantly at first, but he was soon happy to hold his branch out.
He didn't understand that you had to hold the branch, so the giraffe could strip the leaves of with their tongue, instead having the branch pulled out of his hand, whole, but at least he joined in, which was nice for us, if not so much so for him!
