I have never really been a fan of zoos, the animals inevitably live in cramped conditions and look miserable but Durrell Wildlife Conservation Park is another breed entirely. The whole thing is a conservation centre and the animals have so much room to roam around in and they get it as close to their natural habitat as possible. Some of the monkeys didn't even have enclosures, they were just up in a certain patch of trees! I had visited the park before but it was the year the fifth Harry Potter book came out so it had been a while! Mark, my brother and I went and happily spent the morning wandering around and looking at the animals. All of them are endangered species and the Trust are working hard to ensure that they don't become extinct, like the dodo. I loved how you could wander around the park and go from seeing bears one minute, to gorillas (my favourites!) the next.
The Andean bears were the first things that we saw and they were surprisingly small. Their faces reminded me of a monkey's but no one else could see it, am I going mad?!
There were quite a few aviaries and you would enter through a door and then the birds were flying around inside. It took a bit of getting used to as I don't really like things that fly but they were truly beautiful and so brightly coloured!
It was quite difficult to take a picture but apparently this shiny looking bird (imagine a pigeon, but with peacock colours!) is the closest living relative to the dodo which is very cool.
The reptile house was absolutely boiling so we didn't spend too long in there but I found them fascinating. They had tiny (very poisonous) blue frogs...
Pythons...
Brightly coloured snakes...
There were also Komodo dragons, lizards and iguanas, all of which were incredible cool.
These giant Galapagos tortoises were so funny, they had real personalities and I was absolutely transfixed. They were kept inside their enclosure by these picket fences and the one kept trying to get out as he had spotted a delicious looking snack outside, juuust further than he could reach and he was trying everything to get hold of it, including turning himself on one side to try and get out!
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The meerkats were really cool and I loved being able to go into their enclosure via this little bubble!
Flamingos!
Sitting on the statue of Jambo....
I really loved the gorillas, they were definitely my favourite things to see, they are just so human. Isn't the little one cute?! We even managed to bring one back with us! ;)
Our camera unfortunately died as we got to the orangutans so we didn't get many pictures but I loved these three; mother, baby and grumpy teenager! It turns out that the 'grumpy teenager' is Gina, who is actually 51 years old!
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| Dress:Monki, hat: Accessorize, shoes: Nanette Lepore x Keds, bag: Fiorelli c/o Spartoo |
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