This weekend we did a family day out to Marwell Wildlife in Hampshire (about 8 miles from Winchester).
One of the nicest parts of our visit this time was seeing the 1 day old wobbly little giraffe baby with its Mum Isabella – if you click the pic it will take you to my Flickr page where you can watch a very short video clip of it stumbling across to the hay basket (the keepers haven’t been able to identify if it’s a boy or a girl yet)
Click the pic to watch a mini clip on Flickr
Most of my photos didn’t come out too well but here are a handful of the better ones
Lounging ring-tailed lemurs
Ocelot having a nap
Thirsty Tiger
Wendy the hippo having a yawn
A cheeky little chipmunk
We booked the tickets on line which means you don’t have to queue at the gate and it also gets you a 5% discount. We took a giant picnic as there are lots of open areas and picnic tables throughout the park.
We’ve been to Marwell quite a few times now and it’s lovely -it’s set in 140-acres and is home to over 180 exotic and endangered species, in beautiful, landscaped surroundings. We arrived at about 10.30am and didn’t struggle to fill a whole day – we left at 6 o’clock closing time. There are lots of friendly, helpful and knowledgeable volunteer staff at the park who will come and chat with visitors and share interesting snippets about the animals and various events happening throughout the day. I’d give it 10 out of 10 on the ‘good-day-out-ometer’. 🙂
The sock garden 
Love all you pics! I have a special affection for hippos. Haven’t ever seen one of my zoo visits, though. Lucky you. (For a minute there, I though I was going to see a tiny stuffy!)
What a lovely picture of the giraffe. I once knew a zoo keeper who looked after the giraffes at Chester Zoo and he thought they were the most amazing animals. Your post has reminded me how nice it is to go to a good zoo. I now think a trip to Linton Zoo, near to where I live is on the cards. Hope my photos are as good as yours. 🙂
Great photos. I ought to visit Paingnton Zoo more often.