Animal Experience in and near Clovelly

The Milky Way Adventure Park

Set in the countryside, entirely enclosed, it is the perfect platform for flying displays. Our birds often soar at 2000ft+ Keep your eyes in the sky as wild birds of prey are also seen daily - including wild Peregrine Falcons! ... more

The English are well-known to be great animal lovers, and have made many advances in animal protection and conservation. England has many centres where visitors can encounter animals, both from England and the rest of the world. These animal experience centres are often involved in conservation and education efforts too, so you'll be supporting the protection of these wonderful creatures as well as getting up close with exotic, beautiful and fascinating animals.

'Safari Park' is not a phrase one normally associates with the English countryside, but at Knowsley Safari Park, the wildlife roams freely just as it would in the African savannah, and visitors can drive along safari tracks to view these exotic animals living in their spacious habitats. The park, near Liverpool, has animals from all over the globe, including rhinos, camels, buffalo, bison, wildebeest, lions, tigers, zebra, baboons, monkeys, deer, antelopes and wallabies and elephants. The animal park's other attractions include a sealion show, amusement park rides, and a walk around animal area where you can see elephants, giraffe, meerkats and otters up close. Besides the foreign animals, there is also a wide range of native British wildlife at the park, including kestrels, brown hares, stoats, weasels and red squirrels.

If you'd like to see wildlife from all over the world in one place, head to Cotswold Wildlife Park, near Bourton-on-the-Water, set in the extensive parkland and gardens around a listed Victorian Manor House. The park is home to a diverse collection of mammals, birds, reptiles and invertebrates and aims to educate visitors about each unique species while conserving endangered and rare animals. Highlights include penguins, meerkats, llamas, rhino, flamingos, crocodiles and wolves.

Becky Falls, near Torquay, is set in a beautiful Dartmoor valley, and has a lovely woodland area with nature trails, as well some great opportunities to meet some incredible animals. Animal encounters allow children and adults alike to cuddle the centre's fluffy rabbits, cute guinea pigs and hamsters, as well as groom their adorable miniature Shetland ponies. You may even get to meet baby chipmunks or bottle-feed lambs. Less cuddly creatures can be encountered in the shows that allow visitors to learn about and even touch lizards, tarantulas and boa constrictors.

Vividly coloured exotic birds flying around are a sight to behold, and you'll see some really unique and stunning species at England's fantastic bird parks.

Birdland, near Bourton-on-Water in the Cotwolds, has a natural setting for over 500 birds, including the only King Penguins in England, as well as housing 50 aviaries of parrots, falcons, pheasants, hornbills, toucans, touracos, pigeons, ibis and many other species. You can get close to the world's second largest penguin species, the King Penguins, by helping to feed them at the park.

Birdworld in Guildford has large and beautiful parkland and gardens, providing the perfect habitat for birds from all over the globe. The centre also has penguins that you can feed, as well as several interactive bird shows where you can meet these feathery creatures, and learn more about them. Keepers take visitors on safari rides through the park to meet some of the larger residents, like vultures, cranes, emus and ostriches.

Near Leeds you can find Harewood Bird Garden, in the grounds of a stately historic home. The Garden has one of England's most important collections of birds, including threatened and exotic birds which are housed in well-designed habitats. You can feed the ostriches and penguins, or just admire the splendour of the diverse bird species in this animal sanctuary.

To meet some really special little animals, head to the Original Miniature Pony Centre in Dartmoor, Devon, where you can see and touch tiny beasts such as Miniature Shetland Ponies, Miniature Mediterranean donkeys, American miniature horses, and even pygmy goats, and Shetland sheep and lambs. All the inhabitants of the centre are very well looked after, and children will adore the pint-sized animals.

For some real monkey business, visit the Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre near Weymouth, Dorset, which is a sanctuary for over 150 primates, and was set up to rescue apes that were smuggled from the wild or abused in some way. The primates are rehabilitated at Monkey World into social groups, and the centre has the biggest chimpanzee colony outside Africa. There are also gibbons, orang-utans and little capuchin monkeys, squirrel monkeys and marmosets, most of which have also been rescued from the illegal pet trade, or from animal testing laboratories. You can learn about all the primates' histories from the keepers, and there's even a walk-through lemur zone, where the strange-looking animals leap above the visitors' heads.