Newquay Zoo

Just a quick post about Newquay Zoo. We went there at the end of the Kew week, and again, it was an inspiring place. We had a day of discussions about the role of zoos in conservation and although the conclusion was that historically they haven't had a great deal of impact on conservation, this seems to be changing.

They have some great animals there, such as a Madagascan Fossa, and a couple of Sloths, and we had a talk from the zoo director who explained how they are funding in-situ projects.

It raised interesting questions about the value of keeping animals in captivity, of making things real for people so they were interested in saving them, about how best to have an educational impact and about whether local zoos should have local wildlife in them.

I'm still not sure what I think about them overall, but it was lovely to see some of the species at Newquay.