Visiting The Jungle Zoo , Cleethorpes

After studying animal welfare at college I am usually fairly sceptical of attractions like this, small animal collections which do not usually benefit from the support of larger organisations and charities. But The Jungle was a pleasant surprise. 

On a rainy Saturday in Cleethorpes my daughter announced she needed to meet  a 'tortlouse' today. I remembered visiting The Jungle when it opened years ago and in the hopes it was still there, we set off. There is lots of parking available (although you do have to pay for it) and it is accessible from local bus routes without too much extra walking. 

Admission was £4.00 for adults and slightly less for children. Upon entry several blue Macaws were ready to greet us with hellos and bobbing dancing. 

We then met the desired tortlouse or tortoise to you and me. 

( the glass made it hard to get a good photograph ) 

We then found nobody in the tank next door, but a note which said the rhinoceros iguana was on its daily stroll - and you can go say hi and give him a stroke! 

He was very friendly but entirely unsupervised by staff from to zoo - worth noting if you are visiting with toddlers and small children. 

The main body of the zoo was really humid and at the tropical temperatures required by the various birds inside. 

Outside, we found chipmunks which you could feed. 

 

This is again unsupervised but the bars are small enough for a small finger to get through, take caution with excited young children. 

The Zoo also had more domestic animals like these guinea pigs, chickens, a goat and a pig! 

We also found some meerkats, by far my favourite animals of the day! Mothers and babies on century duty. They had an open enclosure and lots of tunnels to hide in. 

Opposite these guys was a large enclosure with two monkeys in, who threw all their toys around a lot, needless to say we didn't stop there too long incase they ran out of toys to throw ... 

The next enclosure housed a large raccoon 

And further round the corner we found two ring tailed lemurs huddling from the rain. 

Seen as it was raining, we headed inside to the reptile house. 

They had Alligators and large snakes as well as several Creepy Crawlies. 

Overall we spent just over an hour at the zoo, there weren't any demonstrations or talks about the animals, much of the Zoo is unsupervised which makes it feel more like a collection. When I did find someone who worked there, they told me that many of the animals are donated by people who bought them as exotic pets and could no longer care for them when they reached adulthood. 

The animals are all clearly cared for and fed, the admission was reasonable and it isn't hard to get to. The Jungle Zoo was a good afternoon out for us but could use a few more attractions to make the experience a little more interactive and educational.