Last month, I took a culture trip to The Welsh Mountain Zoo at Colwyn Bay.
I had never heard of The Welsh Mountain Zoo, so I thought why not explore and see what it had to offer. I was not disappointed.
The zoo covers 37 acres of welsh land and it has a stunning view of the North Wales coastline. It is also home to over 140 different species of animals.
Upon arrival, you get some information about adopting animals, covid guidelines and the important map of the zoo.
I must admit that the map and the signs at the zoo are a little confusing, as the map has numbers and pictures associated with the animals yet the signs just have really small images of the animals on.
I was not sure where to go first, I simply chose a route and followed that. Click here to experience the 360 map.
I first saw the camels, who looked rather relaxed and comfortable sitting on the grass.
I particularly found this cheeky monkey (I forget what type of monkey it was) to be entertaining. It reminded me of some sort of Rock Star, with its white hair slicked back. You can see by the photo that it was sticking its tongue out, hmm I wonder which star that reminds you of?
Speaking of Rock Stars, this Macaw was rather loud and proud of it too. A warning if you are going to watch this video, cup your ears as the parrot was very noisy. I wonder what it was making such a fuss about…
Maybe he wanted to audition for the zoo rock band?
Either way the sea lions at sea lion rock were not bothered by the noise, I think they were one of my favourite animals in the zoo. The way they swam around the rock, so elegant and graceful.
It was great to see how active they are in the seal show, the zoo keepers really knew their stuff when it comes to the animals and it is great to see how passionate they are. I saw that in the pine martin enclosure, as I walked over to see the cute little critters. A zoo keeper was there and he was explaining why he had to separate them (due to the mating routine) and it was real insight into what the staff have to do at the zoo.
The penguins were also another highlight of mine, looking so proud on land and loving life in the water.
Moving from water to land animals, it took me ages to find the tigers and when I found them asleep I felt bad for waking them up.
Budi is the male tiger and Kummari is the female tiger and they were amazing to look at. I was gobsmacked by how close I was to them, knowing that obviously in the wild they would eat me. To be in the presence of such an animal was an honour, I am so lucky to have seen them at the welsh zoo.
From one stripy animal to another, how cute and cuddly are these lemurs? I learned in the zoo that a group of lemurs is called a conspiracy, these animals are clearly very sociable and care about each other- just look at them hugging each other.
I could be here all day writing about all the animals but these were just some of the highlights of my experience at the zoo. I was actually visiting North Wales to see my family, so it was lovely to see them but also to be outside on one of my bigger culture trips since the pandemic.
It did start to rain but I am glad the weather dried up and I was able to explore the zoo with my hood down.
I will say that was I really impressed with the safety of the zoo in terms of covid guidelines and I felt really safe and secure there.
For more information on The Welsh Mountain Zoo click here
Gemma's Journey 