Somewhere new: Linton Zoo!

Today we went somewhere new, lovely Linton zoo, it’s not far from where we live and I heard about it through work and so we decided to pay the animals a visit.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, but we were really looking forward to a nice family day together before our big summer holidays. It was lovely to see the children running around and having fun – that includes Daddy and Grandad.

We got to see so many wonderful animals, some of which we didnt realise would be there, like the kangaroos and tapirs. We got up close and personal to the kangaroos, one of them came right up to the fence and me and Daddy were able to feed it grass through the fence. It was so happy to eat it from our hands, very friendly. Little did I realise that kangaroos can be quite dangerous, the man that did the kangaroo talk over lunchtime said he couldnt stay in the enclosure long, literally dumped the food trays in and dashed out, because the kangaroos would box him! They do look so strong, their upper bodies were just pure muscle and you could see how built up they were in their arms. It was incredible to get so close to one of these amazing creatures, albeit I was a little scared too.

After lunch we wondered around the zoo and came across the lions, we listened to the lion talk and found out that Rizi lives at Linton zoo and he is britains largest lion, he is rather large – but looked so cute and fluffy. I really wanted to take him home. We wondered past this little one snoozing and I have never seen such a cute lion, Zuri really did look like you could get on his bed and snuggle with him! I am pretty sure he would have squashed me though.

It was really interested listening to the lion talk, about how the zoo have been hand rearing the lions and making sure the enclosures are perfect for their needs – making sure there are high points and making sure that the perimeter of the enclosure was good enough for Zuri to patrol. He also told us how at night time you can hear Zuri and Rizi roaring at eachother to win the “territory fight”, he said they do it when it starts to get dark and when it starts to get light in the morning – their roars can travel up to 7 miles on a clear night. That must be amazing to hear. It has made me want to camp just by the zoo so I can hear them talking to eachother. One thing that did make me smile was that we were told Zuri is a real softy, but if he was to get in the enclosure with him he would treat him like another lion and quite possibly sit on his lap. It made me smile because can you imagine how heavy big old Zuri is. I loved hearing about their lives and how they have come to be at Linton zoo, its fascinating and definately worth a listen.

There are so many pretty flowers and lovely things to look at all around the zoo, it was beautiful and a nice sunny day too which helped to make the setting even more beautiful. I couldn’t help but snap away at a few of the pretty flowers, I love those purple balls – I remember seeing them at Wimpole Hall.

We had a lot of fun and I am hoping we can go back soon to see the monkeys more closely, you can pay £10 per person to go in the enclosure and get some photos of the little monkeys, I know a little Isla who would love to do this. It is a great place for families, there is a nice cafe and a park area to have lots of fun and obviously the most adorable animals on offer to see. I would recommend this lovely place to all families and lovers of animals, I bet you wouldnt have experienced the animals so close up before. We decided to go here as part of the #newthings campaign in conjunction with the Boundless things to do, we are really glad we did.

These are some of my favourite photos from our day: