Paignton Zoo is a zoo in Paignton, Devon, England. The zoo is part of South West Environmental Parks Ltd which is owned by Wild Planet Trust, formerly known as the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust. Wild Planet Trust also runs Living Coasts in Torquay, Devon and Newquay Zoo in Newquay, Cornwall. All three are registered charities. The zoo is a registered educational and scientific charity that has a collection of about 2,000 animals representing nearly 300 species, and it also cultivates about 1,600 different species of plant. It currently employs over 100 permanent staff and an additional 120 seasonally.
Paignton Zoo was one of the earliest combined zoological and botanical gardens in Britain and the first that was opened with education as its mission. It was founded by Herbert Whitley, initially as his private collection. Whitley was an early conservationist and a contemporary of people such as Sir Peter Scott and Jean Delacour, the famous French ornithologist. Paignton Zoo first opened to the public in 1923. After various name changes, it became Paignton Zoo Environmental Park in 1996. A five-year redevelopment programme, funded by the European Regional Development Fund, refurbished large parts of the Zoo and was completed in 2001. A new 10-year plan is now in place to redevelop the remaining areas to ensure that all animals are housed in modern enclosures of the highest standard.
The zoo has a large education team which teaches approximately 40,000 students each year from under-5s to post-16s, as well as adult community groups. The Education Department was founded in 1961 and the Paignton Zoo Science Department was established in 1997, which was part of the redevelopment programme. Now renamed the Field Conservation and Research Department, this has grown to become a well-known zoo science departments in Europe, with staff engaged in a programme of projects within the Zoo, at Wild Planet Trust's other sites in the UK, and at various sites overseas. Projects are carried out at 'A' level, undergraduate and post graduate level.
Botanical gardens
Garden themes and plant collections include a broad collection of temperate hardy trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants arranged by habitat type. The indoor growing areas allow the zoo to grow plants from all over the world. From small critically endangered cactus in the desert house, through to the massive Titan arum, giant bamboo and giant water lilies located in the tropical houses.
Paignton Zoo was, based on visitor feedback, named by TripAdvisor as the third best zoo in the UK and ninth best zoo in Europe in 2014.
CBBC's ''The Zoo''
In 2017, children's television channel CBBC, in partnership with DHX Media, announced that a 15-part comedy documentary show filmed at Paignton Zoo, from the point of view of animals, would air in the summer of the same year. The series began airing on 15 August.
