Such a shame that Canonteign Falls wasn't yet open, while I was down in Devon. I had such a great time a few years ago tackling the almost vertical climb to get to the top!
However, I did get the chance to walk along some of the Brixham coastline, visit Paignton Pier and at the same time knock off the rest of the zoos I have yet to visit, including; Paradise Park, Newquay Zoo, the World class Paignton Zoo, the excellent Living Coast marine aquarium and the disappointing Dartmoor Wildlife Park.
The zoo that really took me by surprise however was Exmoor Zoo.
One of the reasons it excells, is that despite being quite a small zoo, Exmoor possesses a number of animals that you wouldn't typically find in a wildlife park-which is to its credit. In a rapidly reducing World, packed with uniformity, zoo owners always take the safe & proven route, populating their generic zoos with obvious crowd pleasers such as meercats and lemurs. That's not to say Exmoor didn't have them too. They did, but I really appreciated the attempt by the owners to offer a glimpse from a different vantage point. As a result, for the first time in my life I came across a New Guinea singing dog, a sand cat, several gorgeous pumas, a fishing cat, a maned wolf, and a very sleepy skunk.
One of the challenges of modern zoos is to provide enrichment for all the animals, which is entirely proper. However, the day I went, I think I left feeling far more enriched then all the animals put together. Highly recommended.
