Paignton Zoo Zoos

Paignton Zoo Environmental Park - Home to some of the world's most endangered plants and animals.

Here at Paignton Zoo Environmental Park, our animals live in their own habitat zones.

The Zoo is divided up into six zones, 'Primley', savannah, forest, wetland, tropical forest and desert. All of these represent world habitats, except for Primley which is an area in the Zoo where animals from a mixture of habitats live.

Some of our Zoo keepers have starred alongside their animals in a BBC "fly on the wall" documentary "The Zoo Keepers".

Zoo keeping is a demanding job, hard work but very satisfying for an animal lover.

Visitors to Paignton Zoo usually come to see the animals. After all, it is a zoo. What they actually see as they walk around is a natural landscape and animals within it. What they don't generally notice is that this is a created landscape and the plants are carefully selected to mimic the natural habitat types of the animals. Plants are fundamental to this atmosphere and this is one of the reasons that Paignton Zoo is not just a zoological garden but also a botanical garden.

The gardens of Paignton Zoo consist of both mature shrubberies and new areas developed over the past 5 years.

Paignton Zoo is open all year round (except Christmas Day).

Doors open to the Zoo at 10 am every day but doors close at varying times according to the season and light.

We are open from 10 a.m. to 5.00pm. (dusk if earlier) in the winter months. Last admission is 3pm.

We are open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the summer months, with last admission at 5pm.