Zoos In Essex: Colchester Zoo

I have a huge soft spot for Colchester Zoo, it’s the biggest Zoo in Essex. I even volunteered at the zoo, for a year as part of the education team. (Yes, I was one of those people telling you not to take your push chair through the walk-through sloth enclosure!). It is located in Stanway, just outside of Colchester.

Updated: July 2020

Colchester Zoo

Colchester Zoo started life as Stanway Hall Park, back in 1963. It then changed hands in 1983 and has been run by the Tropeano family ever since.

Is Colchester Zoo Open?

Yes! It re-opened to the public on 18th June after being closed for 3 months!

What’s It Like Visiting Colchester Zoo After The Lockdown?

On 4th July Colchester Zoo was able to increase its visitor numbers after indoor buildings were allowed to re-open after the lockdown. There are of course some changes to how a typical visit to the zoo used to look.

You do have to prebook a timed ticket online in advance, unless you are a pass holder in which case you are free to turn up whenever you want, as long as you arrive AFTER 4pm (otherwise you’ll need to book a slot too). All members of staff wear face shields.

There is a social distance route around the zoo in place. You can download the free zoo app or paper maps are being handed out at the entrance. This shows the suggested route and where things like toilets and hand sanitisation stations are.

I did find that from the entrance, through Playa Patagonia and Rajang’s Forest up until Lion Rock was like one giant bottleneck. None of the usual cut-throughs are open. Once you get to Lion Rock there are a couple of routes that people can choose to go down, which disperses the crowd.

The zoo has done a great job of putting signs up everywhere and painting red lines on the ground to attempt to keep visitors back from high touch areas. Unfortunately, I saw too many people (including ADULTS), that weren’t paying a blind bit of notice to any of these measures, which is a bit selfish on their part. The zoo is struggling after being closed for so long, so you’d like to think that visitors would be a little bit more aware of their actions.

The rainbow lorikeet feed is open (£1 for a pot of nectar), so are the walk-through goat and wallaby enclosures. Children will be happy to find out that they are able to enjoy the outdoor play areas. The giraffe and elephant public feeds are looking a little different at the moment. Visitors can pay £20 for up to a family of 5 to have a giraffe OR an elephant feeding experience. It may seem expensive for something that was previously free, but the money is going to the zoo’s operation fund. I’m sure when social distancing is relaxed completely, the public feeds will eventually return.

The Lost Madagascar Express Train is back running again. There is a perspex screen between every row, and high touch areas like the doors are disinfected at the end of every journey.

Is Colchester Zoo Ethical?

Let’s address the elephant in the room (ha!). There are people that love zoos, but there are also those that don’t agree with them. I believe that zoos are OK, as long as they are ethical and have the animal’s best interests at heart.

Colchester Zoo has to meet the standards of the Zoo Licensing Act. It regulates many different aspects of the zoo. The zoo is a private facility, relying completely on the money generated from visitors. Although it’s private, it puts every bit of profit back into the zoo. From improving visitor facilities and upgrading enclosures, ensuring they are the best they can be.

It is also part of EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria). This focuses on education, conservation, and research. It’s important for the zoo to be part of breeding programs, that help with the conservation of animals. For example, NO animal is ever sold. Animals are transferred between other zoos to create new breeding programs or to avoid inbreeding.

Action For The Wild is Colchester Zoo’s charity. They support wildlife conservation efforts on the UmPhafa Reserve in South Africa.

Rather than ‘shows’, the zoo has public encounters. These focus on how the keepers ‘train’ the animals. No, not trained as in balancing a ball on their nose. But how they present body parts for health checks etc. They also have enrichment programmes, which stimulate the animals to hunt or problem solve. Such as animals having their food hidden, or being given a treat in an ice block.

Colchester Zoo’s Animals

The animals have enclosures that mimic their natural environment. If they come from a hot climate, the temperature will echo that. If they are forest animals, they’ll have plenty of trees. Desert animals have sand and places to burrow etc.

Zoos in Essex: Colchester Zoo Kingdom of the Wild Rhinos

Kingdom Of The Wild is a great enclosure. No cages, no bars. It’s a wide open-air area that has multiple species sharing the same space. The giraffes, zebras, rhinos, kudus, and ostriches all hanging out together! Elephant Kingdom is a similar type of enclosure but they are in there by themselves.

Visitors can feed the giraffes and elephants during set public feeding times. These can get busy during peak times, so make sure to arrive early to avoid missing out!

I love the Playa Patagonia/Orangutan Forest area. Orangutan Forest opened in 2008 and was home to the much loved Rajang. He had been at the zoo since 1980 and was 50 years old when he passed away. The enclosure will soon welcome 2 new orangutans. These will be joining Tiga, who is currently Colchester Zoo’s only Orangutan. This area has since been expanded further to include the ruins of All Saints Church, which dates back to the 13th century!

To access Orangutan Forest, you have to go UNDER the Playa Patagonia sea lion pool. This is via a 24 metre glass tunnel, which provides another viewpoint to see the sea lions!

A few enclosures are walkthrough, such as: Worlds Apart (sloths and tamarins), Wallaby Walkabout, Lost Madagascar (ring-tailed lemurs), Familiar Friends (goats & other farm animals), Butterfly Glade and Australian Rainbows (rainbow lorikeets).

Jump aboard the Lost Madagascar Express Train to reach the walkthrough ring-tailed lemur enclosure (although the train is currently running a nonstop service, so is bypassing the lemurs). Visitors can enjoy a short commentary about some of the animals along the route. The train is free, however, donations are accepted which go to the Action For The Wild charity.

The 2018 renovation of the Chimpanzee Lookout enclosure is awesome! The indoor section still remains fairly similar. But there is a new outdoor enclosure with a lower viewing area and an upper observation deck to see the higher areas of the outdoor climbing structure. Other animals at Colchester Zoo include: lions, tigers, leopards, penguins, meerkats pygmy hippos, and more!

Visiting Colchester Zoo in Winter/Rain

Colchester Zoo is open every day except Christmas Day. Even when it’s winter or raining, there’s still plenty of things to enjoy. There’s an indoor soft play area and the Discovery Centre.

Some enclosures are inside or at least have indoor viewing areas. This way you can still see the animals if they are hiding inside too! Giraffes, orangutans, the underwater sea lion tunnel, penguins, chimpanzees, lorikeets to name a few with indoor viewing areas.

Keeper For The Day

For those that want to get a behind the scenes look can buy a Keeper For The Day experience. It is a little on the expensive side though! During my experience I did things like: putting vitamin tablets inside fish, weighing out, and preparing food and cleaning enclosure windows. I also got to feed the lemurs, spider monkeys, mandrills, sea lions, penguins, and warthogs!

There are 3 packages available in the Keeper For The Day program. They have a range of different animals. Keeper Shadowing is a shorter experience where you pick a single animal to get up close with!

Visiting Colchester Zoo

Address: Maldon Rd, Colchester CO3 0SL, United Kingdom

The easiest way to reach the zoo is by car. There’s a large car park with plenty of space. Is Colchester zoo near the train station? Unfortunately not. Colchester has 2 train stations, North Station and Colchester Town (the main station). The easiest way is to go to Colchester Town and then you’ll need to catch bus 75 from the bus station (5-minute walk). The bus takes around 15 minutes and there is a stop right outside of the zoo.

TIP – The Zoo is on a hill. There is a route that is ‘flattest’ for pushchairs and wheelchairs. Either be prepared to get your muscles out or you may have to miss a couple of the enclosures.

Special Events at the Zoo

Through out the year Colchester Zoo has special events. From Easter Egg hunts, to meeting Father Christmas, Fright weeks, photography workshops and the Colchester Stampede (10k and half marathon races).