KEEPER FOR THE DAY
A fantastic, access all areas experience with our keeper team. Spend the day up close and personal with some of our amazing animals. Starting off with the morning feeds, you will get the chance to interact with some of the animals as you take them their breakfast. After lunch, you will get the chance to get down and dirty - cleaning out some of the animal enclosures and giving animals their enrichment.
10:30am-2:30pm, 1 person, includes a certificate and photo of your favourite animal
£99.00 - By tickets today
Junior keeper for the day
For those aged 8-15 with an accompanying adult. Get to have a day with a difference, helping keepers in their daily tasks!
Starting in the morning with feeding some of our leaping Lemurs and mischievous Meerkats, you will then get to meet the reptiles in our education room before their lunch. After lunch you will be helping with the enrichment for our mini monkeys.... bugs and grubs are their favourite so get ready to squirm!
All Junior Keepers will receive a certificate and gift bag.
10:30am - 2:30pm, 1 child with an accompanying adult £99 - Buy tickets today
Please note this experience is proving incredibly popular and there is a long wait for the experience, especially at weekends. Please contact us before hand to check availability.
EDUCATION AND OUTREACH
Education
Our mission is to educate as well as conserve, here at the Trust we pride ourselves in our ability to deliver conservation education on many levels; through public visits, keeper talks, animal encounters, special events held at the Trust and out in the community, talks to groups and clubs and school visits as well as through our involvement with work experience students, our internship programme and volunteers.
Our Aims
Our Education objective is to increase awareness, knowledge and understanding about animals, conservation and the environment to visitors. As an active member of BIAZA and EAZA, Shaldon Wildlife Trust aims to inspire our visitors to care about and understand animals, their habitats and the threats they face in the wild and to allow visitors to experience and learn about wildlife at first hand.
You to the zoo - Educational Visits
School Group Visits
Shaldon Zoo is the smallest member of BIAZA and EAZA, covering just 1 acre, which allows us to offer very personable and engaging guided tours to school groups. A school visit to the zoo is an immersive sensory experience with many different sounds and smells and provides a multitude of educational opportunities which can involve some of the following activities:
Meet and greet with a keeper
Self guided walk to see the animals
Meerkat feed pit stop
Mini-beasts handling session (£1 extra per child)
Enrichment designing
These activities can be tailored to each Key Stage and any specific module/topic your classes are currently covering with regards to the natural world.
Prices for a school visit are as follows:
£5 per child – min 10 children / max 30 children per tour (1 free leader per 10 children, additional adults £7)
Want to make your visit even more memorable and save time in the gift shop?
- Order pre-made goody bags for just £2.50 extra per child (inc Shaldon Zoo wrist band and pencil)
- Or buy a group adoption pack and have your classes name up on our adoption board!
For more information or to book a visit please email education@shaldonwildlifetrust.org.uk
The Zoo To You - EDUCATION OUTREACH
If a visit to the zoo isn’t for you, we can offer a range of outreach activities that can come to you instead! We visit many educational establishments providing activities and talks to support all national curriculum topics with regards to the natural world, from Nursery all the way up to colleges and Universities.
These topics can include but aren’t limited to:
Intro to animals / life processes & cycles / food chains & diets / habitats / evolution & adaptations / rainforests / ecosystems / biodiversity / in-situ conservation / careers in zoos / captive breeding programmes
Our most popular outreach activity “Meet the Mini-Beasts” brings children closer to the wild world right around their feet. With the opportunity to handle some of our creepier and crawlier creatures such as our Madagascan hissing cockroaches, giant African land snails and stick insects this part of our programme covers life cycles / food chains / adaptations and more!
Our outreach programme also involves our talented keeper team giving talks to various organisations and members of our community on a range of topics from conservation efforts the zoo supports, to the different career paths available in the industry.
For more information or to book an outreach visit with the zoo please email education@shaldonwildlifetrust.org.uk
Work Experience
Our work experience programme is offered to students of South Devon and Bicton colleges undertaking a relevant course e.g animal management. These students can contact their college work experience coordinators to find out if and how they can apply.
Team build days
Shaldon Zoo is famous for its conservation efforts and being home to some of the most endangered animals in the world. We now offer team building days with a difference all year round, where you will be directly involved with the work that we do here at the zoo every day!
Team-building activities and corporate volunteering is becoming increasingly popular at Shaldon Zoo, with companies wanting to give something back to the community whilst creating a healthy team atmosphere. Many of our enclosures benefit from days such as these where teams can spend the day re-building climbing frames for the monkeys or planting the lemur exhibits.
For more information, email Zak Showell on info@shaldonwildlifetrust.org.uk or call the Trust on 01626 872234. Please note for team build days we will ask for a donation towards the materials used, this can be discussed when making the enquiry.
INTERn & Students
Shaldon Wildlife Trust is an ideal placement for students and those wishing to develop their skills and experiences in the conservation sector.
In 2013 we began a new Internship Programme, offering students a 9 to 12 month placement, gaining valuable experience within the zoo sector and an opportunity to carry out a research project. Previous students have conducted studies into the behaviour of many of our animals, which benefits the quality of care the animals receive as well as providing valuable scientific data.
This programme has since been renamed a "Voluntary Student Work Experience Placement" (VSWEP) and is offered to sandwich year students and recent graduates undertaking an animal care-based qualification or similar.
We accept applications throughout the year. We ask that you send a covering letter of no more than one side of A4, explaining your reasons for applying, naming any relevant experience and why you think you would be suited to this role, along with a CV. If you are interested in a placement, please email Lia Summers at lia@shaldonwildlifetrust.org.uk
