Hobbledown adventure park in Epsom has reopened its zoo for the first time since lockdown began, and it wasn’t just the customers that were happy.
Animals were quick to line up in their enclosures to welcome guests back, having visibly missed them for the past 3 months.
Senior Animal Keeper Katie Hogan said: “A lot of the animals have really missed the guests. They were used to seeing people around, the noise and getting lots of attention, so the past few months have been a strange time for them.
“You could see a big difference in some of their behaviour as they saw people milling around again. In particular, the goats and meerkats couldn’t run fast enough to the front of their enclosures to see what was going on and to say hello!”
Carole and Simon Archer have been Hobbledown members for 3 years and said their two sons have missed the animals a lot during quarantine.
Carole said: “It’s great to be back. We’ve been to lots of parks but it’s not the same. The boys have really missed seeing the animals, and it’s wonderful to see all the new additions like the lemurs.”
Simon said: “It’s good to get back to some normality, and the way Hobbledown has reopened is very well managed.”
During the past three months, Hobbledown has seen a host of new additions including the arrival of our stunning lemurs and colourful lorikeets.
Fern’s Castle is among the major new play equipment that has been added to the site, and we hope to open this to the public, along with the rest of the adventure play equipment, in July, subject to government restrictions being lifted. See website for updates.
Tickets to Hobbledown must now be pre-booked online to help manage capacity. At present the animal walkthroughs and birds of prey shows are open but play areas will remain closed until guidelines are changed. Cash is not accepted on site.
Hobbledown is a multi-award-winning adventure park and zoo and can be found at Horton Lane, Epsom, Surrey, KT19 8PT. Visit www.hobbledown.com or email thehobblers@hobbledown.com
