11th August 2010

My life is filled with amazing experiences at the moment. Tony and I went to Paignton Zoo today. We left Bath yesterday and spent the evening in a lovely suite in a hotel near Exeter. We were held up on the hotel drive by Arabian foals who graze the land in front of the property as they were hugely interested in our car. From my Bitterroot days I know well that young Arabian horses like to scrape cars with their incisors and these were no exception!

We made it to the hotel after gently shooing them away and shut ourselves in our room. The hotel staff were wonderfully accommodating and brought spectacular food to the room so that we did not have to eat in the public dining area. We spend an inordinate amount of time in the company of people and it’s good to be entirely on our own occassionally.

We continued down to Paignton this morning where Tony was opening the new Amphibian Ark exhibition. Frogs are facing huge problems worldwide due to climate change, loss of habitat and a fungal infection that has affected frogs on a global level and up to 50 percent of the frog species is under threat. Paignton have built a dedicated amphibian unit to breed endangered frogs with the long term vision that they may be reintroduced into the wild if and when the fungal infection can be successfully treated and controlled.

We were treated to a VIP lunch and had the good fortune to be seated next to Neil Bemment who is the Director of Operations and curator of mammals at the zoo. Neil is hilarious and after a visit behind the scenes in the Amphibian Ark, Tony and I were whisked away to meet the Giraffes and Gorillas. Neil took us into the private areas and we hand fed the Giraffes. It was amazing. We spent ages with these magnificent creatures and then went to hand feed strawberries to the Gorillas. The Silverback had quite a lot to say when Tony walked in. He had ignored me and Neil but threw himself against the bars as Tony passed so it’s official. Tony is obviously extremely masculine!

We also watched the staff clicker training the giant Tortoises and went in to the enclosure to meet them. I have worked with Giant Tortoises before and they are extraordinary animals. The staff at the zoo are wonderful and we have been invited back any time we want, so I think a day trip for everyone involved at Tilley Farm is in order. It was really hard to tear ourselves away but we left at 4.00pm and drove to Surrey to meet up with friends.

This entry was posted on 23. August 2010 at 16:14 and is filed under Sarah Fisher. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.