Lakeland Wildlife Oasis — Attraction in Beetham

Mixed feelings really, all genuine. Firstly a very small zoo, we went a few times years ago, really enjoyed it, but it's now run down with same small snow leopard enclosure, which really needs renewing & definitely made larger. The walk through bird aviary is gone which is a shame (the old one) some unusual animals, love you can see most of them, we were really lucky to see the wildcat, which are usually hiding wherever you go to see them.Animals overall though seemed understimulated & sad. Car park very small, needs to be larger. Love indoor part with leaf cutter ants climbing around, however after that feel it's a let down to what it was years ago. Only 2 bats now, no toads, iguanas, but it's also like they just stuck a tree/leaves in the middle but didn't really do anything with it, I can't really explain found it a bit strange. Now for staff, & I really hate to stay this, but every member of staff seemed totally uninterested when speaking to them. We all have off days & when working in visitor attractions (I do myself) you still need to be friendly, polite & approachable. I tried to engage in small conversation - nothing... I tried to order food to be left at counter for good 5 mins while they sorted tills & chatted, but knew I was waiting as they did look up at me and... nothing! Got served in the end, cheap food, but all in bags, not even paper plates. Coffee machine broke, powdered milk stuck. Yes "powdered"milk... The maintenance guy cleaning outside of enclosures was lovely & the only person there who actually was friendly, speaking to us twice. Didn't see one keeper the whole time there (over 2 hours) so couldn't engage in any conversation about the animals & we went round twice, some enclosures 3 times. Lady there from WWF, tried selling to us, I politely made small conversation trying to not be rude but let her know we didn't want to buy/sponsor. She tried again when we came back through twice. I know its her job but think she got that we didn't want anything, but kept on, which was embarrassing as well as not very nice. Considering we drove from Newcastle, over 2 hours, a fortune in fuel, Admission, food etc, we'd spent enough. I'll leave it another few years to visit unless I happen to see anything different advertised then I'd give it another go. Been nicer if we felt staff could have been bothered, & animals...

Please remember that your visit may vary to my visit depending on what time of year it is, the weather and other factors, which can effect your experience on the day, Example; if you visit on a rainy day the animals might be hiding more which means you may not see as many, altering your view on the zoo.

Good Points 1 – The staff were all friendly and all cared about the animals lots, they knew everything about the animals and took great care in them 2 – The café was brilliant; it was reasonable priced and was good hot food so consider eating here to support the zoo 3 – A good selection of animals to look at, even for the small size 4 – Lots of animal experience options which we choose to meet the Monkeys, Lemurs & Meerkats, we got to feed them and get up close with them (see attached pics). Although I do highly recommend looking the experiences on one of the coupon websites as it will be cheaper 5 – Esso fuel garage just outside on the A6 for fuel or food if you need when visiting 6 - All the animals seemed to be out and active and on view

Other Points 1 – The carpark is maybe a bit to small so when it got busy it was a bit tight so when it gets really busy you may struggle to find a parking space 2 – The park is small, yes, its maybe not a full day experience if you haven’t got any (meet the animals) coupons, so you can easily get around in half a day with lunch so just consider that in mind, as we had a meet the animals experience it filled out...

Visited here with my nephew in the Easter Holidays. i’d had it recommended & it absolutely didn’t disappoint . I decided to treat my nephew (12 years) to an hour/two as a ‘junior keeper’ which i got to do with him (i was like a kid, so excited). it was a fabulous time, we were introduced to the actual keeper & she took us around inside the enclosures. Due to just coming out of Covid restrictions we were asked to wear masks as some animals pick up our germs). We coild choose 4 ankmals to feed/interact with, we chose to feed the Leemas, Meerkats, monkeys & wallabies. The monkeys were very interactive , they were climbing all over us, the meerkats were interactive too as were the leemas but the Wallabies are extremely shy and didn’t want to participate. I highly recommend the junior Keeper experience. The meerkat’s food moved too much for my liking, but my nephew wasn’t bothered by the live crickets, cockroaches & maggets/worms. The others ate vegetables , much to my relief. My nephew loved the hot house with the Axalotle, the giant ants (fascinating), the spiders & lots of other crawly things (not my favourite part). We didn’t get to see the Snow leopards as work was being undertaken in their enclosures so they were inside, now there’s a reason to return. There is also a cafe & giftshop there too....