Tropiquaria Wildlife Park — Attraction in Williton

I visited yesterday with my wife and two children (4 and 1) using free tickets (we would not have paid for it, considering the below comments).

Pros: Food is reasonably priced for the portion size. Play areas are large and good quality. Interesting building, although very tired.

Cons: Some of the animal enclosure conditions were truly depressing. Not including two in the reception/shop and two in the café, there were only two members of staff in charge of all of the animal areas.

Unfortunately, we feel that the cons massively outweigh the pros - hence the low rating.

In general, the plants/features in the animal enclosures looked poorly maintained and the animals seem to have no motivation. A few of the enclosures, in particular, were undeniably unfit for their purpose and left us genuinely concerned for the animal's wellbeing.

The giant tortoises had a very small, concrete-floored enclosure. The caiman had a filthy, shallow water area about the size of a hot tub. The catfish (a very big fish) was in a tank that was barely as deep as the fish was long. The gibbons have 12ft nettles and weeds in their enclosure. The emu/wallaby had two gas tanks in their pen.

There are animal interactions available (a lizard and a snake), however these offered little to no education for children and seemed to be a token gesture.

It is worth noting that our children did have a good time and enjoyed themselves, although they obviously do not understand the animal welfare issues.

Considering some of the rude and unprofessional responses to criticising reviews, we didn't feel comfortable raising our concerns with the owners/managers on the day but will be making inquiries elsewhere.

In response to the owner's comments below:

Of course we read reviews before we came, that is literally the point of reviews. Being able to meet legal minimum standards does not mean you are looking after your animals correctly....

Myself, my sister, my son and my niece visited Tropiquaria Zoo on the way back home after our holiday to Butlins on Friday 19th April 2024. To say we were highly disappointed is an understatement. Upon entering the car-park, the building looks very outdated on the outside, however, the owner(who was very friendly) did fill us in on the history on the building and that it used to be a BBC radio station back in the 30’s. The gift shop is small, but filled with a number of soft toys, sweets, ice-creams and other gifts, which was fine. However, I’d probably say the gift shop was the best bit of the overall place. Upon entering the actual zoo part, it is very unappealing and is very dull looking. I understand that it is a graded building, but a lick of paint wouldn’t go amiss. The variety of animals at the zoo was rather disappointing and it seemed to be loads of the same species of animal just spread around. We were also very wary of the peacocks strutting around freely and felt quite threatened by them, especially as one of them was following our every move which in turn meant that we couldn’t look at some of the other animals in that particular area. My biggest issue was the location of the aquarium, which was down two flights of stairs which for families who require pram/wheelchair access is not very accessible at all and as far as I’m aware, they do not have an alternative entrance for said pram/wheelchair users. We did not stay for food but the cafe facilities looked okay, but it was very dark in there and the toilets were adequate. The children’s play areas also looked very dull and appealing. We arrived at 10:30am and had left by 11:35am. Safe to say that we would not return again and would not recommend to...

We took my daughter on Saturday of the Bank holiday weekend and had an amazing time.

The evening before I had a worry about if we could buy tickets on the day and sent an email but realised it was after hours so didn’t expect a reply but nevertheless had one within 10 minutes letting me know that buying on the day was not a problem.

She enjoyed the trail that had been set up and really enjoyed the animal talks.

The Gentleman who ran the animal talks that we attended was very knowledgeable and clearly has a passion for the animals in his care which was fantastic to see and something you often don’t see at some of the bigger venues we have visited. He also took time to answer all questions at the end, this was done giving the child or adult asking the question his full attention whilst answering which is also something you don’t often see.

All the animals were clearly well cared for and we found all members of the team engaging and polite and exceedingly helpful. It was like nothing was too much trouble.

Would definitely recommend!

A suggestion for the owners if in addition to donate or adoptions you had an Amazon wish list. This may aid in getting the specific items you require as although many want to help people often don’t like just sending money and they may feel that they are picking specific things for their favourite animals. Just trying to think outside the box as anything that can be done to help support this marvellous place has got to...