Qualla: Paignton Zoo

Paignton Zoo: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GinaFranchi, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1991, the wild population of the pink pigeon - a soft, peach-blushed bird endemic to a single island in the Indian Ocean - was thought to be as low as ten individuals. Just ten birds, all on Mauritius. In 2024, a bird keeper at Paignton Zoo named Tom Tooley hand-reared a pink pigeon chick using a technique he had invented himself: a catheter and a syringe instead of the conventional crop tube. The chick survived. Tooley flew to Mauritius repeatedly to teach the method to local staff. The pink pigeon is no longer about to vanish. Somewhere in this story is the answer to what a 21st-century zoo actually does. Paignton Zoo, perched on an 80-acre slope above Tor Bay in south Devon, has been doing this kind of work for a century.

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Image: GinaFranchi | CC BY-SA 4.0

Paignton Zoo: Herbert Whitley's Private Menagerie

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, CC0. The zoo started as one man's obsession. Herbert Whitley was a wealthy English breeder living at Primley House above Paignton with the kind of fortune and stubbornness that allowed him to assemble whatever animals he liked. He had a particular love of exotic birds and rare plants....

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Image: Unknown author | CC0

Paignton Zoo: A Wartime Zoo

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, CC0. When war was declared in 1939 the government ordered large entertainment venues closed, including Chessington Zoo. Chessington's manager Reginald Goddard struck a deal with Whitley to evacuate his animals down to Devon. Among the new arrivals was Peggy, daughter of the tigress Be...

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Paignton Zoo: Plants for Animals, Animals for Plants

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GinaFranchi, CC BY-SA 4.0. Walk around Paignton Zoo and you walk through 1,600 species of plant. The horticulture team grows magnolias and blossom trees for spring, hibiscus for the tropical houses, Japanese maples for autumn. They also grow food. Much of the planting is browse - cotoneaster, hazel, hawtho...

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Image: GinaFranchi | CC BY-SA 4.0

Paignton Zoo: Born Here, Saved Here

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wpt-zoo, CC0. Paignton's animal collection holds 1,876 individuals across 189 species, including eleven that are critically endangered: Sumatran tigers, western lowland gorillas, Bornean orangutans, eastern mountain bongos, brown spider monkeys, red ruffed lemurs, Sulawesi crested macaques, an...

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Image: Wpt-zoo | CC0

Paignton Zoo: Centenary, Crisis, New Owner

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, CC0. The zoo celebrated its centenary in 2023 with the GloWild winter light installation. But the 2020s have been hard. COVID closed the zoo in 2020. An avian influenza outbreak forced another closure during the 2022 summer holidays, costing the trust badly. A £1 million COVID loan st...

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Image: Unknown author | CC0