Christmas comes early at Durrell

Sunday 11 December 2016

Any ideas what to get a kimodo dragon for Christmas, an orang-utan or a telfair skink?

Well luckily Santa has it all wrapped up and will be bringing Christmas to Durrell this weekend.

He'll be delivering some festive treats to lots of the animals this morning aboard his 'dodo' mobile and visitors to the Wildlife Park can see them un-wrapping their presents from 11:00 until 12:30.

Ape Keeper Gordon Hunt said: "The animals really enjoy getting their presents from Santa and it's great fun for visitors to watch. The  gifts or ‘enrichment’ are designed to make it tricky for the animals to find the goodies. This year the gorillas and orang-utans will be receiving Santa sacks filled with small gifts and crackers which all contain healthy treats such as nuts and seeds. Our wonderful team of volunteers spend hours making and wrapping these gifts for the animals."

Santa will also have gifts for 'good' boys and girls he sees on his tour around the park and they can visit him in his Grotto this afternoon from 14:00 to 16:00. There's also a Christmas themed scavenger hunt around the zoo for younger visitors as well as storytelling, carol singing and live music.

Earlier this week Durrell had some 'Cheeky Monkeys' helping them dress their tree when the nursery children prepared some special little robins which will be brightening up the big fir until they fly off next week to the children's trees at home.