Thank you for your feedback, Hannah. We’re pleased to hear that you enjoyed our giraffe house and that you were able to see our tower of magnificent Rothschild giraffes.
We’re saddened to hear that you did not enjoy your visit on this occasion. We have hundreds of animals to see across our 140-acre park and only a few enclosures are currently empty. We encourage our guests to think of the zoo as a ‘walking safari’, spending time walking around the park with a patient and watchful eye, imaging that they are trying to see our animals in the wild. As animal welfare is a top priority at Marwell, we give our residents the choice to be where they would like throughout the day; whether this is inside or out in their paddock. It is for this reason that an enclosure may look empty and we suggest that if an animal is not immediately visible, guests make time to pop back to a particular enclosure later in the day when the animal may have moved. Tropical House is our biggest exhibit to date and spans two levels with fantastic vantage points of a whole range of exotic plants and animals. There are lots of animals to see including mouse deer, tortoises, a crocodile monitor lizard, 12 species of tropical free-flying birds, pygmy marmosets and Rica, our Linné’s two-toed sloth.
We’re sorry to hear you felt the glass barriers in Tropical House were not easy to see through for children. Animal welfare is of the utmost importance at Marwell and the patterned decals that you mention are there for the safety of our birds and stops them from flying into the glass panels.
Our daily animal talks and feeds are a must-see and engage with our Humboldt penguins, Rothschild giraffes and meerkats. Our knowledgeable staff are always happy to answer questions at the end of each talk should guests want to know more about any of our resident animals or the conservation work that we conduct in the UK and overseas. We’re sorry you felt there weren’t enough of these talks during your visit.
We’re sorry to hear you had some trouble with wasps at our bins around the park. We have regular visits from an external pest control unit who conduct surveys and help in trying to resolve the matter. This is something that we endeavour to combat in order to maintain a positive experience for all of our guests who visit the park. We’d like to assure you that our Environmental Services team are diligent with their duties and bins are emptied at various times during the day.
We’re sorry you were not happy with the price of our rail train. This is an important part of our charity fundraising and paying this small fee contributes to the care of our animals in the zoo and our conservation programmes further afield.
For some time now we have been working to completely upgrade our road train. The new train has been built to cope with our hilly landscape and to better suit the needs of our disabled, as well as able bodied guests. Due to the improved wheelchair ramp, it has meant we no longer have a trailer for buggies on the back. However, the train was designed with plenty of space for guests wanting to bring their pushchairs along on the train. We ask that they still fold them as they would have done when placing buggies in the trailer and tuck them safely under their seat inside the carriage. Alternatively, guests are welcome to leave pushchairs at the designated free buggy parking area outside of our gift shop (items are left at guests own risk). The entrance to Lemur Loop displays signage to say that buggies (as well as food and drink) are not permitted inside. There is also a designated area to leave pushchairs while you venture into the exhibit and we’re sorry if this was not clear to you during your visit.
Unfortunately, Marwell Hall is not open to the public on a day to day basis. However, we do host events such as Boo at the Zoo! and Christmas at Marwell in the downstairs areas of the hall. Guests are welcome to read about the history of Marwell Hall, as well as the zoo, on our website; just type ‘history’ into our search bar. We’re sorry you felt the exterior of the hall needs renovating. The hall and its estate are legally listed and are of particular historical importance which means renovations and changes may not necessarily be possible.
Guest feedback is very important to us as it allows us to see how we are doing and to make improvements where necessary. Thanks again for taking the time to leave us your comments; we hope that you reconsider and visit us again in the future.
