Paradise Park

Wildlife Sanctuary • Cornwall

Events and things to do throughout the year including Easter Egg Hunts, summer flying displays, Quiz trails around the Park, Halloween Pumpkin Trail and more.

Click here

Make it a birthday to remember with your choice of four themed party rooms with the birthday child’s name displayed on the door.

Click here

One of the main jobs for our Keepers is creating fun, interesting, interactive enrichment activities which are key in encouraging a range of normal behaviours that birds and mammals find rewarding, providing them with mental stimulation, social interaction and exercise.

Find out more

Can you help protect our birds, a life saver

Paradise Park is now in an Avian Influenza surveillance zone. This is due to the locally confirmed cases of bird flu/avian influenza.  We constantly maintain high levels of biosecurity but being in a surveillance zone brings with it additional challenges.  For example, we are not currently allowed to move birds off site or receive new birds onto the site.  This has repercussions for young birds scheduled to be leaving us to form new pairs at other collections and new birds arriving here as part of conservation breeding programmes.

FOR THE LATEST UPDATE PLEASE SEE THE PHOTOS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE.

We are doing everything we can to protect our bird collection, which is arguably one of the most important in the country.  We have implemented additional biosecurity measures for our 1200 birds, many of which are rare and endangered and part of vital conservation breeding and reintroduction programmes worldwide.

Footbath at entrance

Thankfully, for visitors there are only very minor changes, with a walk-through footbath at the entrance when you arrive, and just the small Tropical House and the walk-through section of one aviary in the ‘Tropics’ exhibit closed, but you will still be able to see the birds. For the safety of our flamingos, we have had to move them off display for now into an undercover area. Thank you for your understanding at this very difficult time.

We really value and appreciate your support and look forward to seeing many of you during the winter. To help protect our birds, if you yourself keep birds, especially poultry and waterfowl at home, we respectfully ask that you change your outer clothing and footwear before visiting us if they are used when looking after your birds. Thank you!

Curator David Woolcock said “A big thank goes to the amazing Keepers and staff who are working extremely hard behind the scenes and on days off to get the vital additional biosecurity measures in place.

Did you know for example that the Park’s bird collection is split into 53 “Epidemiological Units” Each one of which is designed as a stand-alone unit in the event on an outbreak of Avian Influenza on site. So, each has its own dedicated cleaning and maintenance tools and its own footbaths, protective clothing and dedicated staff member. I can assure you standing in a freezing cold footbath for at least fifteen seconds every time you enter an area is no fun in this cold weather. To keep spirits up, every day a rubber egg is hidden in two or three of the footbaths and the finders win a prize! Its normally chocolate of course!

All this also adds considerable additional costs at what is already a very difficult time. The Virkon ministry approved disinfectant against bird flu which we use in the footbath’s costs around £30-£40 a day (£280 a week!).

Footbaths
Heavy duty footbath containers

The biggest project right now is a new undercover poly tunnel off show area to protect our flock of flamingos. Costs include the poly material at around £350 along with other fixtures and fittings, and a tremendous amount of work by staff. Below is an image of what was done before and we hope to have this completed in the next few days.

Flamingos inside Polytunnel

Below: Keeper Archie has made boot scrubbers.

Archies boot scrubber Rakes

Brushes More brushes
Blue brushes for cleaning boots prior to using footbath. New rakes.
Red brushes to make boot scrubbers to clean dirtier boots prior to dipping.

Some of you may remember previously we had to create a ‘Penguin Pool Cover’ at a cost of £1,300 including all wood, stainless steel fittings, cabling and netting etc. with help from local firm ‘C Macdonald Builders LTD’ donating their time. And of course, all these things need maintaining and repair when needed.

Penguin netting put over enclosure Paradise Park Cornwall

Then there are things like “Flat soled” wellington boots for the Keepers which cost £58.50 a pair. The flat soles are much less likely to carry organic matter than the more traditional wellington boots which greatly helps to maintain biosecurity throughout the Park. Along with lots of other consumable items like single use protective clothing, hand sanitisers, sprayers for spraying equipment, wheels etc.

If you feel you can help by donating which will help towards items like the flamingo polytunnel or vital Virkon disinfectant which is a life saver for our birds, we would be extremely grateful. There are various ways you can donate on our website. And all the staff here would like to thank everyone for their comments of support and for thinking of us at this difficult time.  As always, the health and welfare of our birds is our primary consideration”

Special website donation page with lots of options HERE

Or via PAYPAL HERE

THANK YOU!

See BBC News and ITVX features

BBC Bird Flu ITVX news story

UPDATE 27th NOVEMBER 2024
The Keepers and maintenance team celebrating getting the next stage of the emergency polytunnel up. Still lots of work to secure the cover and work on the inside. Another couple of days and the Caribbean Flamingos can be moved in and this will help protect them from Bird Flu. See below.
Keepers and maintenance team

Working on the polytunnel for flamingos

Working on the polytunnel for flamingos

UPDATE 2nd DECEMBER 2024
The flamingos have now been moved to their new temporary home in the new polytunnel, and had a health check on route!
Flamingo health check


Flamingos moved to new temporary polytunnel

 

Facebook Twitter Youtube Pinterest Instagram