Welcome to Colchester Zoo! Home to 240 species set in 60 acres of parkland and lakes!
We are proudly listed as the 11th best zoo around the world and in the top 2 zoos in the UK as part of the TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Attractions.
During your visit to Colchester Zoo, you will see many species from around the world and can learn more about them at our fantastic daily encounters, giving you the chance to see our animals being fed, watch a training session or perhaps just quiz their keepers!
As you navigate your way around Colchester Zoo you’ll visit many different habitats, from the humid home of our Komodo Dragons to our very own Africa plain, Kingdom of the Wild, home to white rhino, giraffes, ostrich, zebra and kudu.
You can also take part in some fantastic activities with the opportunity to hand feed our elephants and giraffes at daily public feeding sessions, and walk through our 24m tunnel as sealions swim overhead.
We also have many fantastic undercover areas, so you can stay warm and dry on even the wettest of days with our ‘Bad Weather’ map. Stop by the Orangutan Forest and see if you can hang for as long as an orangutan, feed our rainbow lorikeets in their tropical walkthrough aviary, Australian Rainbows. PLUS you can also walkthrough Butterfly Glade, home to a number of tropical plants and butterflies, or Worlds Apart, the perfect place to warm up on a chilly day!
Colchester Zoo also offers a range of delicious food options so there’s no need to worry about a picnic! PLUS there are loads of gifts and treats in our shops, so you can find the perfect souvenir to remember your day! Both of our shops are accessible without having to enter the zoo so you can even pop by for a spot of shopping or to find the perfect gift for a loved one.
With so much to see and do including a full calendar of events you may find you want to return throughout the year, our fantastic Zoo Passes allow you to do just that with unlimited visits for 12 months.
Find out more about Colchester Zoo’s annual figures, breeding success, charity work and many more facts from our 2017 Annual Report:
Fun to fund conservation…
Colchester Zoo has always cared passionately about the world’s threatened species, and created its charity Action for the Wild to assist conservation projects worldwide. This includes our own project, the UmPhafa Private Nature Reserve in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.
Since receiving charity status in 2004 Action for the Wild has donated over £1.2million to conservation programmes, as well as supporting conservation research. As a privately owned zoo, funding the zoo’s further development as well as assisting these projects in the wild is only possible with the support of the community, through all your visits and the funds Colchester Zoo receive from retail and catering sales. Thank you!
Gender Pay Gap Statement
Click here for our Gender Pay Gap Statement issued March 2018.
