Newquay Zoo

We spent a lovely afternoon at the zoo.  It's not a very big zoo, with not very big animals and (mostly) not very big visitors :-)

It's part of a small group called Wild Planet Trust, a conservation charity that tries to halt species decline.  Most of the birds and animals in the zoo are part of that effort and many are used for breeding.  So, for example, the Brazilian Tapir (top right, wallowing in the water) is called Al Capone.  He is "retired".  He has bred so successfully that most of the tapirs in British zoos are related to him.  So his son Shaun, who at 25 years' old is in his prime, still lives with Dad to prevent in-breeding.  They share a beautiful enclosure with the world's largest rodent, a capybara called Johnson (he looks like a huge guinea pig).  They all get along very well providing Shaun doesn't try to steal Johnson's celery.  You couldn't make it up!