Wildlife & Nature
Wildlife in Britain: Zoos, Bird Reserves & Butterflies
The GuideBritain's Wildlife: Where to See Red Squirrels, Puffins, Seals, Deer & MoreRed squirrels, puffins, seal pups, the deer rut and where to see them, season by seasonRead our guide to Britain's wildlife →From white storks nesting in Sussex for the first time in six centuries to red pandas, birds of prey and clouds of tropical butterflies: the best places in the South to see wildlife, for families, birdwatchers and anyone who loves nature.
Wildlife in the North of England
Zoos & Wildlife Parks
Chester Zoo
Chester, Cheshire
The UK's most visited zoo, home to some 450 species over 128 acres, including a multi-generation elephant herd.
See details →Knowsley Safari
Prescot, Merseyside
Open since 1971, with the longest safari drive in England, five miles past baboons, camels and rhinos, plus the Amur Tiger Trail on foot.
See details →Yorkshire Wildlife Park
Branton, near Doncaster, South Yorkshire
Elevated boardwalks over the Land of the Tigers reserve, with lions, leopards and polar bears.
See details →Lake District Wildlife Park
Bassenthwaite, near Keswick, Cumbria
Some 24 acres and over 100 species, most roaming large fields, with lynx, zebra, gibbons and daily bird of prey displays.
See details →
Birds & Nature Reserves
RSPB Bempton Cliffs
Bempton, East Riding of Yorkshire
Great seabird colonies seen from clifftop walkways and protected viewpoints, with puffins the star attraction.
See details →Farne Islands
Northumberland coast (National Trust)
Reached by boat: some 150,000 pairs of breeding seabirds each summer, and grey seals and their pups in autumn.
See details →RSPB Leighton Moss
Silverdale, Lancashire
A freshwater marsh a mile from Morecambe Bay, famous for breeding bitterns and bearded tits, with marsh harriers and water rails.
See details →WWT Martin Mere
Burscough, Lancashire
A large mere and winter-flooded fields where more than 25,000 pink-footed geese and hundreds of whooper and Bewick's swans roost in winter.
See details →
Butterflies
Tropical World
Roundhay Park, Leeds
Opened in 1988 as a tropical butterfly house, with 20 to 30 species including owl butterflies; refurbished in 2015.
See details →Williamson Park Butterfly House
Lancaster, Lancashire
A former tropical palm house beside the Ashton Memorial, with swallowtails, owl butterflies and a display of pupae, plus a mini zoo.
See details →
Wildlife in the East of England
Zoos & Wildlife Parks
ZSL Whipsnade Zoo
Dunstable, Bedfordshire
The biggest zoo in the UK, set in some 600 acres.
See details →Colchester Zoo
Colchester, Essex
Around 180 species in 60 acres of parkland, with its own conservation charity.
See details →Woburn Safari Park
Woburn, Bedfordshire
A drive-through safari park, seen from your own car.
See details →Banham Zoo
Banham, Norfolk
A 50-acre zoo known for its Amur tigers and part of an international breeding programme.
See details →Africa Alive
Kessingland, near Lowestoft, Suffolk
A zoological reserve of some 100 acres near the Suffolk coast.
See details →Twycross Zoo
Twycross, Leicestershire
The only zoo in the UK where you can see every type of great ape.
See details →
Birds & Nature Reserves
RSPB Minsmere
Westleton, Suffolk
Ducks on the Scrape, Bewick's swans in winter, and a starling roost of up to 50,000 birds by late October; arrive 45 minutes before dark.
See details →RSPB Titchwell Marsh
Titchwell, Norfolk
Overwintering waders such as greenshank and spotted redshank, with long-tailed ducks, wigeon and scoter offshore.
See details →WWT Welney Wetland Centre
Welney, Norfolk
Up to 9,000 wild swans gather in midwinter, Bewick's from Russia and whoopers from Iceland, with floodlit evening feeds in season.
See details →
Butterflies
Whipsnade Butterfly House
ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, Bedfordshire
The zoo's tropical butterfly house, which took in the butterflies from St Albans' butterfly area when it closed.
See details →
Wildlife in the South of England
Zoos & Wildlife Parks
Drusillas Park
Alfriston, East Sussex BN26 5QS
A much-loved family zoo just off the A27, with sloths, lynx, red pandas, capybaras and penguins, and the new Conservation Station for 2026. Open every day except 24–26 December.
See details →Marwell Zoo
Near Winchester, Hampshire
One of southern England's largest zoological parks, set in some 140 acres.
See details →Howletts and Port Lympne
Near Canterbury and Hythe, Kent
Two wild animal parks run by The Aspinall Foundation, devoted to rare and endangered species.
See details →Hawk Conservancy Trust
Andover, Hampshire
A conservation charity for birds of prey, with some 60 years of rescue, research and education, and daily flying displays.
See details →British Wildlife Centre
Newchapel, near Lingfield, Surrey
Over 40 native species, from otters and badgers to pine martens and owls, with Britain's first walk-through red squirrel enclosure and keeper talks every half hour; open weekends and school holidays.
See details →
Birds & Nature Reserves
Knepp Wildland
Near Horsham, West Sussex
England's famous rewilding estate, where white storks have bred since 2020, the first in the UK for 600 years. Knepp and nearby Storrington are Britain's only European Stork Villages.
See details →RSPB Pulborough Brooks
Pulborough, West Sussex
Wet meadows in the Arun valley, beside Amberley Wildbrooks: wonderful for wildfowl in winter and a feeding ground for the storks.
See details →WWT Arundel Wetland Centre
Arundel, West Sussex
The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust's reserve beneath Arundel Castle, with ducks, geese and swans up close.
See details →
Butterflies
London Butterfly Gardens
Hall Place & Gardens, Bexley, south-east London
A tropical butterfly garden in the grounds of the historic Hall Place.
See details →Horniman Butterfly House
Horniman Museum, Forest Hill, south-east London
Hundreds of free-flying butterflies in a tropical indoor garden, open all year.
See details →
Wildlife in the West of England
Zoos & Wildlife Parks
Longleat
Near Warminster, Wiltshire
The UK's first safari park, opened in 1966, with a drive-through safari and a winter festival of lights.
See details →Bristol Zoo Project
Edge of Bristol
A habitat-based wildlife park with safari-style animal encounters for children.
See details →West Midland Safari Park
Bewdley, Worcestershire
A drive-through safari of some 150 acres with cheetahs, elephants, zebras and camels, and safari lodges for overnight stays.
See details →Paignton Zoo
Paignton, Devon
Opened in 1923, with over 2,000 animals of more than 250 species; run by the Wild Planet Trust and the highest-rated zoo in a Which? survey.
See details →Newquay Zoo
Newquay, Cornwall
Paignton's sister zoo, also run by the Wild Planet Trust; allow about three hours.
See details →Cornish Seal Sanctuary
Gweek, Cornwall
Rescues 30 to 70 seal pups every year, and is home to Icelandic puffins and a small colony of beavers.
See details →
Birds & Nature Reserves
WWT Slimbridge
Slimbridge, Gloucestershire
Where Sir Peter Scott founded the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust in 1946; the Trust has since opened nine more reserves around the country.
See details →Abbotsbury Swannery
Abbotsbury, Dorset
The only managed swannery in the world, on the Fleet Lagoon, with over 600 mute swans, records back to 1393 and daily feeds at noon and 4pm; open mid-March to October, with cygnets from late May.
See details →
Butterflies
Stratford Butterfly Farm
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
Opened in 1985, with some 1,800 free-flying tropical butterflies in a rainforest-style flight area.
See details →Buckfast Butterflies & Dartmoor Otter Sanctuary
Buckfastleigh, Devon
A tropical house of free-flying butterflies, some 40 species, beside an otter sanctuary with British, Asian short-clawed and North American river otters, on the southern edge of Dartmoor.
See details →
Wildlife in Scotland
Zoos & Wildlife Parks
Edinburgh Zoo
Corstorphine Hill, Edinburgh
Opened in 1913 by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, with penguins, giraffes, chimpanzees, and Scotland's only sloths and koalas.
See details →Highland Wildlife Park
Kincraig, Cairngorms
A drive-through safari and native species such as wildcats, pine martens, capercaillies and white-tailed eagles; run by the RZSS.
See details →Blair Drummond Safari and Adventure Park
Near Stirling
More than 300 animals, including giraffes, tigers and chimpanzees, with a bird of prey centre and flying displays.
See details →Five Sisters Zoo
West Calder, West Lothian
Opened in 2005, giving homes to rescued brown bears and lions among some 200 species.
See details →
Birds & Nature Reserves
Scottish Seabird Centre
North Berwick harbour, East Lothian
Views across the Firth of Forth to the Bass Rock.
See details →RSPB Loch Garten
Abernethy Forest, Cairngorms
Ospreys have bred here in nearly every summer for 70 years; the centre opens April to September, with red squirrels and crested tits too.
See details →Isle of May
Off Anstruther, Fife
Reached by boat from Anstruther: tens of thousands of puffins and eider from May to early July, and a large seal colony.
See details →Bass Rock
Off North Berwick, East Lothian
The world's largest single-rock gannet colony, some 52,000 occupied nests in July 2025; boat trips leave from North Berwick.
See details →
Wildlife in Wales
Zoos & Wildlife Parks
Folly Farm Adventure Park and Zoo
Begelly, Pembrokeshire
An award-winning zoo of nearly 100 species, with the only giraffes in Wales and Europe's largest undercover vintage funfair.
See details →Welsh Mountain Zoo
Colwyn Bay, Conwy
The National Zoo of Wales, founded in 1963 high above the town, with a Sumatran tiger, snow leopard, chimpanzees and sea lions.
See details →Manor Wildlife Park
St Florence, near Tenby, Pembrokeshire
Fifty acres of countryside with Sumatran tigers, red pandas, rhino and tapir; billed as Wales's only walkthrough wildlife experience.
See details →
Birds & Nature Reserves
RSPB South Stack Cliffs
Holy Island, Anglesey
Some 9,000 seabird nesting sites, including puffins, seen from Elin's Tower near the visitor centre.
See details →Skomer Island
Off Martin's Haven, Pembrokeshire
Around 48,000 puffins from May to July and a huge Manx shearwater colony; boats run April to September, booked through the Wildlife Trust.
See details →Gigrin Farm Red Kite Centre
Rhayader, Powys
Red kites fed every day of the year, at 2pm or 3pm depending on the season, alongside buzzards and ravens.
See details →WWT Llanelli Wetland Centre
Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
One of Wales's most important wetlands, with up to 60,000 birds in winter and a flock of Caribbean flamingos.
See details →
Butterflies
Magic of Life Butterfly House
Cwm Rheidol, near Aberystwyth
A charity's tropical house in the Rheidol Valley, opened in 2002, with more than 100 species of butterfly over the year; approach via Capel Bangor.
See details →
Wildlife in Northern Ireland
Zoos & Wildlife Parks
Belfast Zoo
Belfast
Some 55 acres and well over 100 species; Northern Ireland's top fee-paying visitor attraction.
See details →Exploris Aquarium
Portaferry, County Down
An aquarium at the foot of the Ards Peninsula with a seal sanctuary where pups are rehabilitated.
See details →
Birds & Nature Reserves
RSPB Rathlin Island Seabird Centre
Rathlin Island, County Antrim
Some of the largest breeding seabird colonies in Europe, with puffins from April to July.
See details →WWT Castle Espie
Comber, County Down
An award-winning wetland reserve on the edge of Strangford Lough.
See details →Oxford Island National Nature Reserve
South-east shore of Lough Neagh
Wet meadows, reedbeds and woods on Lough Neagh, with diving ducks and wild swans in winter, great crested grebes in summer, hides and a discovery centre.
See details →Murlough National Nature Reserve
County Down (National Trust)
A fragile 6,000-year-old dune system, excellent for walking and birdwatching.
See details →North Strangford Lough
County Down (National Trust)
Ireland's largest sea lough, where pale-bellied brent geese feed on eel-grass, most visible in September and October.
See details →
Butterflies
Seaforde Tropical Butterfly House
Seaforde, near Downpatrick, County Down
Exotic butterflies in a jungle-like setting, beside Seaforde's gardens and maze.
See details →
Checked October 2026. Opening times and seasons change, so please check before you travel.
Read our guide to Britain's wildlife → · Walks and views on the South Downs →