Meet the Stars of the Park

Pumpkin the Porcupine is heading up a new interactive close encounter sessions at this summer.
The five-year-old prehensile tailed porcupine, who loves sweetcorn and walnuts, will be one of the Stars of the Park taking part in meet and greet sessions with guests during the school summer holidays.
Daily showcase sessions are planned with animals and keepers at pop-up stations across the park from 20 July to 1 September.
Scott Ashman, Head of Operations, said: “Longleat wouldn’t be Longleat without our fantastic and dedicated keepers and the many rare and endangered animals they care for.
“These sessions will give guests the chance to quiz our keepers as well as enjoying close encounters with some of our unusual species and family favourites.”
Stars of the Park will feature sessions across the Park including Animal Adventure which Pumpkin calls home. She featured in our hugely popular May half term shows.
Her keeper Samantha Peeke said: “She is very special as we are one of only a couple of places in the country to have the prehensile tailed porcupine.”

Also making an appearance will be Monty, the Burmese python, Bella, the nine-banded armadillo and Chunk, the Argentine red tegu.

There will also be the chance to get up close with some of our smaller stars including Gwen the tarantula. The 21-year-old is a Chile Rose tarantula and as a female spider spends most of her life saving energy to only move to catch prey or for a potential mate. She has eight eyes but poor eyesight relying on vibration to know what is going on around her.

Meanwhile at Family Farmyard there will be the chance to see our turkeys, donkeys, reindeer, sheep, wallaby and ferrets with the team will be on hand to answer queries.

In African Village, at the start of the drive-through Safari, our keepers will be holding fact-filled question and answer sessions with the chance to find out more about our famous carnivores, gentle giraffes, or the new boys – Ru, Kuwinda, Kenya, Rafiy, Tassili and Tan, our African painted dogs and more.

Jon Merrington, Deputy Head of Animal Operations, said: “These sessions will be informal and interactive; our keepers love talking about the animals and will want to know about guest favourites too. We will also be talking about enrichment activities, conservation, and research both at Longleat and around the world. There will also be the opportunity to talk about our new arrivals – the rare Amur tiger cubs - who are progressing well and who we are hoping will be joining the Safari  with mum Yana in late summer after their inoculations.”

There will be a daily rolling programme of interactive sessions with animals and keepers at both African Village and Animal Adventure/Family Farmyard throughout the day, from 10am until the Park closes.