Thea Caldwell - Creating a better place every day: The original home of "We Bought a ZOO"

Monday 4 August 2014

The original home of "We Bought a ZOO" - Dartmoor ZOO

Remember “We Bought a ZOO”? I love this movie. Well we managed to spare a day for a visit to the real home of the “We bought a ZOO” story – Dartmoor ZOO.

Movie poster proudly displayed at the visitor's center.

Most of you probably know the real story is much more different than the Hollywood version, but the film created a romantic image of this wild life park and some kind of magic seems to exist around it. The wild life park is apparently doing much better nowadays with plenty of donations from individuals and corporate businesses, it is a registered charity now with extensive conservation program with the partnership of local universities and colleges. When we entered the ZOO a young mum with two children, obviously from the local area and visiting often was talking to us after she found out we had travelled from far, explaining that it has nothing to do with the film image. And then I thought to myself – of course it will be different, it will be a real place with flows and things to improve. That’s not important I thought, I like the inspiration behind it, the optimism and the warm story it came out of it. I don’t want it to look exactly it was in the film, neither I want to see the spitting image of Matt Damon feeding the tigers (although I wouldn’t mind the view at all). The wild life center is well organized with fairly large car park at the entrance (considering the tiny narrow roads we had to drive through to get there) It had well refurbished visitors center with a café and a souvenir shop and rest rooms. There was a special display for the official movie poster and few images of the film shooting on the wild life park grounds were proudly displayed on the walls of the café.

Giant wire sculpture of a mammoth

Huge part of the Dartmoor ZOO income apparently comes from weddings believe it or not and corporate events held on the grounds of the ZOO. I kind of struggle to imagine a wedding at the ZOO, but hey why not. As I said the image the film created about this place was something very special and I could see the excitement on people’s faces while walking around.

And again, the story of an amateur taking on a huge project like this one and being driven by willpower and his adventurous nature, well this is a dream come true indeed. If you can overcome financial worries and fear of failure, if you can let your energy flourish into something you love doing and believe in, what more one can desire?

I spoke to couple of the keepers, they were quite happy with how the wild park is growing and the support they are receiving. I saw few students working as volunteers guiders as part of their work experience and research projects. Very positive indeed.

The old house.

I liked the old house. Still very much used, not sure who lives in it these days, but it looked well maintained and well lived-in. It is set on a gentle hill overlooking the park. Perfect setting for a drama.

Considering the size and how it started the wild-life park has a large variety of animals. It is also a background of an extensive conservation and research program.

The ZOO offers daily packages where you can book your child to be Young keeper for a day or book yourself, your friend or partner to be a Tiger keeper for a day. I'm sure it would be an amazing birthday present.

I have lovely memories of my visit. Would recomend to anyone.