Pop up next to a meerkat
Big zoos are all well and good with their hundreds of animals and grand enclosures, but there's a place for smaller zoos as well. And one of those places is Battersea Park.
Flippancy aside, when you visit a smaller zoo you not only have more time to spend at each exhibit, there are also less people so it can be a much more intimate animal experience.
Don't get the impression that
Battersea Park Zoo is light on for animals, or varieties of breeds – it's not. It just has tens of different species rather than hundreds. And it doesn't mean that the species aren't exotic, some of them are, they have meerkats, coati, lemurs, maras, several different kinds of tamarins, squirrel monkeys and capuchins (which also look like they're of the monkey family).
They also have a 'mouse house', with a lot more than just mice, there are also chinchillas, chipmunks, gerbils, all sorts of mice and a box tortoise or two.
Who apparently don't mind being housed with the mice.
In the avian area they have African parrots, mynah birds and an emu. As well as more familiar birds, like ducks, budgies, chickens, zebra finches and love birds.
Farm animals might not be worthy of the London Zoo, but they have their own area here, where you can pet a Kune Kune pig, feed the donkeys and goats, marvel at the miniature Shetland ponies and play with the guinea pigs and rabbits.
So all in all you get quite a lot of animal for your money. They also have a cafe, organise
kid's birthday parties and they have a play area. And for little monkeys that's well and truly enough for a great day out.
