Animals & Wildlife

If you love animals and wildlife then Devon’s English Riviera has a host of attractions just for you.  There are lots of places to explore that will create wonderful memories to take home.

Paignton Zoo Environmental Park

Paignton Zoo is a world-class wildlife conservation park set in beautiful and extensive gardens with large lakes.  The park is home to some of the planet’s most rare and amazing creatures. Discover all your favourites, including gorillas and orang-utans, giraffes, lions, tigers and rhinos plus some more unusual species. A must-see is the Crocodile Swamp. Here, amid the lush tropical foliage and steamy atmosphere, you’ll come face-to-face with huge crocodiles plus large snakes, turtles and fish. Then there’s Amphibian Ark, the Avian Breeding Centre and Monkey Heights.   Paignton Zoo is a registered charity working on worldwide conservation projects.

Living Coasts

Living Coasts, Torquay's award-winning coastal zoo and aquarium with its huge, distinctive aviary net, is home to a magnificent array of marine life from around the world.  The net’s surface area is almost 1.4 acres and encloses 1.8 million cubic feet of free flight space for Living Coasts’ collection of birds such as Inca terns, pied avocets, oyster catchers, guillemots and tufted puffins. You’ll love Penguin Beach, Waders’ Estuary, Octopus Odyssey, Fur Seal Cove, Otter Rapids and the exciting penguin & seal underwater viewing.  Living Coasts is a conservation charity and sister charity to Paignton Zoo.

Berry Head National Nature Reserve

Guarding the southern edge of Devon’s English Riviera, Berry Head National Nature Reserve, is a famous hotspot for thousands of local and migrating birds. Perched high up on 200 feet (60 metre) cliffs, this beautiful headland is surrounded by water on 3 sides and has some of Devon’s most breathtaking views. You can enjoy a pleasant walk up to the site from Brixham or drive up to the visitor car park. The high cliffs are home to the largest breeding colonies of guillemots on the south coast of England and these are Berry Head’s most famous residents.  You can often see dolphins and porpoises just off the headland.

Occombe  Farm

Managed by Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust, Occombe is a working farm that is open to the public. It is great fun to visit with a splendid café, cookery school, year-round events and a farm shop. The farm has a herd of Ruby Red cattle and lots of sheep and you can say hello to the alpaca, ducks, lambs and chickens in the farmyard. You can also tour the vegetable garden, 2 km nature trail and wartime garden before enjoying a lovely meal or refreshments in the café, with food grown on their own site plus locally sourced produce.

Marine Wildlife

Devon’s English Riviera has an amazing range of marine life and the whole area is protected under the Torbay Marine Conservation Zone. Fascinating marine creatures such as the long snouted seahorse, Devonshire cup coral, sponges, anemones, sea squirts and the native oyster all live here.  Rock pooling is a great activity for the whole family with captivating crabs, awesome anemones, peaceful prawns and sassy starfish to spot.  Goodrington Sands, Meadfoot Beach, Corbyn Head and Shoalstone are all top spots - Goodrington Sands has been rated in the top ten places to rockpool in the country.  Look out for bottlenose dolphins, harbour porpoises, grey seals and basking sharks that can often be seen near the beaches, in the harbours or off the headlands.

Cockington Horses

Cockington’s famous horse drawn carriage rides are a wonderful sight to behold in this quintessentially English village, a stone’s throw from Torquay. Here you can browse the village, visit the beautiful country park and meet the makers at the wonderful craft centre at Cockington Court.