Folly Farm Adventure Park and Zoo

The Folly Farm Adventure Park and Zoo (also known as Folly Farm), situated to the north of Saundersfoot and Tenby in Pembrokeshire, is a visitor attraction in Wales with around 500,000 visitors each year. Initially a farm attraction, the park is now also home to an indoor vintage funfair, a zoo with over 200 different species of animal and extensive indoor and outdoor adventure play areas.

Folly Farm Adventure Park and Zoo
Giraffe Feeding at Folly Farm
51.74382150°N 4.73283290°W / 51.74382150; -4.73283290
SloganEveryone in the family likes to do different things, pick your own adventure at Folly Farm - Zoo, Farm, Play and Fairground
Date opened17 July 1988
LocationPembrokeshire, Wales
Land area120 acres
No. of animals750+
No. of species100+
Annual visitors500,000
MembershipsBIAZA (British & Irish Association of Zoos and Aquaria)
Major exhibitsPride of Pembrokeshire, Penguin Coast, Kifaru Reserve, Asian Adventure
OwnerKarina and Chris Ebsworth
Websitehttps://www.folly-farm.co.uk

The original farm has expanded and now covers a significant part of the park including a large undercover Jolly Barn area featuring horses, goats, sheep, pigs and smaller petting animals. Folly Farm is made up of four areas: a farmyard; a zoo; an undercover vintage funfair, including a Wurlitzer organ;[1] The park has expanded to the other side of the A478 road where more animals can be found in outdoor paddocks. A tractor-driven land-train ride touring the outdoor paddocks, operates between late-morning and mid-afternoon.

A limited company, Folly Farm is owned and operated by the Williams and Ebsworth families and holds Investors in People status with 90 full-time employees and an additional 100 seasonal members of staff.

History

Folly Farm started life as a dairy farm. After noticing that families were stopping by the roadside to pet and watch their cattle, the farmer Glyndŵr Williams and his wife Anne decided to diversify into tourism.[2] In 1988, the dairy farm was converted to receive visitors; now guests could stop to visit the Folly Farm cows and see them being milked. Over the last 25 years Folly Farm has grown with continued reinvestment. The first zoo animals arrived at the park in 2002.[3]

Winner of the Wales Tourist Board's 2005 Best Day Out in Wales award, and again in 2010, and in 2015.[4] In 2009, winner of Pembrokeshire Tourism's Best Family Day Out award. Folly Farm was named 10th best zoo in the world in the 2017 Tripadvisor Travellers' Choice Awards.[5]

Folly Farm's giraffe

The founder Glyndŵr Williams was born in 1944 in Haverfordwest and his parents George and Margaret moved to Folly Farm when he was two years of age. He died on 18 February 2020 following a long illness.

Animals

The zoo animal collection includes:

Projects

The zoo is a member of European Association of Zoos and Aquaria and British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums taking part in a European breeding program for eastern black rhinos, which are listed as critically endangered animals according to the IUCN Red List.[6]

Areas and attractions

Pride of Pembrokeshire

Opened in 2014 the Pride of Pembrokeshire lion reserve won a silver award for Best Enclosure Design at the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) Annual Zoo Awards in 2015.

The lion enclosure houses Folly Farm’s African lions, including Huge and his mate Luna and their five fully grown children. Hugo was born at Knowsley Safari Park in Merseyside, and Luna was born at Blackpool Zoo. Their four cubs were born at Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire, on 14 September 2013.

Penguin Coast

In 2013, Folly Farm added Penguin Coast, a state-of-the-art saltwater penguin enclosure which was the setting for an unusual proposal of marriage.[7]

Penguin Coast was opened in 2013 by Edwina Hart, Minister Minister for Economy, Science and Transport and assisted by local school children from Tavernspite Primary School, who were invited to be the first children in Wales to meet the new penguins.[8]

Penguin Coast is home to a group of 24 Peruvian Humboldt Penguins and 12 Macaroni Penguins that originated from Torquay’s Living Coasts,[9] and who had been made homeless by the closure of their Devon zoo, making it the only home to the vulnerable species population in the UK.[10]

Kifaru Reserve

Kifaru Reserve opened in 2015 to provide a breeding facility for eastern black rhino, as part of its membership of 14 European Endangered Species Breeding Programmes (EEPs).[11]  The enclosure is five and a half acres in size with a purpose-built paddock and a bespoke rhino house including indoor facilities for rhino calves.  

Kifaru Reserve is a home to Manyara who joined Folly Farm from Chester Zoo in 2015 and Nkosi who joined from Port Lympne Reserve in Kent in October 2015.  Dakima joined the group in 2017.  In 2020 Dakima gave birth to Glyndwr in January 2020 - the first rhino to be born in Wales.[12]

Asian Adventure

The Asian Adventure enclosure opened in July 2019[13] and houses endangered Asian Wild Dogs (dholes), white naped cranes, great white pelicans, red crested pochard, and a breeding pair of red pandas, Lotus and Baika.

Notable animals

Throughout its history the zoo has had many well known residents.

Nkosi (male) and Manyara (female) the critically endangered Eastern Black Rhinos that arrived at Folly Farm in 2015.[14]

Dakima (female) the third Eastern Black Rhino to arrive at the zoo in 2017.

Glyndŵr a critically endangered black rhino calf, born in 2020.[15] The first-ever baby rhino in Wales was named Glyndŵr after Folly Farm founder Glyn Williams.[16]

Tuppee and Blackcap the two-toed sloths that moved into their new 'retirement home' in 2021.[17]

Elvis and Prisclla, the pelicans that joined in 2020 and bred a couple of chicks within the year.[18]

Frank and Vinnie, the gay Macaroni penguins that have paired for life[19]

See also

References
  1. "Folly Farm Pembrokeshire, A look at the past". ridemad.com. 30 December 2006.
  2. "Folly Farm: Zoo's founder Glyndŵr Williams dies". BBC News. 27 February 2020. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  3. "All the fun of the farm". South Wales Evening Post. 15 June 2013. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  4. "County Scoops Top Accolades in National Tourism Awards". Western Telegraph. 25 October 2010.
  5. "Folly Farm named 10th best zoo in the world!". Tenby Observer. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  6. Silk, Huw (17 February 2015). "Three critically endangered eastern black rhinos to move to Folly Farm". WalesOnline. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  7. "P-p-please will you marry me?". ITV Wales. 4 September 2013.
  8. "Folly Farm's new penguin enclosure opens to the public".
  9. "'Laid back' penguin family from Devon find a new home in Wales".
  10. "Penguins pick up a new home in Pembrokeshire". Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  11. "New black rhino enclosure taking shape at Folly Farm".
  12. "Critically Endangered Eastern Black Rhino born at Folly Farm".
  13. "Folly Farm launches brand new 'Asian Adventure' attraction".
  14. "Three critically endangered eastern black rhinos to move to Folly Farm in Pembrokeshire".
  15. "Critically Endangered Eastern Black Rhino born at Folly Farm".
  16. "The first-ever baby rhino in Wales is called Glyndŵr after Folly Farm founder Glyn Williams".
  17. "Pensioner sloths settle into new retirement home at Pembrokeshire's Folly Farm".
  18. "West Wales zoo Folly Farm sees lockdown animal baby boom".
  19. "Folly Farm's macaroni penguins help mark Pride month".
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