Thank You for the Memories

In celebration of Love Your Zoo week (25th May to 2nd June), we invited our visitors to share their favourite memories of Colchester Zoo. We were amazed to see so many comments and our management team were very moved by the stories.

Managing Director, Dr Dominique Tropeano OBE said, “I find these stories amazing and am extremely grateful to all the people who took the trouble to write and share their memories with us, thank you!”

As a result of the overwhelming response, we have decided to share some of these memories below!

“My favourite memory is of when my mum was alive she used to love being the last person to visit the chimpanzees. She adored these beautiful animals and could watch them for hours. My mum sadly passed away before she met my 3 beautiful children and gorgeous nephew and it brings me so much joy that they too love visiting the chimps and crocodile and could sit for hours in the exact spot my mum would have.”

“My favourite memory is proposing to my wife outside the old indoor sloth area.”

“The zoo is mine and my fiancé’s happy place. We were gifted gold passes for Christmas in 2022 and plan on renewing every year. We always come at least once a month. We love getting there at opening time and we have developed our photography skills, creating a scrapbook of all the animals and their names. A favourite memory was the early morning opening for pass holders and seeing all the animals come out at the Kingdom Of The Wild Paddock, including gorgeous Dara. I can’t include just one memory – so being gifted the red panda adoption for my 21st birthday is up there too.”

“I have loads of memories from a 1st date with my now husband to sharing trips to the zoo with my daughter, who has gone since she was a newborn. But mine has to be when I did Zoo keeper for a day. Such an amazing day and to meet the lovely and hard working keepers who care for the incredible animals. That was the day I realised how much I love hyenas.”

“My favourite recent memory is my daughter being brave enough to walk through the dinosaur exhibit. She is terrified of anything dressed up, mascots, statues etc. Took a bit of time and hand holding but she walked through and loved it. I didn’t want this putting her off going to the zoo as she always checks with me if dinosaurs are going to be there.”

“So many amazing memories because we have passes but our trip in January this year was so special. It was the first time leaving our house after my Dad’s funeral and we just had the most beautiful day at the zoo and saw all the big cats as well.”

“We always come at Christmas. It’s now become one of our favourite family traditions and we look forward to it every year.”

“We visited in 2017 when I was 9 months pregnant and 7 days overdue. We took a photo with the baby rhino in the background and the long walk around obviously helped because I gave birth the following morning. We go back every year with our son to take a photo with the rhinos.”

“I love taking my children to Colchester Zoo but my favourite memory has to be of my hen do at the zoo! The most amazing day any of us had ever had with the most amazing experiences, feeding the penguins, meerkats, giraffes and elephants, stroking the rhinos, and amazing games!”

“My favourite memory is the first time I saw a kangaroo! I’ve been visiting the zoo since the 1960s, as a child then with my daughters and now with my grandchildren. I’ve seen many changes over the years but still love to visit.”