With a 40% increase in footfall since 2025, Dartmoor Zoo has their best year ever, hitting milestone of over 100,000 visitors for the first time.
For the first time ever, Dartmoor Zoo has surpassed the milestone of 100,000 footfall, welcoming 106,000 visitors through the gates in 2025! A 40% increase from 2025, the reception to the newly implemented ‘Annual Pass’ in April has provided a huge boost and enabled the zoo to make improvements around site and continue to expand on their delivery of conservation, education, and research projects.
Dartmoor Zoo are extremely grateful for the support of all our guests and partners. The more successful we are, the more we can continue to improve the zoo, conserve endangered species, and contribute to global conservation efforts. As a charity, we are solely reliant upon donations and income from our admissions and every penny we get goes to improving our facilities, and the lives and welfare of our animals, whether in the zoo or around the world. With your support, here is a snippet of what we have been able to achieve in 2025:
In January 2025, we were able to rescue Churchill the Serval from appalling conditions within The Cat Survival Trust, alongside Hertfordshire Zoo and The Big Cat Sanctuary where a further 27 other cats were rescued. We then found him a mate named Sabra and a spacious outdoor enclosure, enabling him the best quality of live where he has grown in confidence each and every day that passes with us.
We collaborated with Promoting Children in Plymouth (PCIP) and Sir John Hunt School to create a new habitat called ‘Meerkat Manor’ where a breeding pair of Slender-Tailed Meerkats were introduced and subsequently went on to have two pups in May 2025.
In April 2025 we introduced Freddo and Lena, creating a breeding pair of the Critically Endangered Amur Leopard species, the rarest big cat in the world. Lena then gave birth in September 2025 to one of only 15 Amur Leopard cubs born globally in 2025, a real milestone for both Dartmoor Zoo and the conservation of the Amur Leopard species itself.
In July 2025 we introduced Edwina and Ernie, one of only two Black-Tailed Marmoset breeding pairs in all of Europe, who became parents in December 2025, bringing a tiny but very important new arrival into the world.
One of the male cubs born to our Carpathian Lynx pair in 2024 was moved to Austria to form a new breeding pair in support of the ‘Linking Lynx Project’, which reintroduces zoo bred Lynx into the mountains of Eastern Germany to supplement the wild population in this region.
We also supported other zoos with local and international breeding programmes such as our Zebra Parsley finding a new home in Newquay Zoo where he is currently anticipating becoming a dad.
We supported vital conservation work in the field through donations to the Wildcat Conservation Alliance, who work with Amur Leopard and Amur Tiger in their natural habitat in the far southeast of Russia.
We also supported the work of AB Conservation who help protect Binturong in Palawan, Philippines.
Working with Universities throughout the UK we facilitated 26 research projects and our staff presented to numerous workshops and conferences, including an award-winning presentation to fellow zookeepers.
During the year, our army of volunteers donated over 2,500 hours of work to us, for which we are eternally grateful.
In the zoo we invested heavily in visitor facilities including a new catering facility, new customer toilets, new picnic benches and lots of improvements and upgrades to animal habitats.
And last but not least, as part of our mission to engage and inspire the next generation, we welcomed and educated a fantastic 5416 children and young people by hosting 170 school trips to our Zoo.
CEO David Gibson commented: “Wow what a year! When the majority of attractions are finding it difficult to attract customers we are delighted to see our annual numbers soar. This is mainly down to the level of support we are receiving from the residents of Devon and Cornwall who love our new Gift Aid Annual Ticket. The support and income we receive throughout the year is crucially important in allowing us to deliver the vital conservation work we do, not just here in Devon but across the world through our conservation partners. We look forward to making more improvements to Dartmoor Zoo, undertaking more conservation work and sharing our passion with every person that visits Dartmoor Zoo in 2026.”
If you are able and willing, please donate to help Dartmoor Zoo keep up the good fight!
To find out more about Dartmoor Zoo visit https://www.dartmoorzoo.org.uk/
