Bede's Zoo

Bede's Zoo is a part of Bede's Senior School set in 140 acres of the Sussex Downs. We house over 40 species, from a wide variety of taxa.
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06/01/2024

Harvest mice, like our two boys pictured here, are the smallest rodents found in Europe. They are also the only mammal in Britain with a prehensile tail.

31/12/2023

We wish all of our followers a very happy and healthy new year!

Our goals for 2024 are -
- The pitter patter of some small paws 🐾
- More new species to join us 🐍
- & to continue educating our community with help from our scaly, furry and feathered friends 🦉

25/12/2023

Merry Christmas from all of the animals at Bede's Zoo.

Our animals have been joining the festivities all week🎄

19/12/2023

Drew and Whiskey received some tasty 'gingerbread' treats today! Drew ate Santa first, so he may be on the naughty list now 🙈

18/12/2023

Jack and Billie are getting in the Christmas spirit a little early! 🎄

12/12/2023

One of our cheeky Acacia rats just popping out to say hello!
This species primarily lives in Acacia trees, and is found across Africa.

09/12/2023

Our hazel dormice are deep in hibernation now. Here's a great explanation of how their tiny bodies cope with sleeping for most of the year 🐾

08/12/2023

It's breakfast time for our Neumann's grass rats. These rodents are native to various countries across Africa, including Somaliland, Tanzania and Ethiopia. Although they may look similar to some, these rats are much smaller than the brown rats we see in the wild in the UK.

05/12/2023

Our female Rankin's dragon loves to sit here and oversee all cleaning and feeding duties in our herptile room! These dragons are sometimes known as pygmy bearded dragons, and look very similar to their larger relatives.

27/11/2023

Koby had the pick of the feast while the other kinkajous had a lay in today.

20/11/2023

Ricky knows all the best poses!

17/11/2023

Did you know there are more than 1850 gecko species found worldwide?! 😮

$Our false tomato frogs are growing well, but are still a fraction of their adult size. They are around 2cm long at the m...$

10/11/2023

Our false tomato frogs are growing well, but are still a fraction of their adult size. They are around 2cm long at the moment, but will reach 5-10cm when full grown. Females will also turn a more vibrant red, while males will stay this rusty colour. 🐸

31/10/2023

Spooky enrichment has been appearing all over the zoo! 👻
Which animal did the best job of carving their pumpkin? 🎃🤭

28/10/2023

Lailai, our Lau banded iguana, just wanted to drop in and say hi!
Her name means 'little' in Fijian, where this species is found. They are now found on 3 islands, while they used to be found on 14.

24/10/2023

We have a new contender for tiniest resident! Our juvenile turquoise dwarf gecko currently measures in at 6cm long, and will only grow to 8cm. Mature males turn a dazzling blue, which females stay more muted in colour. Once our little one matures and we can s*x them, we will be looking to find a partner for this critically endangered species.

22/10/2023

Sunday snacktime for our Madagascan giant day gecko 🦎

18/10/2023

Hazel dormice all over the country are heading into hibernation, and ours will shortly follow. We conducted health checks this week to ensure the youngsters have grown well, and they certainly have! All now weigh over 21g and will soon be digging dens and enjoying a 4 month long nap, before we prepare them for release into the wild! How exciting! 🐾

13/10/2023

Here we have some more new residents, a pair of Eastern collared lizards. The males are the brighter blue and yellow individuals, although the females also have beautiful colouring. This species can run up to 25mph while running on just their hind legs.

04/10/2023

Happy International Zookeeper Day, and World Animal Day! One cause is all about connecting keepers and appreciating their hard work, and the other about improving the welfare of animals, wherever they may be.
Here's our team telling you a bit about our favourite animals, and why we love our roles! 🐾

01/10/2023

Here we have one of our most brightly coloured residents, a red-eyed tree frog. This species has shades of green, red, orange, blue and yellow across their bodies. Some of the colours are to aid with camouflage, and some serve as a warning or confusion tactic against predators. It must work, because fossil records have shown that these frogs have remained relatively unchanged for over 10 million years! 🐸🌈

26/09/2023

Our keepers have voted and our Mexican spiny tailed iguanas have new names! There were lots of great ideas put forward, and keepers had to vote for their favourite trio. And the winners were...

🥁🥁🥁

Nacho, Burrito and Taco! 🧀🌯🌮
As you can see from the video, our new residents have a great appetite and we felt these names were very fitting!
Thank you for everyone's suggestions, and thank you Becca!

23/09/2023

We have exciting baby news to share...
Here is mum, Ginny, and one of the three little ones she has successfully reared. These babies are incredibly important for the future of the wild population of hazel dormice in England. Next year, they will be released into the English countryside as a boost to the population that has been declining for so long. We are incredibly proud to be a part of such an important breed and release program.
Follow us as we share updates of their growth and eventual release! 🐾

20/09/2023

We have welcomed 3 young Mexican spiny tailed iguanas! We won't find out their s*xes until they are 18 months old, and we need your help naming them.
Drop your ideas below and the keepers will pick their favourites. We would love three names that have a theme. We can't wait to see your ideas!

18/09/2023

Our male guinea pig Jamie is very pleased with his new pad 🏠 Thanks keeper Charlie!

10/09/2023

Last weekend, our keeper team took a trip to visit our friends at Paradise Wildlife Park. It was a great learning opportunity to look at different animal exhibits and learn about the care of different species.
A huge thanks to all of the PWP keepers who chatted with us!🐯🐍🐻🦌

01/09/2023

It's International Primate Day! There are over 300 primate species found around the world, from mouse lemurs weighing in at 30g to gorillas weighing over 200kg! They all have particular adaptations to help them thrive, but they are victims of deforestation and the pet trade across their natural range. You can help by buying sustainably sourced wood/paper products, and avoiding any interactions which include primates being used as photo props when travelling. Visit and support accredited zoos instead to conserve primates in the wild. 🐒

28/08/2023

Skyla's favourite place to hang out is her coconut hide! The crested gecko is also sometimes known as the eyelash gecko... you may be able to see why! The second part of their Latin name (Correlophus ciliatus) can be translated to eyelash or fringe.

Address

Bedes School
Hailsham

Website

https://www.bedes.org/

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Videos

Happy International Zookeeper Day, and World Animal Day! One cause is all about connecting keepers and appreciating their hard work, and the other about improving the welfare of animals, wherever they may be. Here's our team telling you a bit about our favourite animals, and why we love our roles! 🐾

Our keepers have voted and our Mexican spiny tailed iguanas have new names! There were lots of great ideas put forward, and keepers had to vote for their favourite trio. And the winners were... 🥁🥁🥁 Nacho, Burrito and Taco! 🧀🌯🌮 As you can see from the video, our new residents have a great appetite and we felt these names were very fitting! Thank you for everyone's suggestions, and thank you Becca!

It's the last week of term and the animals are ready for the summer holidays! Here is our male kinkajou showing of his 13cm long tongue! This would be used to reach into flowers and beehives in the wild, to reach the tasty honey and nectar. 🐝🌺

It's been a very sunny week here at Bede's Zoo, and our keepers have been busy keeping the animals comfortable. Here are some of our animals enjoying ice lollies and 'bobbing' for their food.

Many weeks ago you may remember that we posted a picture of an enclosure we were working on. Well done anyone that said it was for one of our mongoose species, our Grandidier Vontsira 👏🏻 👏🏻 After hard work by our wonderful keepers Alex and Charlie, between their normal daily duties, today we put the final touches in place and let them out to explore. After a naturally cautious entrance you can see that they started to have a look round. We hope to bring you more videos over the coming weeks as they grow in confidence with this brilliant new place. This projects funding was helped hugely by a donation from an alumni Georgie Cloke, for which we are hugely grateful. The Cloke family have our warmest gratitude and we look forward to welcoming them back soon to see how their generous donation has helped to improve the facilities here at Bede’s zoo ❤️ thank you ❤️ Bede's Senior School

Skyla seems to aprove of the new flavours 🦎 ❤️ 🦎

Kinkajou time!! 🌳 🌳 🌳 Is it a monkey, is it a plane, no it’s a Kinkajou!!! Kinkajous (Potus flavus) are another weird and wonderful creature that we are fortunate enough to house at Bede’s. They are a South American nocturnal creature that are found deep in the forests and jungles and are arboreal, meaning they live in the tree tops. They are the the only other carnivore (along with the Binturong) that have a prehensile tail, and this video shows it off perfectly. Don’t you wish you could sideways plank like that!! 🥰🥰🥰

Shedding time!!!

Let’s talk snakes 🐍🐍🐍🐍 Not everyone’s favourite, but my gosh SO many fascinating facts and weird and wonderful anatomy adaptions 🤓 Let’s start with talking about shedding, also known as sloughing or ecdysis. We, as humans, also shed skin but it’s at a slower rate with us having replenished our entire outer skin layer in 2-4 weeks. Reptiles tend to get it out of the way and do it in one hit, shedding 4-12 times a year depending on their life stage and growth rate. Whilst it’s something that most people know happens, have you ever seen it in action?! The video below is McCartney, our oldest resident corn snake at around 29 years old. We find it mesmerising to watch, how does it make you feel?! 🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍

☀️☀️🥵🥵 Ice lollies all round Video credit: Keeper Charlie

Flying into the final week of term like . . . . Best of luck to all our leavers, and especially our outgoing Animal Management Students 🐸🦁🐨🐼🐵 Video credit: Keeper Charlie