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.

10/11/2024

We've are now home to four beautiful belted black and white ruffed lemurs. Narcissa, Niffler, Bellatrix and Dobby joined us recently and have settled in incredibly well!

01/11/2024

It's World Stick Insect Day, and a perfect time to introduce you to more of our new residents. These are our Madagascan Giant Blue Stick Insects, with the second photo showing the difference between males (the dazzling blue one) and females. Approximately 3000 different species of stick insect are found worldwide, and they provide an important role in clearing dead vegetation, and opening up space for new growth.

28/10/2024

We've been quiet for a while as it's been a busy period with lots of changes here at the zoo. We are now getting back to normal and can't wait to share all of our amazing new species with you. But for now, here's Whiskey showing off how brave she is becoming!

14/05/2024

Tripod doesn't let her missing limb affect her. She is fantastic at climbing, digging and asserting her dominance over any male vontsira she meets!
We are lucky to hold three of these incredible animals, each with unique personalities. All three have become quite comfortable with their keepers and love to look through our pockets if they get a chance!

05/04/2024

We are now home to two red-sided Californian garter snakes. This species can move very quickly, and is often be found spending time in or near bodies of water.

02/04/2024

We were recently joined by Bumble Bee, a hopeful new partner for Hedwig, our resident white-faced owl. This photo was taken soon after Bumble Bee's arrival, while she was still trying to be as big and scary as possible! We are pleased to say she is much more settled now.

29/03/2024

Here is one of our lovely squirrel monkeys during a brief moment of calm, before getting up to mischief!

24/03/2024

Recently, our zoo manager appeared on a podcast, to discuss all things Madagascan Carnivore. You can follow the link below to listen (or search for it on Youtube), and learn about this amazing group of animals and why our Grandidier's Vontsira are so special.

Join us in a captivating episode of the Conservationists Assembled podcast, where we dive deep into the biodiverse world of Madagascar with guest expert, Hannah Spurgeon. Through an illuminating conversation, we uncover the roles of small carnivores in maintaining the island's ecological balance. Ex...

21/03/2024

Drew and Whiskey have been spending a lot of time together recently, and it really brings Whiskey out of her shell.
These are the largest animals we have here, and they weigh 20-25kg each. 🐾

28/02/2024

Our reptile room has had a little baby boom recently! Here is our (not so) Giant Day Gecko baby. How amazing are those colours??

02/02/2024

Skyla just wanted to pop in and wish you all a happy weekend from her favourite coconut hammock 🥥

30/01/2024

Although they look bright, false tomato frogs camouflage brilliantly when they burrow into the soil. It can be very difficult to distinguish them from fallen leaves sometimes. 🐸

27/01/2024

Terri and Goggles can usually be found cuddled up together, especially in the colder weather! 🥶

23/01/2024

Who remembers Nacho, Burrito and Taco from our naming competition last year? They were cute, green babies then, and are now miniature adults! Here we have Taco. The trio recently moved in with the collared lizards, and have settled in brilliantly.

21/01/2024

Did you see our baby news earlier this week?
Here is our 9 month old juvenile emerald swift. You can just see some of the green colouration developing on the scales, leading us to believe this may be a male. Females stay a greyish-brown colour.

17/01/2024

We have exciting baby news to share!
These little ones are emerald swifts, who were born here in mid-December. They are growing and feeding well, and are 5cm long at the moment. They are still incredibly fragile but we have our fingers crossed that they will continue developing well! 🤞

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 🦉

Address

Bedes School
Hailsham

Website

https://www.bedes.org/

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Videos

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! 🐾

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