The best way to book your experience is to contact us by email with the following information: Name of recipient, age of any children, duration of experience, preferred Rainforest Animal Experience, (Including the preferred options for the “Taster” session, preferred dates, daytime phone number for payment. Please also let us know of any severe nut allergies beforehand so that we can avoid animal feed containing nuts.

Note that weekend experiences fill up very quickly and normally need to be booked at least a couple of months in advance.

We will contact you to arrange payment over the phone by credit or debit card. Once your payment has been received, we will send an information letter confirming your booking and letting you know what to expect from your experience. A receipt will be provided on the day of your experience.

Please note that the bookings are managed by our team of animal keepers who are not office based, this means they are not able to check emails every day so there may sometimes be a delay before they respond.

Email experiences@livingrainforest.org

Most of our animals are available for the deluxe animal experience, please let us know when you book if you’d like to tailor your experience to include particular animals and we will do our best to include them. See below for more information about what you can expect from your experience.

Please note, our free ranging animals are not always co-operative and it cannot be guaranteed that they will be visible when you visit. However, the keepers know their habits better than anyone and will do their best to find them when possible.

Note that we reserve the right to restrict access to any animal if we feel it is necessary on the grounds of health and safety. Animals may not be included in your experience if they are on medication, breeding, or showing signs of stress or aggression.

Green iguana

The green iguana is fed fruit and vegetables which she will usually take from tongs.

Armadillo

The armadillo is a very friendly bundle of energy and will often come up to investigate the interesting smells on your shoes. He is not aggressive when he does this but he is very strong with large claws and so is not very well suited to people who are a little nervous of animals. We cannot hand feed him as he is very clumsy with his mouth, so this involves placing food around the enclosure for him to find. He is fed on fruit and vegetables, and sometimes may also include live invertebrates or a dead mouse.

Aquarium

The stingray and turtles are trained to come to a feeding point at the side of the aquarium. They are fed using tongs. As the feed point is quite high up it is not suitable for the younger age groups and an accompanying adult is important to be present. We usually feed the aquarium inhabitants with fish or crustaceans, and occasionally live invertebrates as well.

Snakes

The snakes are fed a dead mouse, chick or similar item using tongs. You will offer the food to the snake in its enclosure and wait for it to strike and take it- this is very fast and will probably make you jump! Please note that as our snakes are only fed every other week, they may not be available for every experience and will be subject to the date you choose.

In the interests of animal welfare, we will no-longer be offering Goeldi’s monkey or Pygmy marmoset experiences as primates are susceptible to Covid 19. In addition we do not offer sloth experiences as we cannot guarantee Cinnamon will make an appearance during your visit. 

No, all the Rainforest Animal Experiences include a free entry to the rainforest for the whole day, but any friends or relatives with you will need a ticket to enter the rainforest (excluding one free adult with the “Junior” Experience). Entrance to our shop and café are free to everyone.

All experiences take place in the afternoon and normally begin around 2pm. For the “Taster” sessions there are different times dependent on the animal chosen. In winter experiences may begin slightly earlier due to fewer hours of daylight.

Yes you can. Simply let us know the name and age (if under 14) of the recipient and when you book the Experience. We will send you a confirmation letter with the date left blank, the recipient can then contact us to arrange a date at their own convenience.

Children between 6 years and 14 years of age are eligible for the “junior” experiences. Please bear in mind that young children will be more limited in the activities they can participate in.

Every junior keeper experience includes one free accompanying adult place. The adult will be alongside the child (but not participating) throughout the experience.

We highly recommend that you bring a camera with you on your experience, but please leave behind any expensive or bulky equipment such as tripods and lenses. Many animals do not like flash photography so make sure you know how to turn off this feature on your camera.

We recommend no more than two people at a time. This is due to the small size of many of our enclosures and because most of our animals are kept in small groups. If there are more than two people in your group then each person gets to do less and we feel your experience is not as enjoyable. Note that we cannot allow more than two participants in an enclosure at the same time.

You will not be able to touch or hold any of our animals. None of our animals are treated like pets and we prefer for them to choose how much contact they have with us. Whilst some animals are happy to approach people and take food from the hand, others prefer to maintain some distance from strangers. We can promise that you will get closer than you are able to as a normal visitor and have the opportunity for some excellent photographs without glass or netting between you and the animals.

Please contact us as soon as possible so your visit can be rescheduled if necessary. Many illnesses are transferable from humans to animals so we cannot allow anyone into the enclosures if we feel they may put the animals at risk.