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Ongoing updates and improvements

Bring Back The Swamp!

THIS FUNDRAISER IS NOW CLOSED

Thanks to your overwhelming support and generosity, we reached our target of £15,000 on 20 November 2024.

To celebrate this milestone, we are launching a unique competition where you can donate as little as £5 to enter into our prize draw for a chance to win a CROCODILE FEEDING EXPERIENCE.

Bring Back the Swamp!

Our hugely popular Crocodile Swamp exhibit sadly closed its doors in 2022. This unique and immersive space was home to threatened crocodiles, mesmerising snakes, and a host of other fascinating creatures to inspire and engage our visitors. Now, we’re ready to bring it back to life.

Backs of heads of a boy in blue and a girl in pink, looking at crocodiles with their dad at Paignton Zoo's crocodile swamp exhibit.

How You Can Help

We are appealing to our community to help us Bring Back the Swamp! We’re determined to reopen the swamp and give it the revitalisation it deserves. With your support, we can rebuild the entrance, restore the interior, and introduce some new fascinating animals to inspire the next generation.

Cuban crocodile facing the camera, partially submerged in Paignton Zoo's crocodile swamp with only eyes and snout visible.


Thank you for your support.

Smiling Cuban crocodile in Paignton Zoo's crocodile swamp enclosure.

Why is Crocodile Swamp so important?

Crocodile Swamp was built in 2008 and on opening, rapidly became one of Paignton Zoo’s most popular attractions. Home to a host of incredible animals and plants, the Swamp brought visitors up close and personal with crocodiles, snakes, lizards, and more in a steamy, tropical environment that perfectly replicated some of the threatened areas of the world that Paignton Zoo works to protect.

Komodo dragon named Khaleesi posing contentedly on a rock surrounded by tropical plants in Paignton Zoo's crocodile swamp enclosure.
Komodo dragon Khaleesi was rehomed to London Zoo shortly after the closure. © Wild Planet Trust

Although some of the Swamp’s original inhabitants have moved to zoos elsewhere (our Komodo dragon Khaleesi is now at London Zoo for example) it is still home to Cuban crocodile ‘Spice’ and Sunda gharial ‘Lima’ who now have access to a choice of pools and resting spaces. As work progresses to reopen the Swamp, we will announce the other species that will be joining Spice and Lima in readiness for the return of our visitors.

Our dedicated team have been working hard since 2022 to fix some of the underlying challenges that lead to its closure. Some of these have now been resolved and our appeal now, is to seek help in raising the funds to enable the remaining work to be completed. Some of this is to do with the interior of the building, but the main task is to construct a replacement entrance ramp to allow safe visitor entry to the exhibit.

Immersive swamp shack building painted duck egg, overgrown with tropical climbing plants, overlooking the crocodile swamp at Paignton Zoo.
Many of the original features inside Croc Swamp still remain… © Wild Planet Trust
Boardwalk with glass fencing crossing a swamp pond filled with lily pads and tropical leaf litter at Paignton Zoo's crocodile swamp immersive exhibit.
…but the exhibit will need a bit of TLC before it reopens to the public. © Wild Planet Trust

Since opening in 2008, Crocodile Swamp has played a huge part in visitor’s memories of their visit to Paignton Zoo. Come rain or shine, it amazed, engaged, and inspired everyone who visited it, and its closure in 2022 came as a huge disappointment for staff, visitors, and zoo supporters alike. Our zoo is facing a number of challenges at this time, however we believe that bringing back the swamp can act as a rallying cry to move us forward, providing an incredible experience for future visitors, young and old alike.

Paignton Zoo has always been Paignton’s Zoo.

It has been part of the Torbay community for more than a century and we felt it was only right that we gave our supporters the opportunity to do something tangible to help us as we strive to overcome our current challenges. Whether large or small, a donation to this appeal allows us to move a step closer to bringing the swamp back to life, and giving our zoo, Paignton’s Zoo, a brighter future

One of the key aims of any modern zoo is to engage its visitors with its animals, in order to highlight the conservation challenges that they face, and reveal ways in which people can help to protect them. Crocodile Swamp was hugely popular and led many visitors to rethink their opinions about crocodiles, snakes, and reptiles in general. These fearsome predators are actually intelligent, complex, and beautiful creatures, and they need our help, more than ever, to survive. Bringing back the Swamp will allow thousands more people to witness these misunderstood marvels and help us achieve our mission of helping to halt species decline.

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