People with learning disabilities are tackling obesity by making YouTube cooking videos as part of a pioneering new project from the disability charity United Response. CookABILITY, which launched in Paignton, Devon, aims to encourage people with learning disabilities, Down’s syndrome and autism to cook for themselves and eat healthy food. Research* shows disabled people are more likely to have poor diets and not exercise enough. In fact, over 80% of adults with learning disabilities fail to meet official minimum recommended levels for physical activity. United Response hopes to make...
Staff and volunteers at Paignton Zoo Environmental Park have been left shocked by the sudden death of male giraffe Yoda. The 14-year-old northern giraffe was found collapsed in the giraffe house early this morning.
Zoo spokesperson Phil Knowling said: “This has come as a huge shock. He was a noble animal, one of the best-known and best-loved characters in the Zoo. There was no warning. People are in tears.
“It’s a big blow, but when you work with animals you have to deal with the low points as well as the highs.” A post-mortem examination will be carried out by the Zoo’s...
New technology at Torquay’s coastal zoo means you can colour in a sea creature and see it come to life in front of your eyes.
The coastal conservation charity has installed an electronic wall where drawings are turned into animations. It’s the first time tech of this kind has been seen in the UK.
Guests can colour one of a range of marine creatures, including tropical fish, seahorses and rays, scan them and then interact with them thanks to Draw Alive.
The display uses four LED-backlit LCD flat panel screens mounted together to make a single huge 110” full HD wall....
A charity beer has raised an elephantine sum for wildlife conservation. Bays Brewery helped generate £3,282 by selling a special beer – Trunk Ale - on behalf of wildlife charity Paignton Zoo Environmental Park.
Paignton Zoo supports environmental education in the Omo Forest of south-western Nigeria, where the elusive forest elephant still survives. The Zoo has been funding work there since 2008.
The Paignton micro-brewery is a long-time supporter of Paignton Zoo and its conservation projects. Pete Salmon, from Bays, said: “Since 2013, our partnership with Paignton Zoo has...
Barbara Landis, artistic director of Chamber Opera Tours, found Jane Austen’s language so perfect that it begged to be adapted to theatrical lyrics. The adapted original musical drama of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, which first premiered at the Athenaeum Theatre in Chicago in 2011, has been touring internationally since 2013.
This summer, Chamber Opera Tours will arrive in Paignton to perform a one-night-only performance at the Palace Theatre on 22 September at 7.30pm, on the heels of several performances at the 2018 Jane Austen Festival in Bath.
Chamber Opera Tours presents Jane Austen’s Persuasion: A Musical Drama
One performance only on Saturday, 22 September at 7.30pm
Following performances at the Jane Austen Festival in Bath, Chamber Opera Tours is thrilled to bring its original musical adaptation to the Palace Theatre in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the publication of Persuasion.
This popular production has toured the UK and North America the past five years and features music from Jane Austen’s manuscripts and the era, fully staged with chamber orchestra, beautiful Regency costumes,...
A Devon home care service has been rated outstanding for the quality of care and support it provides to vulnerable people.
Bay Care has received the highest accolade from the Care Quality Commission after an inspection carried out in March.
The 100-strong team at the Paignton-based company were praised for the quality of the service provided across Torbay and the South Hams, with the commission proclaiming the company to be an ‘excellent role model’ for the caring professions.
The inspection looked in detail at how safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led...
Most people visit Paignton Zoo to see rare and unusual animals - species they may never have seen before from exotic habitats around the world. So it comes as a surprise to discover that the star of Paignton Zoo’s new guest encounter is also the world’s most popular pet bird – the budgie.
The Australian budgerigar may seem like an odd choice for a Zoo talk. Group Education Manager Steve Nash explains why sometimes it’s the familiar species that can reveal the biggest surprises:
“The new encounter has been put together to try and encourage guests to see that every species...
Paignton Zoo has just bred a rare and unusual lizard for the very first time.
The Solomon Islands skink is also known as the prehensile-tailed skink, or the monkey-tailed skink… or the giant skink… or the monkey skink… or even the zebra skink Whatever you call it, this is one extraordinary creature.
For a start, it’s the world’s largest skink. A skink is a type of lizard – the word is from the Greek and referred originally to lizards in that part of the world. It’s one of the few reptiles known to live in a social group (called a circulus). It gives birth rather than lays...
