Animal Story Animal Encounters

18/09/2026

and today in Gateshead at a lovely Primary school we visit every year.

14/09/2026

Only a couple of October dates left for our Halloween themed workshops.
I say this every year but our Hoots Spell Party workshop is amazing. Suitable for foundation and primary aged children but enjoyed by attending adults too. 💀👻🎃

04/09/2026

Sorry our page has been quiet again lately. We have had a very busy summer.

Who is getting ready for spooky season???

13/08/2026

No visits today due to the ☀️☀️☀️☀️
Thankfully all our outdoor mammals and birds have wonderfully shaded areas and airy enclosures. We also have a fantastic air conditioning system that keeps all the reptiles and inverts happy. The tortoises have had an amazing day sunning themselves.

Our baby tenrecs have just started to wander the simplified enclosure 🥰
Having their first tastes of boiled egg, softened high protein kitten IAMS and livefood.

03/08/2026

Born on the 25th of July and here 6 days old, baby Lesser Tenrecs.
First time mother gave birth to some beautiful babies that will be staying with us.

The lesser hedgehog tenrec (Echinops telfairi) is a species of mammal in the family Tenrecidae. It is the only species in the genus Echinops and is named in honour of Charles Telfair. It is endemic to Madagascar. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, shrubland, and shrubland and dry savanna.

Although they look remarkably similar - small, spiny mammals with pointed snouts and similar body shapes - hedgehogs and lesser tenrecs are not closely related. They evolved these similarities independently because they occupy similar ecological niches. This is called Convergent Evolution.

28/07/2026

21/07/2026

We have officially started our summer holiday visits today after a day off yesterday. It actually wasn’t a day off as it was spent putting up a new greenhouse just to grow prickle less blackberry plants to keep some of our giant inverts fed over winter when the wild stuff dies off 🙈🤣🤣

Lovely day today visiting little people with this angel ❤️

06/07/2026

Unfortunately we have been made aware that some school email servers haven't been receiving our email replies for the last 12 months at least. This has been happening even though they have sent enquiries to us first. When we have replied it hasn't gone through but we have been unaware of this as we didn't get a bounce back email saying it wasn't delivered.

The issue has been down to our old email server provider not having the correct settings needed to show we are a trusted sender. We have been blocked completely from many school system email protections.

If you have emailed us and not received a reply we apologise.
We are on a much better server now after a mad panic to build a new website and move our email accounts to a more up to date host. Ive sent test emails to a few schools that informed me they weren't getting replies and everything is working as it should have been all along.

Our new website is up and we will be making changes to it when we have time so bear with us.

Thank you to St John Vianney who alerted us to the cause via their tech team :)

03/07/2026

1 month to go for Fun4All!

Sneak peak of what to expect!

The Bubble Whisperer - gigantic bubble fun
Partytime Inflatables
Just Climb
Not Just A Pretty Facepaint
Animal Story Animal Encounters
Landmark Golf Ltd
O'Briens Funfairs & Catering