Newquay Zoo's top 5 weird and wonderful animals

Newquay Zoo’s top 5 weird animals

We’ve chosen our top five favourite animals for their weirdly and wonderfully interesting qualities! 

1. Visayan warty pig

These Critically Endangered pigs, although very cute, are slightly hair obsessed! Once a year the male pigs, Newquay Zoo’s is called Taer, will shed their hair and then grow it back into a lovely Mohican, which is said to attract the ladies.

2. Vasa parrots

The female vasa parrot is next up on our weird and wonderful list. As some may know, it is common for male parrots to lose their feathers during mating season, HOWEVER, with this breed of parrot it’s the females who lose their feathers over this short period.

3. Praying mantis

When it came to naming these guys, the ancient Greeks truly believed that the praying mantis had supernatural powers, naming it ‘mantis’ which means ‘prophet’. And this isn’t the only weird and wonderful quality to this species. It is common for the female mantis, a lot larger than the male, to eat her suitor during intercourse. Here at Newquay this has proved quite challenging in breeding our orchid mantis species as our not-so-little lady has become a habitual man-eater.

4. Tapirs

Unknown to most people, tapirs actually love water. The thing that makes these animals unique is the fact that they use their mini trunk as a snorkel and can remain under water for several minutes at a time.

5. Sloth

One of the most popular animals at the Zoo, our sloth Roxy is also one of our most weird and wonderful on site. Despite taking 45 minutes to come down for breakfast, sloths also typically only go to the bathroom once a week!