2016 has been a year of many highs and lows and as it draws to a close we’d like to take the opportunity to take a positive look back on our best bits!
Above: RTE filming The Pet Island series with our American Alligators in January.
Below: To celebrate our 10th birthday back in March, we took CoCo the Croc on an adventure around Ireland!
In July our brand new Tropical Walk-Through Dome opened, housing Green Iguanas, Tortoise, Soft Shell Turtles and Green Anoles!
In August, our Zoo to You team had the pleasure of meeting Marissa Carter (Cocoa Brown Founder, Girl Boss and an absolute sweetheart) in Kilkenny’s Lyrath Estate Hotel. We even helped her to get over her fear over spiders with a little encouragement from Rosie, our Chilean Rose Tarantula!
September was the month of Today FM’s fund raising initiative, Dare to Care, for the Irish Cancer Society.
Above: Our animal collections manager, Jonny, took part in #WeddingDressWednesday to help raise some money for The Irish Cancer Society.
Below: Comedian and all round nice guy, Neil Delamere, popped in to The National Reptile Zoo to face his fear of scorpions and ended up feeding our Alligators too, all as part of the Dare to Care initiative!
October brought with it a whole host of fun for The National Reptile Zoo including eating insects to promote insect protein use and our annual Halloween Spooktacular!
Above: Staff dinner in Kyteler’s Inn, Kilkenny.
Below: Photos from our Halloween Spooktacular event that saw the zoo over run with Zombie Zoo Keepers, a special appearance from Mrs.Brown and’ Poop’ tea..literally.
Katelyn Hennessy and her dad James eating scorpions during Halloween Night at the Reptile Village. Photo: Pat Moore.
Evanna Minogue tries out handling a snake during the Halloween Night at the Reptile Zoo. Photo: Pat Moore.
Dylan Kirby and Brooklyn Hennessy with a snake during Halloween Night at Reptile Village. Photo: Pat Moore.
Nicola Whitty and Gilli Skelton enjoying tea and insects at the Halloween Night in the Reptile Village. Photo: Pat Moore.
(Halloween photos above: Pat Moore)
October also hosted the annual Pet Expo in the RDS and we had a great photo shoot with the very talented, up and coming photographer behind photography company Eirial Photography.
Above: Pet Expo 2016 at the RDS, Dublin.
Below: Some behind the scenes pictures of our photo-shoot and some of the finished products!
November is one of our busiest months of the entire year as our Zoo To You Team are on the road almost every single day, visiting schools all over the country with some reptiles for Science Week Month! This year we visited schools in Athlone, Kerry, Kilkenny, Cork, Dublin, Longford, Kildare, Waterford and more!
Here’s a snap of our Zoo Director, James, giving a lecture to the UCD verterinary students!
Black Friday also gave us the perfect excuse to show our appreciation to you loyal customers by slashing our admission prices to just €2!!
In December, Zoo Director, James, attended Venom Day at Bangor University!
Finally, we celebrated the end of another year of The National Reptile Zoo with a delicious meal in Paris Texas, Kilkenny.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support throughout 2016 and we look forward to seeing you in 2017.
Wishing you a very Happy New Year
James and staff at The National Reptile Zoo