Animal Acre

Welcome to The Animal Acre! Attached to the play park and family area of The Walled Garden, this space is home to a diverse range of friendly faces who aren’t just here to look cute for our visitors, they all allow for enriching learning opportunities for our students who attend EMA.

Animals have always had a place here since we reopened in 2015, and since then, the family has grown. We’ve welcomed a herd of Pygmy Goats (who also gave birth to kids!), new chicken families, ferrets, more rabbits, quails, and even two Kunekune pigs – not to mention a special group of exotic animals, our reptiles and bugs!

Throughout the year, we put on events that allow visitors the chance to meet the animals such as our Bug and Reptile Experiences and Goat Walks.

In 2025 we launched out Animal Adoption Scheme! Find out more here!

We have a fantastic animal care team here at The Walled Garden, headed up by Chrissy. Chrissy has been with us for four years, bringing us a wealth of experience and knowledge of all kinds of animals from our goats through to the smallest insect in the Bug Shed. She has been an enthusiastic driving force behind the development of Animal Acre, always wanting to make sure we’re providing the best possible environment for the animals and the best learning experience for our students and visitors.

“We’ve made a huge team effort over the last few years, to develop and grow Animal Acre. Being able to work with such a diverse range of animals is a hugely fulfilling experience. I love my job and encourage the public to stop by and learn all about our animal residents, and the work we do.” – Chrissy

If you see her on site, she’ll probably be doting over her goats, checking in with the chickens, or even hosting one of our special animal events. She’ll always be happy to answer any questions about the animals, so do say hello when you next visit!

Ruby is our Animal Care Apprentice who joined us in September 2025. While she’s still relatively new to the team, her knowledge and experience continues to grow. We’re predicting great things from Ruby and can’t wait to see her flourish!

Pygmy Goats

Our Pygmy Goats have been a very welcome and entertaining part of our animal family at the Walled Garden since 2023. Since their arrival, Chrissy has worked hard to get them settled in and familiar with their surroundings.

Roo, Bounty, Babybel, Toga, Willow, Kanga and Leicester are a very playful family who love playing hide-and seek!

But on rainy days you’ll see the herd relaxing indoors because they really don’t like the rain.

Currently, our two boys, Kanga and Leicester are living in their own separate enclosure. They are very typical and playful boys who are often spotted causing some havoc in their enclosure!

Our goats love to eat goat food and lots of hay, but their favourite snacks are hazel, apple branches, Christmas trees and brambles.

Kunekune Pigs

Our newest residents here at The Walled Garden arrived at the end of March 2025! This happy pair are very vocal, but we strongly recommend not putting your hands inside their enclosure to keep your fingers safe in case they confuse them for a snack!

Carrot and Swede are young sisters with very different personalities. Carrot loves a sunbathe while Swede is often walking around and exploring their enclosure.

They recently gained two new mates in the form of our geese as this unlikely group just couldn’t bear to be apart!

Chickens

Our chickens arrived at The Walled Garden in 2025 and have been settling in very well! Their main purpose here is to teach our EMA students the daily care and lifecycle of the chicken. The various sizes and colours of the different breeds and the different egg types and sizes.

At the moment we have two main flocks in our animal family, the Golden Bantams and the Polish chickens, which you’ll easily spot because of their fantastic hair-dos!

Rabbits

There are currently two rabbit enclosures in our animal area. One which is home to Woody and Smudge, a 3-year-old boy and 5-year-old girl. The other is home to our younger family, Waffle, Honey and their offspring, Syrup who is less than one year old. This group moved into their first outdoor enclosure in February 2025.

You’ll often find them all digging around their patches, if they aren’t munching on carrots or their favourite snack – apple branches!

They absolutely love watching our visitors here at The Walled Garden, but be careful with your fingers, or they’ll think you’re offering them a carrot!

Ferrets

This group of ferrets really mean business! They are a young group of 2- to 3-year-olds who are full of fun!

Lightning and Thunder are the mums of the group, while Tornado, Hurricane, Rain, Mist, Snowy and Sunny are our 2-year olds. Most of the group have been bred on-site here in Moreton!

The ferrets are a playful group. They love playing with their tunnels and boxes but can get a bit carried away. Once, a brand-new ball pit lasted just over an hour before it was destroyed!

You’ll often see them munching away on their ferret biscuits or maybe some meat as a treat.

Tortoises

Fred, Wilma and Gizmo are not usually on public view as they are mainly here for the EMA students to learn about. However, sometimes they make guest appearances at our Bug & Exotic Animal Experiences. All three were rescued and then given to us to take care of, because of this we only have approximate ages for them. Fred and Wilma are in their 30s and Gizmo is approximately 5 years old.

Normally their diet consists of food foraged from our own gardens such are Dandelions, Geraniums, dead Nettles and Buddleia, during the winter months they’ll often eat Curly Kale.

Guinea Pigs

This little herd are a popular bunch. They are all approximately 4-years-old and have some tasty names!

Rolo, Crunch, Cookie, Biscoff, Caramel and Cream absolutely love playing in their tunnels, and if they see someone arrive with some grass to eat, they’ll start to squeak excitedly, but their favourite foods are carrots and herbs!

You’ll know which one is Rolo as he often gets comments about his fluffy fur. He gets the most haircuts of them all which always draws attention!

Crunch is also easy to spot – as he is a teddy breed, his coat looks just like a cosy fleecy teddy bear and always needs to be taken care of.

Quails

In a small hutch next to the Bug Shed, you’ll meet our six tiny quails! This group of small birds were all hatched on-site and love to eat Quail Food, Egg Food and vegetables.

They continue to receive lots of positive comments from our visitors because they are just too cute!

Geese

Our geese, Ice Man and Cous Cous are probably our noisiest animals here at The Walled Garden.

Ice Man was hatched on site and grew from a tiny ball of yellow fluff into the handsome chap you see today and is around 1 year old. Cous Cous was very kindly donated to us to keep Ice Man company and is approximately 2 years old.

Cous Cous is quite talkative and has taught Ice Man a thing or two since her arrival. You’ll probably be able to hear her before you see her!

The geese currently live in with the pigs. Our team often found they were climbing the adjoining fence to be with the pigs, once we realised they couldn’t be apart, we let them all live together permanently.

Bosc Monitor

The Bosc Monitor is a spectacular creature. This 3-year-old is called The Boss! The Boss may look scary and like a dragon, but he really is a big softy and loves a good neck stroke. Sudden movements tend to spook him so we keep his environment as calm as we can.

The Boss’s favourite foods are locusts, cockroaches, snails, eggs, chicks and mice and can eat a lot! In the summertime, Chrissy and Daisy take The Boss out for walks with a lead and harness to explore the grounds and always piques the interest of visitors who spot him. Sometimes makes guest appearances in bug and reptile experiences.

Bearded Dragons

Mushu and Sisu love their bathtimes but not as much as they love basking under their heat lamp. They spend a lot of their time sat in the warm as they watch Chrissy and the EMA students hard at work in the bug shed with the other insects and reptiles!

Their favourite foods are locusts and salad – but they’ll eat whatever food is on offer if they are offered it.

It’s easy to spot these two are excited as they’ll nod their heads as soon as they see something they like!

Snakes

We have two resident snakes living in our Bug Shed. As with our other bugs and reptiles, they aren’t on public display but one does occasionally make guest appearances at our Bug Experiences!

Our 4-year-old Kenyan Sand Boa is called Slithers and is approximately 30 cm in length. It usually lives underground and only makes appearances when it’s time to catch its food – in Slithers’ case its Pinkies!

Our young Corn Snake is called Strawberry Laces. She’s quite a feisty one-year-old so isn’t ready to be part of our Experiences with the public yet. As she is so young her diet consists on Pinkies, but as she grows she will live on adult mice.

Blue Tongued Skink

The Blue Tongued Skink gets its name from…it’s blue tongue! Ours is called Solomon, a suggestion made by one of our fantastic Facebook followers. We don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl at the moment, but we often find ourselves calling it a ‘he’! Solomon has only been with us for a few months so is still settling in. He’s been known to have a little bit of an attitude sometimes but he’s happiest when he’s eating his small insects, fruit and veg!

Bugs & Insects

We have a fantastic selection of exotic bugs here in Moreton. They aren’t generally on public display as they are here to aid the education of the EMA students. However, we do host many Bug and Exotic Animal Experiences throughout the year. If you’d like a chance to meet our bugs and reptiles up close, then keep an eye on our Events page or Facebook for our upcoming events!

Our Bug Shed is currently home to a real variety such as:

Giant African millipedes – they can grow up to 15 inches in length, they like to eat fruit and veg.

Katydids – These leaf-like creatures are always a crowd pleaser, our residents live on brambles and hazel

Indian Stick Insects and Sunny Stick Insects – Well known for resembling twigs, they’re always fascinating to watch while they eat their bramble and hazel!

Giant African Land snails – These impressive friendly giants can grow up to 8 inches in length

Curly haired tarantula – Getting her name from having curly black or brown hair, our Curly Haired Tarantula gets a mixed reception when she appears at our Bug Experiences!

Praying mantis – Did you know a Praying Mantis can turn it’s head 180 degrees to watch our for prey? This alien-like creature is always popular at our Bug Experiences and ours lives on locusts for it’s meals.

Hissing cockroaches – these wingless bugs can really make you shudder, but what makes these even more creepy is the hissing sound they can make. They use this as a defence against predators as well as to attract mates. They’re diet consists of fruit and veg.

Giant Vinegaroon – also known as the Giant Whip Scorpion can grow to around 2.5 inches in length! The Vinegaroon name comes from the acetic acid they can spray they use against their predators. They love to dine on locusts! (Also made famous by appearing in the Harry Potter movie!)

Our insect family is always changing so if you ever book on to one of our experiences the chances are you’ll get to meet something new!