It’s a popular spot for a winter stroll.

But just like the rest of us, the lions, tigers, giraffes and monkeys of Fota Wildlife Park are taking a well earned break from public life this week, as the park closes for Christmas.

The popular attraction will reopen to Christmas holiday visitors on December 27th, 2019 at 10am with last entry at 3pm.

We are closed for the season.
We will reopen as normal on December 27th at 10am, with last entry at 3pm and closed at 4.30pm.
Thank you to all our brilliant visitors this year who continue to support us and contribute to all our conservation work.
Merry Christmas pic.twitter.com/AllvrVjDSK

— Fota Wildlife Park (@fotawildlife) December 23, 2019

Ireland’s only wildlife park, it’s been a big year for Fota, with the opening of the Madagascan Village, a weatherproof lemur house on Palm Walk Island, this time last year. The €750,000 development now includes two houses, with glass panelling as indoor accommodation for four species of lemurs.

A big year for new arrivals

There’s been plenty of stork visits too; 2019 has seen the birth of a baby European bison, four endangered Asian lion cubs, a rare male Sumatran tiger cub and a baby Brazilian tapir.

In May, the park staff welcomed a two-year-old male juvenile Linné’s Two-toed sloth named Mattheo, who was transferred from Wilhelma Zoo, Stuttgart, where he was born.

Although they are primarily nocturnal animals – in fact, they can sleep for 15 hours a day easily, Matheo has been quite active so far, making regular trips out of his nesting box into his specially constructed high-level branches and platforms in the Tropical House – where he is essentially free roaming.

In October, the park announced the birth of a Rothschild giraffe calf, born to mother Sapphire and father Tadhg. The calf is the result of Fota’s captive breeding programme run with the European Endangered Species Programme in an effort to save the Rothschild giraffe, of which there are only 670 left in the wild.