Sloth Animal Experience Woodside Wildlife Park North Lincolnshire Review

Last Updated on July 9, 2023 by Suzy McCullough

Growing up I don’t ever recall hearing about sloths. Nowadays there are a handful of places in the UK where you can actually see sloths. They sleep in a ball for about 16 hours of the day so they aren’t really much to see when you do see one. But you can’t help but love them. In fact, as a species, it’s amazing they have even survived as they are so incredibly slow.

My husband really loves sloths and he would love to travel abroad to see them. I found the next best thing and booked him a sloth animal experience for a Christmas present here in the UK. Luckily we didn’t have to travel too far as Woodside Wildlife Park near Lincoln in Lincolnshire has just that. Children can take part in this experience from the age of 8.

Sloth Animal Experience Lincolnshire

The year before I tried to book an experience but they were fully booked. This time I waited until the middle of November for when they released their VIP tickets and I bought some right away. They are sold as gift vouchers which you then redeem on their website.

For animal experience bookings it’s a really user-friendly experience. They have a section on their website where you go to book and then there’s a calendar with the available dates. For the sloth experience, they have a few slots a day with only 4 allowed in each time. The vouchers are sold out yet again so you will have to wait until November to book.

Your experience also includes a visit to the rest of Woodside Wildlife Park. We arrived an hour early and headed for the cafe. Nearer the time we were met by one of the members of staff and she led us to where their two sloths live. The experience states that it includes the sloths and you can meet one other animal – marmosets or meerkats. The marmosets live with the sloths so naturally they were included in the experience.

I was a little apprehensive about going into a cage full of marmoset monkeys. But oh my gosh they are so cute. They just ran happily above us and allowed us to feed them grapes. One even sat causally on my husband’s shoulder. They are really small and not at all how I had expected them to be.

They are also not at all bothered about the two large sloths. In fact, one marmoset tried to pinch a grape right out of the sloth’s mouth. They share a large cage and have access to a smaller warmer cage which is where we started the experience.

Both sloths were asleep and one soon woke up for grapes. We learnt that they have a male and a female and that they are hoping for babies. We could stroke the sloths which they didn’t seem to mind and pop the grapes in their mouths. They even eat slowly. Literally, everything is done in slow motion.

The female just wouldn’t wake up but after a few minutes, she did eventually wake. She was actually very alert and was soon hanging off a rope wanting more grapes. We were also surrounded by marmoset monkeys by this point.

Unusually for her, the female sloth headed into the bigger enclosure. It was amazing to see her move. Although they are slow they are incredibly agile. Moving around is actually very easy for them and they are very strong.

The male sloth even entered the room and we were soon treated to two sloths climbing here there and everywhere. They would just head right for you and you had to be the one to move out of the way as they had no intention of going around you.

One even tried to pinch my husband’s glasses. My son was in his element and it made a change to the animals he normally gets to interact with. In the photo below I was trying to get close for a photo but the sloth kept trying to touch my hair. They really are very friendly creatures.

The keeper informed us that they are rarely this active and it was very unusual to see them move around so much. Honestly, it was amazing and although you can’t be guaranteed that they will move around it is worth going in the hope that they do.

The experience is supposed to last around 30 minutes but we were in there for almost an hour.

We have certainly come away loving sloths even more and we learnt so much more about them.

After our experience, we had a wander around the wildlife park. My son and I have been a few times in the past as we used to live in Lincolnshire. They have made a few improvements since we were last there including a fab penguin area. Sadly, they don’t have their displays and shows on right now which were always the highlight for us. We used to stay all day and watch all the different shows.

It took us around 50 minutes to walk around the rest of the park and there is also an outdoor play area.

Woodside Wildlife Park FAQ & Further Information

Address: Armouries Dr, Leeds LS10 1LT, West Yorkshire. Phone: 0113 220 1916

Category: Museum – Indoors – Suitable for all ages