The Monkey Forest at Trentham Gardens is a relatively new conservation and wildlife park, which is set in 60 acres of natural woodland that forms part of the Trentham Gardens Estate and is home to two colonies of Barbary macaques.
The Monkey Forest's main purpose is as a conservation project, which began in France and Germany to counteract falling numbers in the monkeys' natural habitats of Morocco and Algeria. Six hundred have so far been released into the wild from sister parks in Europe. A special display gives plenty of information about the ongoing projects.
You will see the monkeys behave in all their ranges of behaviour from the babies playing in the low branches to the occasional skirmish where one group will chase off a rogue monkey from their territory.
Entrance to the park costs around £6.50 for adults and £4.50 for children aged 3 to 14, children under 3 may enter for free. You can spend as long as you like inside the monkey forest and guides are present to answer your questions. Once past the gates and off to the right, there’s a rather smart restaurant and shop building with plenty of outside seating and a small adventure playground. There’s also a covered information area and a separate video screening area, detailing the conservation and habits of Barbary macaques. To get into the monkey enclosure, you pass through a high double gate system, after which you are free to roam along the very well surfaced paths with only ankle high fences separating you from the 140 Barbary macaques which live here. During your visit the monkeys will cross in front of you and pass right by your feet. The staff at the Monkey Forest are great and so enthusiastic, knowledgeable, friendly and obviously passionate about the monkeys they look after and every hour or so they also have a talk and feeding session lasting around 15 minutes, which is pretty informative and let you know more information about the monkeys. The path through the forest forms a circuit that wends its way down through a valley; there are monkeys everywhere and also a few squirrels too, so don’t forget to look up into the trees. A lap of the forest takes a leisurely half an hour and although fairly steep in places, should just about be passable in a wheelchair. Just don't go getting any ideas. Yes, a Barbary Macaque would fit inside your overcoat. That could be why the sign near the exit reminds you: 'Monkeys are not suitable as pets'.
Author Resource:-
David Hammersley is a free lance writer for Islas Travel Guides.
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