Size: 140 acres

County: Hampshire

Animal species: About 140 [as of 2022]

Opened: 1972

Built on land surrounding the Marwell Hall, which was first mentioned by name in the tenth century, Marwell Zoo is built on a site rich in both zoological and historical heritage. Marwell Zoo is fairly large - at 140 acres of parkland in size. With such size, a nuimber of the animal enclosures at Marwell are large in themselves, with a number of the enclosures being open areas of fieldland with hoofstock.

The Marwell Hall was first mentioned by name during the 10th century, when King Eadgar granted the lands to the new monastery, known today as Hyde Abbey. Walter Woodlock was granted a 'license to enclose' in 1310, which led to the hall's construction. Around the year 1520, the Hall was acquired by Henry Seymour, the brother of Jane Seymour; the third of Henry VIII's wives. The Hall, in 1644, oversaw part of the English Civil War; a skirmish between Cavaliers and Roundheads. During the early 18th century, ownership of the Hall was passed to the Dacres, remaining in Deacre until the early 19th century, when it was sold by George Dacre for £16,000, and bought by William Long, whose family did not move into the Hall until 1810. The Longs would own the Hall for 31 years, until 1841, after which Walter Jervis Long would lease the Hall to various people, including John Gully - who inherited his father's butcher business, imprisoned for debt, and would start a life of prize-fighting as to release himself. As well as a somewhat unsuccessful fighter, Gully would also become a trainer of racehorses [none of which lived at Marwell], expending and gaining thousands of pounds in his racehorsing venture. Over the course of his life, Gully is known to have had two wives, twenty-four children, and after leaving Marwell after living there for 10 years, would become MP for Pontefract. In 1868, the Estate would be acquired by Rowland and Caroline Standish. The Standish family would own the Estate for 65 years, with the last of the Standishes, William Standish, dying in a 1933 car accident. During World War II, Marwell would become a temporary airfield, and after the War, the estate would see various owners, until its most eminent owner came in 1968 - when John Knowles bought Marwell to create the zoological park. Knowles received great backlash from the locals, but opened the zoo in spite in 1972.

Upon arriving to Marwell on opening in 1972, critiques and enthusiasts alike would be greeted to a wide range of hoofstock, with one paddock in particular of particular notoriety - the paddock where Grevy's Zebra and Scimitar-horned Oryx lived together - Knowles was warned by many that his concept would never live - but successful Knowles was in pulling it off. As well as hoofstock, Knowles was also fond of big cats - with tigers and jaguars present at Marwell in 1972. In 1973, the tigers produced their first cub, “Miko”. The Children's Zoo would be opened close to the end of the year, housing, as well as two tiger cubs, a range of domestic animals, such as pot-bellied pigs, donkeys, sheep, and guinea pigs. The first giraffe calf and ostrich chick at Marwell were born in 1974, and in 1975, a pair of addax were introduced, the first breeding pair in Britain. September 1977 saw a troublesome event occur - Victor, a giraffe at Marwell, was found with his legs spread outwards, with attempts being made to recover Victor for six days, though these attempts were unsuccessful, Victor's splayed position resulting in death. Still, the following year saw 300,000 visitors, a new maximum, visit the Zoo. Congo Buffalo arrived in 1979, and promptly bred a year later. 1981 say Marwell's first rhinoceros arrive - both black rhinoceros - a male of London Zoo, and a female of Whipsnade. Meerkats arrived at Marwell in 1983, as did Arabian Oryx - which allowed Marwell to have all the members of the Hippotraginae sub-family - a personal dream of Knowles. The decade that followed saw the arrival of more animals, including a number of endangered species - pygmy hippopotamus, cheetah, golden lion-tamarin, white rhinoceros [which replaced the former black rhinoceros], bongo, and Somali wild ass. Three years after the arrival of Somali Wild Ass in 1993, a foal was born, and the zoo's initial tropical house, Tropical World, was opened. Also in 1996 was the arrival of Marwell's first penguins - Macaroni penguins and African penguins. By the turn of the millenium, a white rhinoceros calf was born, And the “Into Africa” African animal house was opened, as well as an enclosure for fossa. Two years prior to the millenium, a new change was also brought in - that John Knowles, the long-standing director of Marwell, would retire from his position, taking place as honourary director. 2001 saw the death of the last of Marwell's lions, a lioness named 'Tara'. 2002 saw the opening of a house dedicated to Desert Carnivores. Another white rhinoceros calf would be born in 2003, and three Amur Tiger cubs were born in 2004. The year after saw the opening of 'Roof of the World', an enclosure for snow leopards, as well as the arrival of James Cretney, who became the Chief Executive of Marwell. 2006 saw the opening of the last major exhibit to be opened during Knowles' time at Marwell - a house named 'Heart of Africa'. The year would also see the retirement of Knowles as honourary director. By the end of the year, the Children's Zoo, now known as the Encounter Village, would be shut for renovation, marking the end of the 'Knowles Era' at Marwell. 2006 would be also Marwell's most successful year during Knowles' time - with over 500,000 visitors coming to Marwell that year.

2007 began with the opening of the renovated Encounter Village, which now held, as opposed to domestic animals the Village historically held, smaller exotic animals, with prominent features being a Golden-Lion Tamarin walkthrough, a reptile encounter barn, and the Australian Bush Walk, a walkthrough with wallabies. Siamangs would also be given a new enclosure this year, at “Life in the Trees”, and an Amur Leopard cub was born. 2009 saw Marwell Zoo rebranded as 'Marwell Wildlife', as well as the 'African Valley', a large field containing various African savannah animals. Cheetahs would receive a renovated enclosure in 2011, when Savannah Tracks was opened, as was a Macaque study centre. In 2013 'Fur, Feathers, and Scales' - a revitalisation of the existing Encounter Village, was opened, and a new enclosure for coati in said area opened the year after. 2015 saw the largest-to-date enclosure open at Marwell - Wild Explorers - a large paddock exhibit for Grevy's Zebra, White Rhinoceros, and Scimitar-Horned Oryx. 2018 saw the opening of a new Tropical House for Marwell, which houses an array of tropical birds, as well as several reptiles and a few small mammals. A wetlands area was planned for 2020, to revitalise the area surrounding tapirs, pygmy hippopotamus and flamingos, but was postponed heavily by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021 it would acquire Blue-faced Honeyeater, making it the only public collection in the United Kingdom to have the species. Later years saw breeding success of this species at Marwell. In 2023 a new carnivore plan was announced with the expansion of the snow leopard enclosure to follow; and the older Tropical World was repurposed as 'Thriving Through Nature' - a Mediterranean-type exhibit for rock hyrax, lizards, and green toad.

In September of 2023, Cretney announced his resignation as Chief Executive of Marwell - a position held since 2005. As of September 2023, Cretney remains in post; but will leave once a new CE has been recruited. The legacy left behind by Cretney has been hailed as one of perserverance - particularly through the COVID-19 pandemic; which saw Marwell lose much funding. During his time at Marwell, Cretney oversaw many expensive renovations and exhibit constructions. But not all are so endeared by Cretney's legacy - as several others feel that Cretney did little to properly maintain Marwell's animal collection - and many of the developments which he oversaw at Marwell quickly fell into obsolecence - as well as many developments before his time - and those that did survive were of rather little substance.

In January of 2024, Marwell announced the appointment of a new Chief Executive - Laura Read, who has worked for many years in various leadership roles in sectors including retail, hospitality, and events - but also has a long-standing passion for conservation, and graduated from Warwick University in Biological Sciences. She was officially appointed in March of that year. In March, Marwell announced fundraising for the construction of a breeding centre for the white-clawed crayfish to take place in April. In the first year under Read's tenure, relatively little new construction took place. Even so, it was announced that the Fur, Feathers and Scales area would be redeveloped into an area for native species; 'Phase 1' being a development for white-clawed crayfish and sand lizards. Whether the Cold-Blooded Corner or walk-through areas will be subject to this development as well remains to be seen. Also under her tenure development was completed on an extension for the snow leopard enclosure.

In March of 2025, the Native Species Zone, in the 'center' of the former Encounter Village, opened, featuring exhibits for White Clawed Crayfish and Sand Lizard, as well as an outdoor library for children, a play area, and a pond.

A number of Marwell's enclosures are simple in design - large, planted fields, of which house a hoofed mammal. Such enclosures work very well - with the animals breeding successfully. Having gained a reputation for being a large zoo with great herds of animals, the herds today at Marwell are perhaps somewhat smaller, but management still appears to go well. The hoofstock collection of Marwell is rather extensive - with almost 30 species being held, though this is by no means the largest hoofstock collection of any UK zoo. As it has been for years, the hoofstock at Marwell seem to have behind an African bias of sorts - with many of Marwell's hoofstock, such as zebra, pygmy hippo, oryx, dik-dik, and various antelope, originating from the African continent. Though by no means in the hoofstock collection at Marwell purely African - it also contains Asian Przewalski's Horses, and South American tapirs. From the main restaurant, the view of the former makes good use of the extensive landscape that the zoo is built on. The zoo itself has seen a fair bit of restructuring in modern times - enclosures that may have once existed may be prevented from access. In some cases, however, the enclosure may find new life - as happened in 2022 when an enclosure originally for Amur Leopard [somewhat small by modern standards] was re-purposed for clouded leopard. Likewise, a nearby cheetah enclosure was re-purposed for serval after the death of the last remaining cheetah. And so, lesser-known species become the central focus of somewhat major exhibits at Marwell. Nearby the path towards where the serval are held, what was once an enclosure for jaguar [also small by modern standards] has been left for natural growth to occur. Enclosures for 'crowdpleasers', such as meerkat and penguin, are pulled off fairly well, though the comparative size and texture of such exhibits could be considered incondusive with paddocked surroundings.

A relatively recent development in Marwell's history if the 'splitting' of the Encounter Village. The Cretney era saw expansion of the Village's reach further west, as “Fur, Feathers, and Scales” but Read's era saw the Village centre, which became largely disused under Cretney, redeveloped as the Native Species area. The Cretney-era Fur, Feathers, and Scales, encompasses several walk through aviaries as well as a wallaby walkthrough, an exhibit built for coatis but repurposed for red pandas, as well as one exhibit inside of the UK Native Species Zone - the Cold-Blooded Corner. The Read-era Native Species area has exhibits for White-clawed Crayfish and Sand Lizards, as well as a play area in the center of the village and a pond area. Elements of earlier times of the Village, such as the architecture, remain - though these are no longer used for animals. Some paces away from the Hall can be found two of Knowles' greatest passion-animals - Amur tigers, and okapis, which continue to prosper and breed well at Marwell, as they have for years. The bird collection of Marwell appears fairly impressive - in no small part thanks to the recent tropical house, which houses what is currently the only purple honeycreepers [by extension the only honeycreepers at all] on public view in the UK, and in no small part also to the walk-through aviary of Fur, Feathers, and Scales, which houses the only white-quilled honeyeater on view in the UK. About 30 bird species are held at Marwell; including penguins, flamingos and ostriches - as well as more uncommon birds including tanagers, ibises and caracara. Perhaps an anachronistic addition to Marwell has came in recent years - namely the large structures of animals of which are created out of LEGO bricks. The craftmanship behind such structures, which may be larger-than-life models is undeniable, especially considering the millions of toy bricks necessary to create such structures - though in a world today where children and adults alike are surrounded by toys, video games and LEGO, it blurs the line between what is real and what is not at what is, by and large, an educational, zoological institution. Perhaps the same is to be said about the choice of imagery on the zoo map - rough, monochromatic outlines of animal shapes characterised by patches of alternate colour, as well as rounded eyes, undistinguished between species. For what good work Marwell carries out both in-situ and ex-situ, it will have to hold itself accountable for such potential discrepancies. But then again, it is that most major zoos of the United Kingdom, with their own fibreglass dinosaurs and other similar amusements, will too have to find a fine-line between showing zoological reality to the public, and caving in to that same public's desires. Recent developments seem to give an optimistic view on the future of Marwell - a new Mediterranean-style enclosure, 'Thriving Through Nature', opened in what was Tropical World, providing a spacious area for species such as Egyptian Uromastyx and Sudan Plated Lizard, as well as Rock Hyrax. A small herd of banteng, which first arrived in 2021, has grown to sizable proportions. And several smaller animals - crested caracara, bush dogs, and Brazilian Guinea Pig, have all been introduced - and are popular with the public. Should the post-Cretney era provide similar developments, the future of Marwell seems very bright.