Mango’s new home at Tropical World

Tropical World is one of Leeds and Yorkshire’s most visited attractions for children and young people. It was one of the places nominated by young people as a ‘best place’ in the city as part of our child friendly Leeds awards and recently has been undergoing some big changes!

In today’s child friendly Leeds blog, we talk to long-term Tropical World resident and mascot Mango the Meerkat about what’s been going on and why he’s so excited the up-coming summer at Roundhay Park… 

Mango hanging out at our child friendly Leeds awards 2015

“Hello there! My name is Mango the Meerkat. I live at the fantastic Tropical World at Roundhay Park.  I am so happy to be writing this blog as something amazing has happened to my home that I want to share.

“Tropical World has been closed since last year to make way for some work that has made it an even better place to visit! Lots of builders have been working here and have made some changes to how it looks. Some of you may know the area in the middle where the fish live –you are going to have a brilliant surprise when you come along next time! This part of Tropical World now looks like an Aztec temple – and it’s fantastic! We have new residents living there – including some very scary Piranha fish. We also have some axolotls that come from Mexico.

“We have other new residents including an octopus, poison dart frogs, seahorse and long necked turtles (you will love them!). I had to look all of these up on the internet but you don’t need to worry as we have new interactive screens that you will can use that tell you all about them.

The renovated building looks like an Aztec temple 

“Besides all of this amazing stuff we have new heating to make the place even more snug than before and a new conservatory where all of my friends out there can get a drink when you visit!

“Did you know (by the way) that part of Tropical World is over 100 years old? The entrance is on the site of the Coronation Greenhouse that was built in 1911 to celebrate the new king George V. Tropical World, as you know it opened in the 1980s. We added the part of the building where my family of meerkats live in 1993.

“You may wonder what I got up to when Tropical World was closed, I had a busy few months visiting local sights and places of interest! The lovely people of Leeds kept up with my adventures through our brilliant Facebook and Twitter pages. I went to the brilliant Home Farm at Temple Newsam, The City Museum, and Armley Mills and a few other places. Every week I posted photographs of my travels and asked people to guess where I was. We gave away prizes to those who got it right.

“Some of you may have spotted me at the child friendly Leeds awards at Leeds City Varieties with Ronnie Rhino! Anyway, I am back home at Tropical World and looking forward to seeing you all soon!

– Mango the Meerkat

A big thanks to Mango for talking to us today! 

Tropical World has now officially re-opened and you can find out more about what’s on, including the price of admission and opening hours, on the Tropical World website.

You can also follow Mango and company on Twitter @TropWorldLeeds and like them on Facebook to ‘check-in’ your visit and share your experiences.

Have you had a great visit to Tropical World? Do you have a question to ask Mango about what’s been going on? Why not let us know by leaving a comment below…