Britain’s only Monkey Forest is celebrating a very special year with a 20th anniversary bonanza this summer.
One of the country’s more unusual visitor attractions, offering close encounters with free-roaming monkeys, Trentham Monkey Forest, on the edge of Stoke-on-Trent, first opened its doors to visitors on 19 July 2005.
Since then, the attraction – set in a 60-acre Staffordshire woodland and home to 140 Barbary macaques living as they would in the wild – has welcomed thousands of visitors.
But along with being the only place in the UK where visitors can walk amongst the animals, it has also played a major worldwide role in the conservation of this threatened species.
Over the last 20 years over 170 baby Barbary macaques have been born there, with hopefully more due this summer.
And on 19 July 2025, the Monkey Forest will celebrate its anniversary milestone with a Birthday Bonanza event, including 20% off tickets and special activities.
As well as offering a chance to join in the birthday fun, the event also comes during the Monkey Forest’s most popular annual treats… “baby season”. Typically, the animals give birth from May to August and usually the park sees six to 10 newborns annually during this time, with 2024 seeing the arrival of 10 babies.
It is also the time of year when the previous year’s juveniles start to find their feet, providing some stunning photo opportunities. The babies are born high up in the trees at night, but visitors get their first peek of them as a tiny bundle clinging on to the stomach of their mothers, before they take their first steps and explore the forest.
This successful breeding programme is also celebrated in another commemoration of Trentham’s 20-year anniversary on display this year.
Greeting visitors to the attraction is a photo collage created by renowned artist Nathan Wyburn, which is composed of more than 500 images captured at Monkey Forest over the past two decades.
It shows the face of ‘Dee,’ the first baby born at the park, with each year since the attraction’s opening represented by photos that make up the collage.
Born to the Forest’s German group – a lineage that traces back to Trentham’s sister park in Germany – Dee grew up to become the group’s chief, although the 20-year-old is now no longer top of the tree as new leaders emerged in the five generations that have since been born there.
Trentham is also home to one of the oldest Barbary macaques, S75, a 30-year-old who continues to thrive against all odds. For a Barbary macaque, reaching that age is equivalent to a human centenarian.
A highly endangered species, there are fewer than 8,000 thought to still be roaming in the wild; and, as the UK’s largest primate enclosure, Trentham Monkey Forest works closely with nature organisations to support conservation projects.
For more details about Trentham Monkey Forest, see www.monkey-forest.com
General tourist information on Stoke-on-Trent and The Potteries can be found at www.visitstoke.co.uk
