A message about our live animals

If you’ve visited the Great North Museum: Hancock, you’ve probably enjoyed seeing our resident live animals. From Royal Pythons like Holly, Sid and Vera to Yoshi the Dabb Lizard, we’ve been keeping live animals since we re-opened in 2009. In fact, we’re a DEFRA licensed zoo.

After a lot of thought, we’ve decided that the time is right for us to stop keeping live animals in the museum. This means that fairly soon, we won’t have any live animals on permanent display in our galleries.

Eventually, we’ll be creating inspiring new exhibits to replace the animal tanks. These could incorporate interactive displays or use objects from the collection that we aren’t able to show at present. There are lots of exciting possibilities.

We’ve loved caring for our live animals over the years and we’re committed to their ongoing welfare. We’re now working very closely with the council’s licensing authority and local animal organisations. Some of our animals have already been re-homed and we’ll be making absolutely sure that those remaining are re-homed carefully so that they continue to receive the best care in the best possible environment.

We still believe that live specimens have an important role in engaging visitors with nature and the stories in the museum. We’ll continue to run educational handling sessions during school holidays using animals kept by local experts, working alongside our curators. These fun public engagement sessions are a great way of making connections to our collections and inspiring the next generation of naturalists. 

Caroline McDonald
Museum Manager

If you have any questions about the statement above, please email info@greatnorthmuseum.org.uk and we will respond to you.