Client Spotlight: Hemsley Conservation Centre- Fairseat, Sevenoaks, Kent
We recently visited Adam Hemsley, owner of Hemsley Conservation Centre, a wildlife centre that has the world’s most endangered species based in Fairseat, Sevenoaks, Kent:
“It all started when I was young, I have always loved animals and had dogs and cats growing up. As a teenager, I had already filled out all the forms needed to open a wildlife park! It was the only thing I ever wanted to do.
I had plenty of experience working in other zoos before opening the conservation centre. Whilst at university, I started work experience volunteering at London Zoo where I was a seasonal keeper. A year later, I was also a volunteer at Paradise Wildlife Park before becoming a seasonal keeper there too. In my third year at university, I would attend lectures Tuesday and Wednesday, volunteer at London Zoo on Thursdays and then work Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at Paradise Wildlife Park.
There came a time when I hit rock bottom and I just thought it was a ‘now or never’ decision, so I decided to pursue my dream. All of the paperwork for the conservation centre was submitted on the 1st of January and the company was incorporated on the 15th of January.
I found our current premises, which was classed as a garden centre, but it was derelict and full of junk. We started the groundworks in the February – it was a solid six months of pure hard work to get everything completed, but we finally opened our small conservation centre in August 2015 and have now we’ve been running for seven years this year.
We are different from other wildlife parks because of the variety of animals that we look after. We also do a lot of animal experiences, some with unique animals such as the Maned Wolf, for example. I think that’s the only Maned Wolf experience in the country. Educating people on the welfare and conservation of the animals is important to us and we cater for school groups to visit and learn about the animals and how we look after them.
My biggest career highlight has got to be breeding the Prehensile Tailed Porcupine – it was the first one to be born in the UK for about 20 years and the first one to even survive over a month.
We do encounter a lot of barriers to overcome in this line of work. Brexit caused us a lot of extra paperwork when we need to move the animals, but we have a specialist transporting company that help us. Animals can be moved for a number of reasons, such as needing to leave their parent or move on from where they were bred.
At the moment, finding new staff is probably our biggest problem – people have a different expectation of what a Zookeeper does, compared to the reality of what we actually do. Although, the rising cost of energy, animal food, and wages is going to be our next hurdle to overcome.
We are so proud that we were successful in keeping Hemsley Conservation Centre open after the tough 2 years we have had with the pandemic. Before the Covid pandemic hit in March, visitor numbers were up 148% from when we opened, which for an outdoor attraction is great. In 2019 we had just hit 10,000 visitors, when we reopened last April, we surpassed 20,000 and in the last 12 months have had 29,000.
We are still evolving and finding new experiences to offer visitors. Sunset at the Zoo is coming soon! We will open until 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays and there will be other events to enjoy during that time, such as a barbecue. Fridays are going to be adults only, and Saturdays are going to be for families.
We’ve also got a few new species coming in cool enclosures, so why don’t you take a trip to Hemsley Conservation Centre to check out these new animals for yourself.
If you would like to come and visit, click here www.hemsleyconservationcentre.com.
