Sir Winslow took many trips to the continent of Africa to explore jungles, deserts, and the open savannahs. On each of these, he discovered animals that he had never seen before or even heard of. However not so with the hippo. There had been one in the London Zoo since 1850, the family had seen it several times and decided they wanted one for the zoo at Windy Willows. The hippo was found on one of his last safaris in the country of Zambia. The story of the hippo that belonged to the Smythe family really begins once it was...

Sir Winslow encountered bats in almost every corner of the earth he explored. The smallest bat he found was the hog-nosed bat and the largest was the giant crowned flying fox. It was not a creature that he captured and took back to the zoo at Windy Willows because he knew this was a creature that needed to fly free. The bat that most fascinated Sir Winslow was the New Zealand short-tailed bat.  He discovered while touring the islands of Australia and New Zealand. The story of how Sir Winslow first encountered this bat is in a journal in the...

The pond at Windy Willows had green frogs, wonderful, friendly, hop on your lap frogs. Now some people would say, “NO THANKS!” but Sir Winslow's children loved to take their fishing poles and head down to the pond for a lazy summer afternoon. It was the best! Cook packed a picnic lunch for them this particular day, the fishing gear had been rounded up, worms dug, and galoshes for each of them. There might have even been a pal or two from the village along for this excursion. Lady Suzanne promised to check on the children later in the afternoon...