Whipsnade Whipsnade Whipsnade is a small village and civil parish in the county of Bedfordshire. It lies on the eastward tail spurs of the Chiltern Hills, about 2.5 miles south-south-west of Dunstable. It is the home of Whipsnade Tree Cathedral, as well as the famous ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, and is the namesake of Whipsnade Park Golf club, although it is actually in neighbouring Dagnall. The local Wildlife Trust manages a small nature reserve north of the village called Sallowsprings (). Edward John Eyre, explorer of Australia, was born in Whipsnade in 1815. A hill figure can be found in the site.
Whipsnade Zoo to the north of London was purchased by the Zoological Society of London in 1926 for £480 12s 10d. The site was fenced, roads built and trees planted. The first animals arrived at the park in 1928, including two Lady Amherst's pheasants, a golden pheasant, and five red junglefowl. Others soon followed including muntjac, llama, wombats and skunks. Whipsnade Park Zoo opened on Sunday 23 May 1931. It was the first open zoo in Europe to be easily accessible to the visiting public. It was an immediate success and received over 38,000 visitors on the following Monday. The brown bear