‘It’s very much stinking of fish one day, but by the evening, I’m all glammed up!’
Abigail Wood pictured in her role as zookeeper at Folly Farm(Image: Folly Farm Adventure Park & Zoo)
By day, Abigail Wood has the dream job of looking after more than 40 penguins at one of Wales’s best-loved family attractions.
Feeding “stinking” fish to the vulnerable flightless birds three times a day, the unglamorous nature of the job is second nature to the Folly Farm Adventure Park and Zoo zookeeper.
By night, however, things are completely different for the 25-year-old. Abigail has just been crowned Miss Earth Wales 2025, a beauty pageant entertainment contest recently held at the Memo Arts Centre in Barry.
But whilst to most these would seem polar opposite ventures, for Miss Wood, originally from Swansea, now living in Pembrokeshire, the contest’s integral promotion of environmental awareness very much aligns with her own values which she has cultivated since she was a young girl, after going on three-week trips with her family to areas with no phone signal, embracing nature. Never miss a Swansea story by signing up to our newsletter here
Abigail holds a master of science degree in environmental biology: conservation and resource management from Swansea University, having studied there for six years.
Earlier this year, she joined Folly Farm as a seasonal penguin keeper, helping to care for their array of vulnerable humboldt and macaroni species of penguins at their penguin coast exhibit.
She is also the founder of the ‘wild about nature’ initiative, a program dedicated to connecting children with nature and encouraging them to become passionate conservationists and future eco-leaders, including publishing a children’s nature activity book.
Abigail Wood pictured with one of the penguins at Folly Farm which she looks after(Image: Folly Farm Adventure Park & Zoo)
“It’s very much stinking of fish one day, but by the evening, I’m all glammed up!” she said.
“It all started for me when I was young. My grandparents have a caravan near Fishguard way, and we’d go there every summer for about three weeks of the year, and they would take us to different nature reserves and anywhere we’d be outdoors.
“There was no iPads or phones – there was no signal there, so that was our only thing, to go outside, whether it be flying a kite, or me and my brother raiding our grandfather’s lock-up and getting out some fishing nets, before going and catching butterflies. We’d have little ID books, and we’d find out what butterflies we’d caught.
“I just absolutely loved doing that, and it was something I got to do at university, with different bird and butterfly and otter surveys.
“I have been involved in pageantry for about three years now. It was a spur of the moment, enter and see what happens thing. I saw there was the Miss Earth pageant, and I went to watch it one year and said to myself, ‘this is what I want to get involved in, this is me’. When you’re in pageants, you have what is called an advocacy form, and for me it was conservation education.
“Being in university, I was always developing my knowledge about conservation and what we can do to make a change, and then I got my zookeeping job, so my day-to-day life is conservation and educating others.
“It all fell into place and I also wrote a children’s activity book. There’s plans for me to host some workshops in Folly Farm over the summer, and it’s just about getting the word out that conservation and being outdoors is fun and can make a difference.
“I absolutely love working at Folly Farm and they have been so supportive throughout this entire thing. They were so excited to find out more about it. When I found out I’d be working with penguins, that was such an amazing thing. I absolutely love it.
“There’s 42 penguins, humboldt and macaroni species. They get fed three times a day, which takes an hour to two hours, so a lot of my day is just feeding penguins. I do also look after flamingo and lots of different duck species. There’s very minimal cleaning but a lot of feeding.”
Abigail has been crowned Miss Earth Wales 2025(Image: Andrew Mee Photography)
Abigail is crowned at the ceremony(Image: Andrew Mee Photography)
Her win at Miss Earth Wales means she is the Welsh entry to the Miss Earth pageant, an international environment event taking place later this year, in October or November, channelling the beauty pageant industry as an effective tool to promote environmental awareness.
She said: “When I was speaking to some of my coaches, we were discussing glamorising nature, and showing that you can be a queen and eco-friendly at the same time, and that’s one message I’d like to get across in Miss Earth – yes I can be glammed up for a pageant one night, but also during my day to day job, be surrounded by penguins, and poo, and fish!
“There’s a lot of prep to do before then and making sure everything is ready to go, as it’ll be around four or five weeks out there doing lots of different activities, from tree planting, visiting rescues, sanctuaries and visiting universities and doing public speaking, before the actual competition. There’s a lot going on, a lot of team building and learning about what they do and what they are passionate about.”
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