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I was lucky enough to spend some magical moment at Bristol Zoo. | 0:00:00 | 0:00:07 | |
Incredibly, Brazil is celebrating its 175th birthday this year. -- of | 0:00:07 | 0:00:11 | |
her zeal. On this programme, we will take you of a whistle-stop | 0:00:11 | 0:00:16 | |
tour. From Alfred the gorilla, who became a wartime symbol of | 0:00:16 | 0:00:26 | |
0:00:26 | 0:00:27 | ||
resistance. He had a huge presence. A wonderful presence. To Dotty the | 0:00:27 | 0:00:34 | |
Lemur, who captured the heart of a film star. I have a species of | 0:00:35 | 0:00:39 | |
lemur named after me. And we will explore how changing attitudes have | 0:00:40 | 0:00:49 | |
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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 44 seconds | 0:00:50 | 0:01:34 | |
shifted the focus of the suit from Bristol Zoological Gardens is the | 0:01:34 | 0:01:38 | |
5th oldest zoo in the world. The original list of shareholders | 0:01:39 | 0:01:43 | |
reveals the important local shareholders. The most significant | 0:01:43 | 0:01:50 | |
Bristow the end of all, Isambard Kingdom Brunell. Bristol Zoo really | 0:01:50 | 0:01:57 | |
aimed itself and providing the Zoological Society for the rich and | 0:01:58 | 0:02:02 | |
educated middle classes of Bristol. In the early days, they did manage | 0:02:02 | 0:02:06 | |
to obtain some exotic creatures. But an elephant was really | 0:02:06 | 0:02:16 | |
0:02:16 | 0:02:17 | ||
something. When Zebi was presented by V Maharajah of Mysore, that must | 0:02:17 | 0:02:24 | |
have been a massive thing for this -- for the zoo. And yet the zoo was | 0:02:24 | 0:02:27 | |
suffering financially so it began to rely heavily on added | 0:02:27 | 0:02:35 | |
attractions. These would involve rolling, ice skating, things that | 0:02:35 | 0:02:42 | |
may seem as if they fit with in our gardens. This zoo was struggling to | 0:02:42 | 0:02:47 | |
fit with its original ethos. And they visit a number rose, it still | 0:02:47 | 0:02:53 | |
failed to pay off its debts so it put on shows until the end of the | 0:02:53 | 0:03:01 | |
1920s. During that time, 16-year- old Reginald Greed started work | 0:03:01 | 0:03:06 | |
there as an office boy. My father always used to say it was lovely to | 0:03:06 | 0:03:16 | |
0:03:16 | 0:03:21 | ||
participate in the fairgrounds and Despite the lovely shows, the | 0:03:21 | 0:03:24 | |
gardens at that time were still a place for the middle classes to | 0:03:24 | 0:03:32 | |
visit. This was only a popular show you -- zoo for working-class people | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
and there weren't even bank holidays and people worked six days | 0:03:35 | 0:03:41 | |
a week, so that is part of the reason the zoo struggled. So one of | 0:03:41 | 0:03:45 | |
the zoo's leading committee members, Richard Clarke, declared it must go | 0:03:45 | 0:03:51 | |
back to its roots and concentrate on being a zoo. Work began on a new | 0:03:51 | 0:03:56 | |
aquarium, which opened in 1927. And with the extra admission charge, it | 0:03:56 | 0:04:01 | |
quickly paid for itself and brought in a much needed funds. The next | 0:04:01 | 0:04:08 | |
major exhibit that Clarke came up with was at the Monkey Temple. | 0:04:09 | 0:04:12 | |
Embracing a zoo her theory at the time that animals should see more | 0:04:12 | 0:04:18 | |
outdoors. One little girl who loved the Monkey Temple was Margaret | 0:04:18 | 0:04:22 | |
Woodland. We used to sit on the wall and they were running down. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:26 | |
They could not get out because the walls were very high, but they | 0:04:26 | 0:04:29 | |
would be carrying their babies and they used to get up to some real | 0:04:29 | 0:04:35 | |
tricks. But maybe there would be a way over that high wall. Don Packam, | 0:04:36 | 0:04:39 | |
who eventually became the head keeper, recalls a time when a | 0:04:39 | 0:04:43 | |
prankster put a ladder in the Monkey Temple and all the | 0:04:43 | 0:04:48 | |
inhabitants escaped. There had been 36 when I escapes -- when I left | 0:04:48 | 0:04:58 | |
0:04:58 | 0:04:58 | ||
the previous night. There was nothing there. An elderly lady in | 0:04:58 | 0:05:02 | |
Clifton, who used to take a bath every Sunday afternoon, was lying | 0:05:02 | 0:05:07 | |
in the bath enjoying herself and looked up at the cupboard, heard a | 0:05:07 | 0:05:10 | |
movement and then a monkey looked over the top of the cupboard | 0:05:10 | 0:05:14 | |
because it had got into the bathroom. I was told that she never | 0:05:14 | 0:05:19 | |
took a bath on a Sunday afternoon after that! It was a horrifying | 0:05:19 | 0:05:27 | |
experience for her. In 1930, the zoo's most famous resident, Alfred, | 0:05:27 | 0:05:32 | |
arrived. He was immediately a staff. The only go relay in Europe at the | 0:05:32 | 0:05:38 | |
time. In those days, people were just fascinated. Because you were | 0:05:38 | 0:05:43 | |
only eight feet away, you could smell it. Male gorillas have a | 0:05:43 | 0:05:49 | |
wonderful smile about them. He had the most beautiful brown eyes. You | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
went round to the gates and the first thing you saw was the gorilla | 0:05:52 | 0:05:57 | |
and it just had a huge presence. A Alfred was, by all accounts, quite | 0:05:57 | 0:06:04 | |
a character. My mum used to prepare her best hat and when we got to the | 0:06:04 | 0:06:11 | |
zoo, we had to go and visit Alfred. She decided to get a little bit | 0:06:11 | 0:06:16 | |
closer and he stood up and did an enormous wee all over her hat. It | 0:06:16 | 0:06:23 | |
was dripping off her hat! She went absolutely mad. She grabbed me by | 0:06:23 | 0:06:29 | |
the hands and said, ", on, I have had enough of him". And then we | 0:06:29 | 0:06:36 | |
walked away. Towards the end of the 1930s, with 250 animal species, the | 0:06:36 | 0:06:46 | |
0:06:46 | 0:06:46 | ||
zoo was still gaining popularity. When Hitler started to bomb our | 0:06:46 | 0:06:51 | |
major cities, Bristol and Bristol's restarted to brace themselves. Dark | 0:06:51 | 0:06:59 | |
times lay ahead. -- of Bristol Zoo started to brace themselves. Alfred | 0:06:59 | 0:07:07 | |
is our mascot. Mass got? I will give you mascot! Where is my | 0:07:07 | 0:07:17 | |
0:07:17 | 0:07:24 | ||
At the onset of war, the zoo struggled to find adequate food for | 0:07:24 | 0:07:29 | |
many of its animals. Fish, for instance, were in very short supply. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:35 | |
Initially, in desperation, at the zoo cried horsemeat dipped in cod | 0:07:35 | 0:07:41 | |
liver oil, which, unfortunately he had the effect of killing the seals, | 0:07:41 | 0:07:45 | |
sea-lions and penguins quite rapidly. As the bombs dropped in | 0:07:46 | 0:07:51 | |
the centre of Bristol, the zoo was pretty much unscathed. At the | 0:07:51 | 0:07:55 | |
Bristol Aeroplane Company was not so lucky. Its site in Feltham was | 0:07:55 | 0:08:00 | |
severely damaged. The drawing office staff work relocated to the | 0:08:00 | 0:08:06 | |
zoo pavilion. This man remembers some happy hours spent in the | 0:08:06 | 0:08:12 | |
gardens, especially with Rosie the elephant. People knew about Rosie. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:18 | |
The cigarette smokers would light up a cigarette and blow it right | 0:08:18 | 0:08:23 | |
into her trunk. She would take it and then step back and then she | 0:08:23 | 0:08:29 | |
would trample on her front feet and swing her trunk and blow it up in | 0:08:29 | 0:08:38 | |
the air. I was actually a pipe smoker. Rosie took her up drunk on | 0:08:38 | 0:08:43 | |
the rail and I blew into led to an she stood back and started swinging | 0:08:43 | 0:08:48 | |
her trunk. And then up came her trunk and it went straight from her | 0:08:48 | 0:08:54 | |
face and she blew it all out. Plus a little bit of saliva! She had her | 0:08:55 | 0:09:01 | |
revenge! She was so beautiful. She was absolutely lovely and to climb | 0:09:01 | 0:09:08 | |
up and get into that the seat and then, suddenly, you work rolling | 0:09:08 | 0:09:15 | |
along. Even now, at my age, I still remember it. Alfred, meanwhile, | 0:09:15 | 0:09:23 | |
became world famous. A symbol of resistance. But sadly, the after- | 0:09:23 | 0:09:29 | |
effects of war would haste and Alfred's death. He succumbed to | 0:09:29 | 0:09:32 | |
tuberculosis in 1948 - it is thought through in -- eating | 0:09:32 | 0:09:41 | |
infected meat. I learned of his death on the front page of the | 0:09:41 | 0:09:44 | |
newspaper and I ran all the way down to the zoo and could not | 0:09:44 | 0:09:53 | |
believe it. A lot of children at wed that night. Rosie kept going, | 0:09:53 | 0:09:57 | |
but one hot summer's a day, disaster was to strike. She | 0:09:57 | 0:10:02 | |
collapsed, with 10 children on her back. That was quite an occasion | 0:10:02 | 0:10:07 | |
and from that time, 1947, they reduced the number of rides because | 0:10:07 | 0:10:11 | |
they thought it was too many. staff were beginning to rethink | 0:10:11 | 0:10:15 | |
some of their practices, but Bristol was still very much a | 0:10:15 | 0:10:19 | |
Victorian zoo. Many of the enclosures were still pitifully | 0:10:19 | 0:10:24 | |
small and bare. The big cat and closure meant an enclosure for big | 0:10:24 | 0:10:30 | |
cats. They were appalling. The animal could not run aground. They | 0:10:30 | 0:10:35 | |
were 20 ft long by 15 feet. All I can think his embarrassment that | 0:10:35 | 0:10:40 | |
the zoo ever kept animals like that. But after the war, people needed an | 0:10:40 | 0:10:44 | |
escape from their own tough lives, so visible went into the black for | 0:10:44 | 0:10:48 | |
the first time and visitors were no longer confined to the money's | 0:10:48 | 0:10:56 | |
classes. -- the zoo went into the black. What was expensive becomes | 0:10:56 | 0:11:01 | |
less expensive over the decades. We see the emancipation of the working | 0:11:01 | 0:11:06 | |
classes through Bristol Zoo. didn't go away on holidays, so a | 0:11:06 | 0:11:13 | |
visit to the zoo was very special. There was a big build-up for it. It | 0:11:13 | 0:11:18 | |
was absolutely beautiful. A another youngster who could not wait to get | 0:11:18 | 0:11:23 | |
to the zoo was one of Jeffrey's classmates, a lively young chap | 0:11:23 | 0:11:28 | |
named John. I used to love going to the zoo. When I was at Lifton, we | 0:11:28 | 0:11:33 | |
would walk out of the college, cross the road into the zoo, and | 0:11:33 | 0:11:39 | |
one of the boys in my house's father ran the zoo. I used to love | 0:11:39 | 0:11:46 | |
the little lemur. As a result of that, I did a programme about | 0:11:46 | 0:11:51 | |
lemurs and I now have a lemur named after me, with the name of Avacki | 0:11:51 | 0:11:57 | |
Cleesei, or Cleese's or woolly lemur. The 60s were a time of | 0:11:57 | 0:12:02 | |
rebirth for Bristol Zoo. Fame was on the horizon with television | 0:12:02 | 0:12:09 | |
programmes like The Politics Show, and weird and wonderful animals | 0:12:09 | 0:12:13 | |
like this okapi were imported into the zoo. You could say it was at | 0:12:13 | 0:12:18 | |
the height of its popularity. are not paying the enough for this, | 0:12:18 | 0:12:28 | |
0:12:28 | 0:12:29 | ||
sweetie! Where is my agent? There is nothing like Bristol. It is all | 0:12:29 | 0:12:35 | |
Bristol fashion. Even before The Politics Show, V zoo and Geoffrey's | 0:12:35 | 0:12:40 | |
father had already achieved fame with the BBC series of News From | 0:12:40 | 0:12:45 | |
The Zoos. The cameras were there to capture some very special moment. - | 0:12:45 | 0:12:51 | |
- even before Animal Magic. Many viewers will be wanting to see how | 0:12:51 | 0:12:55 | |
Sebastiaan the polar bear has been getting on. A Sebastien was special | 0:12:55 | 0:12:59 | |
- not just because he was only the second polar bear to be born in | 0:12:59 | 0:13:04 | |
this country, but also because of the pioneering breeding methods. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:09 | |
got the idea of having a heated clubbing dens for the polar bear. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:11 | |
Somebody has measured the temperature within it one of the | 0:13:11 | 0:13:16 | |
clubbing dens in the wild, and it is quite high. By providing be | 0:13:16 | 0:13:20 | |
tutor, that was the very first year but we successfully bred polar | 0:13:20 | 0:13:28 | |
bears. It was post-war baby boom of time - and not just for humans. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:32 | |
Roger the rhinoceros was the first black rhinoceros to be born in this | 0:13:32 | 0:13:39 | |
country. And then there were baby giraffes, lion cubs, and not to | 0:13:39 | 0:13:42 | |
mention new editions literally shipped in from a foreign climes. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:51 | |
It was a very competitive time. We had bred penguins and rhinos, but | 0:13:51 | 0:13:57 | |
the okapi was special. Only the very, very big zoos had it. You had | 0:13:57 | 0:14:03 | |
to be a lead to get it. You had to be highly thought of. -- had to be | 0:14:03 | 0:14:11 | |
eaten. We had to be installed a camera within the okapi Enclosure. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:20 | |
We could make sure that everything And everything was well, she was | 0:14:20 | 0:14:27 | |
fine and we had no problems at all. Despite its small size, Bristol Zoo | 0:14:27 | 0:14:34 | |
really was leading the field. It opened the world's first nocturnal | 0:14:34 | 0:14:38 | |
house, where day and night were reversed. In the nocturnal house | 0:14:38 | 0:14:46 | |
But this was also the end of one era. After Rosie died in 1961 there | 0:14:46 | 0:14:49 | |
were no more elephant rides. But she was replaced by Wendy and | 0:14:49 | 0:14:56 | |
Christina - two very big characters! We used to take them | 0:14:56 | 0:15:00 | |
out every day for a walk. We would take them, usually sticking to more | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
less the same route. People got used to them coming round and quite | 0:15:03 | 0:15:07 | |
often they would pop out with a bit of a titbit for them. As a result | 0:15:07 | 0:15:11 | |
of that, if the people happened to be away or did not come out the | 0:15:11 | 0:15:17 | |
elephants were difficult to move from that particular house. Bristol | 0:15:17 | 0:15:20 | |
Zoo's current senior curator of animals John Partridge was later to | 0:15:20 | 0:15:23 | |
work with the two elephants. He remembers Christina being just a | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
little bit naughty. She was very good at recognising people she did | 0:15:26 | 0:15:29 | |
not like. There was one particular contractor who would come into the | 0:15:29 | 0:15:32 | |
zoo from time to time. We never discovered what he did, or maybe he | 0:15:32 | 0:15:36 | |
never did anything, but she did not like him. She would pick him out | 0:15:36 | 0:15:40 | |
from the crowd, she would find a stone and she would throw stones at | 0:15:40 | 0:15:49 | |
him. Invariably she would hit him Christina and Wendy became the | 0:15:49 | 0:15:54 | |
stars of the brand new children's show Animal Magic. It burst onto TV | 0:15:54 | 0:16:02 | |
I grew up watching Animal Magic, watching Johnny Morris, utterly my | 0:16:02 | 0:16:07 | |
era. Simon Garrett, now head of learning, was inspired by Johnny | 0:16:07 | 0:16:15 | |
Morris. What I like is a grape perhaps. A grape perhaps? Yeah, a | 0:16:15 | 0:16:21 | |
perhaps grape. I remember walking past one of the lake islands one | 0:16:21 | 0:16:24 | |
day and there's Dotty the ring- tailed lemur. I stopped dead in my | 0:16:24 | 0:16:28 | |
tracks and I suddenly thought, I'm working in the place that I saw so | 0:16:28 | 0:16:35 | |
much of growing up through Animal Magic. Then I'm a little old man of | 0:16:35 | 0:16:38 | |
the woods, ain't I? Yes, Henry, a little old man of the woods but | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
there's no need to behave so much like one all of the time. All right | 0:16:42 | 0:16:46 | |
then, I'll be a little old keeper of the woods! | 0:16:46 | 0:16:51 | |
Most people thought that Johnny was actually a keeper in Bristol Zoo. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:54 | |
And indeed he wore a Bristol Zoo uniform. I thought he was the | 0:16:54 | 0:16:58 | |
keeper, wasn't he? As a kid you just thought he was the keeper, | 0:16:58 | 0:17:01 | |
yeah. Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park was a huge fanand maybe | 0:17:01 | 0:17:04 | |
it showed in his oscar-winning film Creature Comforts. Well looked | 0:17:04 | 0:17:10 | |
after, very well looked after. I am not worried about anything. The way | 0:17:10 | 0:17:13 | |
Johnny Morris did those funny voices for the animals, I guess | 0:17:13 | 0:17:16 | |
that was the start of it, really. I was probably unconsciously very | 0:17:16 | 0:17:22 | |
inspired by that, really. It really put Bristol Zoo on the map because | 0:17:22 | 0:17:26 | |
he would often say that he was going to Bristol Zoo. I didn't know | 0:17:26 | 0:17:30 | |
where Bristol was but I always wanted to go there. I always | 0:17:30 | 0:17:35 | |
thought it must be a really special zoo. Do you mind if I come and sit | 0:17:35 | 0:17:42 | |
And it was special. The Animal Magic cameras were there just after | 0:17:42 | 0:17:47 | |
the birth of the first baby gorilla born in a British zoo. Don't you | 0:17:48 | 0:17:50 | |
think you'd better support your baby's head, Delilah? | 0:17:50 | 0:17:53 | |
Look, if you're so blinking clever you look after him, go on. | 0:17:53 | 0:17:58 | |
alright, but only for a moment, Delilah. I say, he's getting quite | 0:17:58 | 0:18:08 | |
Boosted by being on the nations TV screens every week, Bristol Zoo was | 0:18:08 | 0:18:12 | |
more popular than ever before. And then the Severn Bridge opened in | 0:18:12 | 0:18:21 | |
1967 bringing coach loads of I can remember the day when we had | 0:18:21 | 0:18:26 | |
over 35,000 people there. That is more than the zoo gets in a month | 0:18:26 | 0:18:36 | |
0:18:36 | 0:18:38 | ||
Zoos really were going through a bit of a learning curve in the | 0:18:38 | 0:18:42 | |
1970s. The public were not content with just looking at the animals, | 0:18:42 | 0:18:44 | |
they wanted to know about conservation, endangered species, | 0:18:44 | 0:18:51 | |
like these Livingstone fruit bats here. The zoos had to take public | 0:18:51 | 0:18:57 | |
opinion on board but it was not an easy ride. You can say that again! | 0:18:57 | 0:19:07 | |
0:19:07 | 0:19:14 | ||
Look, can I get down now? My wings I thought, you know, some of the | 0:19:14 | 0:19:17 | |
monkeys, they were, they looked miserable because they were in the | 0:19:17 | 0:19:24 | |
cage. And basically that was it. They were on show and they were fed | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
well, they were clean, but it was not really their basic natural | 0:19:27 | 0:19:33 | |
environments. It was an old Victorian zoo, it was the 5th and | 0:19:33 | 0:19:38 | |
still is the 5th oldest zoo in the world. Oldest zoo outside a capital | 0:19:38 | 0:19:42 | |
city. It was beginning to show still those old Victorian bars and | 0:19:42 | 0:19:48 | |
Big changes were ahead. In 1974 when Reg Greed died his son | 0:19:48 | 0:19:53 | |
Geoffrey took over as director of the zoo. He had ideas thinking to | 0:19:53 | 0:19:56 | |
the future that there would no longer be in Clifton, many of the | 0:19:56 | 0:20:00 | |
larger animals that we had. That was difficult at that time to | 0:20:00 | 0:20:03 | |
comprehend that. Because the large animals were the zoo, they were so | 0:20:04 | 0:20:07 | |
much part of the zoo. And Geoffrey Greed embarked on a huge revamp of | 0:20:07 | 0:20:13 | |
the zoo with a building programme which would continue over 30 years. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:17 | |
He actually said, a chunk of the zoo is going to be a building site | 0:20:17 | 0:20:21 | |
but when it is finished it is going to be good, it is going to be very | 0:20:21 | 0:20:25 | |
good. He had the courage and the vision to do that. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
But the changes weren't fast enough for some and in the mid-eighties an | 0:20:28 | 0:20:33 | |
anti-zoo movement started grabbing headlines. Bristol Zoo came under | 0:20:33 | 0:20:36 | |
fire when it rescued a polar bear with mental health problems from a | 0:20:36 | 0:20:42 | |
Unfortunately, when people saw the bear continually pacing, Bristol | 0:20:42 | 0:20:48 | |
zoo got the blame for his condition. It was so disheartening to...mainly | 0:20:48 | 0:20:51 | |
to the keepers who looked after the animal, to all the staff there, | 0:20:51 | 0:20:54 | |
because we had worked so hard on giving options to the bear, giving | 0:20:55 | 0:20:58 | |
something to take his mind off the pacing and over a long period of | 0:20:58 | 0:21:05 | |
time, the bear was getting better and better. While the zoo hadn't | 0:21:05 | 0:21:07 | |
caused the bear's mental condition, the controversy did raise questions | 0:21:07 | 0:21:12 | |
about their enclosure. I did directly reference that polar bear | 0:21:12 | 0:21:17 | |
pit at the time, that compound. It was a horrible bar there of dirty | 0:21:18 | 0:21:22 | |
water. And a painted concrete environment that in a token way | 0:21:23 | 0:21:28 | |
represented the snow, I guess. It probably wasn't that convincing to | 0:21:28 | 0:21:36 | |
the polar bears. My favourite food, I am afraid to say, is steak. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:40 | |
you like lions as well, then? Do you like steaks and chips with | 0:21:40 | 0:21:48 | |
lions with it? Not with lions, Andrew, I do not like lion steak, I | 0:21:48 | 0:21:54 | |
prefer the ordinary steak. I got quite a passionate response from | 0:21:54 | 0:21:57 | |
animal rights people. People coming up to me and shaking | 0:21:57 | 0:22:00 | |
my hand in America, saying thank you, thank you for what you're | 0:22:00 | 0:22:02 | |
doing for animals everywhere. You're stuck in for some reason, | 0:22:02 | 0:22:06 | |
like I am stuck in today. Then yes, you get bored and fed up looking at | 0:22:06 | 0:22:09 | |
the same four walls. It wasn't trying to change anything, | 0:22:09 | 0:22:13 | |
really. I was purely trying to entertain. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:16 | |
When the polar bears eventually died, there would be no more bears | 0:22:16 | 0:22:21 | |
in Clifton. We were not really afraid to | 0:22:21 | 0:22:23 | |
recognise the problem, acknowledge it and do something positive to | 0:22:23 | 0:22:27 | |
make a change. As the new millennium dawned, | 0:22:27 | 0:22:32 | |
Bristol Zoo had to ensure its survival into the new century. It | 0:22:32 | 0:22:36 | |
started building new natural enclosures for its animals. Like | 0:22:36 | 0:22:39 | |
this seal and penguin enclosure here. Not only that, they moved | 0:22:39 | 0:22:41 | |
into ground-breaking projects, veterinary surgery, breeding and | 0:22:41 | 0:22:48 | |
conservation work out there in the wild. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:58 | |
0:22:58 | 0:23:03 | ||
Yes, Terry, it's lovely here. Give With this kind of enclosure the | 0:23:03 | 0:23:07 | |
public can get up close and personal with the animals. | 0:23:07 | 0:23:09 | |
Bristol's current director, Bryan Carroll, it's definitely the way | 0:23:09 | 0:23:14 | |
forward. Rather than having the visitors in | 0:23:14 | 0:23:17 | |
a way outside of the enclosure looking in, we are trying more and | 0:23:18 | 0:23:25 | |
more to immerse the visitor in the environment of the animal. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:30 | |
And more importantly, it's better for the animals. Something the | 0:23:30 | 0:23:32 | |
zoo's very first on-site vet, Sharon Redrobe, heartily approved | 0:23:32 | 0:23:42 | |
0:23:42 | 0:23:43 | ||
You cannot say you are about conservation and then keep animals | 0:23:43 | 0:23:46 | |
in matchboxes. That is not what Bristol does. That is what they | 0:23:46 | 0:23:49 | |
have been doing for the last few years, keeping species that can be | 0:23:49 | 0:23:53 | |
kept on a smaller site very well. Sticking to those ideals, when | 0:23:53 | 0:23:56 | |
Wendy the elephant had to be put down it heralded the end of keeping | 0:23:57 | 0:24:01 | |
most big species here. The decision had been made for some time that | 0:24:01 | 0:24:05 | |
Wendy would be the last elephant to be held in Clifton Gardens. And the | 0:24:05 | 0:24:08 | |
right decision I am sure but never the less quite a difficult one and | 0:24:08 | 0:24:12 | |
the end of another iconic species that no more will be seen in | 0:24:12 | 0:24:19 | |
Clifton. I was determind to be with her right at the end and I was. I | 0:24:19 | 0:24:23 | |
am a very quiet and private person, so I did what I felt I had to do | 0:24:23 | 0:24:32 | |
The few larger species Bristol now holds are there because they're | 0:24:32 | 0:24:39 | |
Like these recently born Asian lions, only around 400 left in the | 0:24:39 | 0:24:49 | |
0:24:49 | 0:24:50 | ||
And then, of course, there's the gorillas. From Alfred's day onwards, | 0:24:50 | 0:24:53 | |
the zoo's been great at keeping and breeding them. When one of the | 0:24:53 | 0:24:56 | |
females, Romina, was refusing to mate, the team felt that cateracts | 0:24:56 | 0:24:59 | |
in her eyes could be to blame. had a sneaky suspicion that maybe | 0:24:59 | 0:25:04 | |
the not mating was partly because she could not see who was there. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:07 | |
And so Bristol scored another world first as Romina underwent surgery | 0:25:07 | 0:25:13 | |
to repair her eyesight. The results were outstanding. Romina had been | 0:25:13 | 0:25:19 | |
bullied by another gorilla - but not now. Salome had had a habit of | 0:25:19 | 0:25:24 | |
throwing fruit at her head. From a distance. And of course Romina did | 0:25:24 | 0:25:28 | |
not know where the fruit was coming from. The minute we opened the gate | 0:25:28 | 0:25:31 | |
and Romina walked through because she could see quite clearly for the | 0:25:31 | 0:25:34 | |
first time in 21 years, Salome ran up to her with an apple, paused, | 0:25:34 | 0:25:37 | |
they looked at each other and Salome slunk off and never did it | 0:25:37 | 0:25:47 | |
0:25:47 | 0:25:50 | ||
again. Within three months she was From the biggest to the tiniest. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:53 | |
Bristol Zoo is helping conserve animals and even bring back extinct | 0:25:53 | 0:25:58 | |
species. We are trying to raise the funds for reintroduction, which | 0:25:58 | 0:26:01 | |
sounds ridiculous, but actually it is a very difficult thing to do and | 0:26:01 | 0:26:07 | |
it is an incredibly important thing to do. It is alarming as you know | 0:26:07 | 0:26:11 | |
how the species are getting wiped out and in many cases now it is | 0:26:11 | 0:26:14 | |
because their habitat is being destroyed. If we do not bring them | 0:26:14 | 0:26:17 | |
somewhere safe and have them bred there, these species could get | 0:26:17 | 0:26:24 | |
wiped out. The zoo is planning a new | 0:26:24 | 0:26:28 | |
conservation park near to Bristol. Here in Clifton, much of the focus | 0:26:28 | 0:26:36 | |
is on education. If we can get a 300 to 500 people on the lawn | 0:26:36 | 0:26:38 | |
watching macaws flying around over their heads, you can see the | 0:26:38 | 0:26:42 | |
excitement in people, you can hear the intake of breath as the macaw | 0:26:42 | 0:26:48 | |
flies just over their heads. At the same time, the commentary | 0:26:48 | 0:26:51 | |
that goes with that is about the destruction of the forest when the | 0:26:52 | 0:26:58 | |
calls come from. He was dropping in those key messages about what | 0:26:58 | 0:27:06 | |
Bristol zoo has changed dramatically throughout its history | 0:27:06 | 0:27:09 | |
but for many it's as magical today as it was for those very first | 0:27:09 | 0:27:19 | |
visitors 175 years ago. You cannot wait to get to the next | 0:27:19 | 0:27:22 | |
thing and when you are told, that is it, you have seen everything, | 0:27:22 | 0:27:26 | |
you want to go round again and see it all again. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:30 | |
It is the only time that human beings put themselves out for the | 0:27:30 | 0:27:32 | |
sake of animals and there is something glorious about it because | 0:27:32 | 0:27:42 | |
0:27:42 | 0:27:43 | ||
it is kind of pointless and yet it There is a huge love and affection | 0:27:43 | 0:27:51 |