Animal Magic - 100 Years of Edinburgh Zoo

Edinburgh Zoo is celebrating its 100th birthday.

When it first opened its gates a century ago,

it unlocked a window onto the wonders of the natural world.

I would love to have been on Corstorphine train station

on that day when 90 animals arrived.

To actually go and see these animals in the flesh

would have been mind-blowing for so many people.

For generations, it has entertained and enthralled.

We came up with our own children about 20 years ago

and we've brought our grandchildren up today.

It all seemed like innocent fun.

But attitudes changed, the world changed.

The zoo had to adapt.

If you're going to have animals,

they had to have more of a purpose than just there to be gawped at.

Today, the zoo is at the centre of a global effort

to help save an endangered species.

Well, look at him. I'm enchanted with him. I'm enchanted every day.

It has evolved over 100 years.

But with more animals than ever facing extinction,

can Edinburgh Zoo make a difference?

And here is one of my personal favourites.

CACOPHONY OF ANIMAL CALLS

Edinburgh Zoo,

where the sounds of the jungle mingle with the dawn chorus.

Behind the scenes, keepers prepare breakfast for over 1,000 animals.

But today is no ordinary day.

For the zoo's most precious residents,

the giant pandas, are ready to mate.

Last bit. I think you've had enough, pal.

In charge of the day-to-day running of the zoo

is Darren McGarry, head of living collections.

I remember visiting Edinburgh Zoo when I was a young child.

I've got lots of photographs of me

when I was here when I was six years old.

I never imagined 10 years later, I would actually be working here.

The koalas are settling in well. They're doing well.

I want to have a look at them, so I'll try and pop round later.

Before the zoo opens, Darren is briefed by his team leaders.

-And the tigers are all right?

-The tigers are OK, yeah.

High on the agenda are the pandas.

Nothing much happened last night, so we'll see what happens today,

but in theory, we could be down there

for the majority of today, maybe tonight.

Hopefully. Okey-dokey. Enjoy the day.

Since the arrival of the giant pandas 18 months ago,

the popularity of the zoo has soared.

Ticket sales are up by over 50%.

The zoo's newest stars vie with the old favourites.

We've come to see the pandas.

-Rhinoceros.

-The pandas.

-Penguins.

-The chimpanzees.

-Koala bears.

-Came to see the pandas.

-The penguin parade.

-The pandas.

-What did we come to see?

-The pandas.

With an annual rental of nearly £650,000,

taking on the pandas was a huge gamble.

But it seems to be paying off.

A £700,000 shortfall has been transformed

into a staggering £1.5 million profit.

A lot of people ask about the weather here.

They reckon it's a bit too cold for pandas, but not at all.

The climate here is very similar to their natural habitat.

So they don't mind this weather at all.

One of the reasons they were chosen to come to Edinburgh was because of our lovely climate.

At least the climate's good for something!

Are they very sociable? I don't know.

-I'm not sure.

-They sleep 16 hours a day,

so I don't know how social you can be when you're asleep all the time.

In the wild, pandas are solitary creatures,

only coming together to mate once a year.

So Yang Guang and Tian Tian

are kept in separate, but adjoining enclosures.

You'll see there's a metal grid just at the top of the hill there on the left-hand side.

That's where the pandas can see each other through,

they can interact through there.

With the mating season, Tian Tian waits very patiently on this side

while Yang Guang comes over and then she just decides to walk away.

So she's a bit of a tease towards him most of the year.

It's not only the public who have fallen for the pandas' charms.

In charge of looking after Tian Tian and Yang Guang's every need

is keeper Alison Maclean.

I suppose pretty incredible to work with, really, on a daily basis.

Well, look at him!

I am enchanted with him.

I am enchanted every day when I see them.

They're so entirely different

from any other big bear species.

They've got a whole different personality around about them.

He's very much a gentle giant.

Tian Tian is a mischievous character.

She does like to play.

She very much knows her own mind.

She's not like him, she's not focused or orientated on her food.

And if she doesn't want to do something, she just won't do it.

Generally with him, as long as we've got food, then he's your best pal.

Nice teeth.

Everyone wants to know - will this be the year they will produce

a cuddly bundle of panda joy?

Well, we would hope to get a baby from both of them.

We know she's a good mum. She has reared before.

And it would be really nice for us to get a youngster from them.

It would be amazing.

If they do produce a cub, not only would it boost visitor numbers,

it would be the first ever baby panda born in the UK.

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Hilltop Safari. My name is Charlie.

While the world waits for news, it's business as usual at the zoo.

We have over 200 different species of animals in Edinburgh Zoo.

And we are primarily a conservation zoo.

To my right is our state-of-the-art chimpanzee enclosure.

In there, you will find 18 chimpanzees.

Fun for all the family.

Don't forget this afternoon at 2:15, the famous Penguin Parade.

A visit to the zoo is all about experiencing

the thrill of getting up close to exotic creatures.

100 years ago, catching sight of rare and exotic animals

was only the preserve of the rich as they toured the empire.

Neither privileged nor wealthy, Edinburgh lawyer Thomas Gillespie

had a fascination for animals that he wanted to share.

"I got the idea that it would be a fine thing

"if the town council would set up an aviary in Princess Street Gardens.

"I mentioned the idea to a dealer in birds I call on very often.

"And he said to me, well, why an aviary only?

"Why don't you think of starting a proper zoo?"

Darren has come to the zoo's library

to find out more about its beginnings.

Helping him sift through the archives

is animal registrar Jo Elliott.

So the very first thing, the society's first specimen here,

which is a gannet,

which came into the society

before the zoo even opened

and was kept by Gillespie in his house.

It was actually a wild animal that crash-landed on Leith Pier

and ended up for some reason at a pet shop, from where he rescued it.

"The gannet was the first specimen we ever received for the zoo.

"It was a young bird blown onto the West Pier at Leith in October 1912.

"It was taken off to an animal dealer in town

"and I bought it there for 18 pence."

Which is obviously why the gannet was used

-in the society's logo very early on.

-Absolutely.

-Because he had this first gannet.

-Yes.

Gillespie founded the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland,

which then persuaded Edinburgh District Council

to purchase the Corstorphine Hill Estate for £17,000.

The stage was set for Edinburgh's new zoo,

but with a grand opening scheduled for the summer of 1913,

finding enough animals was no easy task.

But luckily, he was canny enough to borrow a large private collection.

This is an article from the Scotsman

describing the arrival of these animals.

And it says here

that these animals all arrived on the train from Maidstone

into Corstorphine, 90 head of animals.

Six lions, four bears, a couple of hyenas, some wolves,

four leopards, two camels.

Yeah, a really big collection.

I would love to have been on Corstorphine train station

on that day when 90 animals arrived.

I know today we have got to be very careful

when two or three animals are arriving into the zoo,

but it must have been amazing to see 90 animals

arrive at Corstorphine train station.

And how did they get those from the train station up the hill

-into enclosures?

-Exactly.

-It must have been quite a sight.

-Devotion. It was devotion.

Nerves were undoubtedly frayed

when a lone wolf tunnelled his way to freedom.

But he was quickly recaptured and the zoo duly opened its gates.

It was an instant hit.

Thomas Gillespie really wanted a national zoo

that was open to everybody to come and see.

And he'd had so many people saying to him,

"You'll never build a zoo in Edinburgh. It's too cold.

"The climate's not suitable," or, "People won't want a zoo here."

So it must have been great for him when the zoo eventually opened.

I'm sure it was an exciting day for him.

Gillespie's vision was to display animals in a radical new way

which would be unlike any other British zoo of the time.

This polar bear, he's definitely down

in the original polar bear enclosure

because there's no bars or anything around the top.

Another one here is lions on the original lion rock.

That enclosure was one of the first ones built.

This was a departure from the traditional bars and cages

and reflected Gillespie's desire to create a modern zoo.

Well, Thomas Gillespie had obviously seen a lot of Victorian zoos

where the enclosures were made of heavy bars,

where you would see the animals through cages, through bars.

And so he took a lot of inspiration

from a gentleman called Carl Hagenbeck.

And he had designed a lot of animal enclosures for a new zoo in Hamburg.

And that was where the animals looked much freer

because there wasn't bars in front of them.

The visitors could get up close

and it reminded people of the animals' natural environment.

And Thomas Gillespie wanted to build enclosures in the zoo

that were very much designed like that.

So this enclosure here in Edinburgh Zoo,

which originally held polar bears for many years,

the wall would have been a bit higher

and it would have been surrounded with water.

But the polar bears could lie on the rock at the back there

and people would feel that they were really close to the polar bear.

There'd have been a lot of people

that would never have seen a polar bear in the flesh.

So to come here, to stand right a few metres away from a polar bear

was really exciting for them.

I imagine zoos of the early 19th century

to be fabulous cabinets of curiosity.

Everyone wanted to see these things.

This was the first opportunity they would have had

to have seen things like elephant, tiger, rhino, hippo.

So to actually go and see these animals in the flesh

would have been mind-blowing for so many people.

So they must have played an incredibly important role

in the simple realisation of what life was like

in different parts of the planet,

where you would never have a chance of ever visiting.

It was about sensation, it was about wow!

And people would flock to see them.

There was one animal that pulled in the crowds.

One that no other zoo in the world had ever put on show before.

Penguins.

The zoo is so famous for them that the penguin is now part of its logo.

For five years, Lynda Burrill worked closely with the penguins.

They were the first penguins to ever be in the northern hemisphere.

Nobody had any idea what they looked like, how they behaved,

anything about them.

So this was their first opportunity to see them.

It must have been pretty amazing for them.

The man responsible for bringing the first penguins

halfway around the globe was Lord Salvesen,

whose family owned the huge shipping dynasty, Christian Salvesen.

It's one of the things that's always talked about.

We're 100 years on and we're still saying thank you to Christian Salvesen for what they did.

They were based in Edinburgh, they wanted to support the zoo.

This was the way that they could do it.

The company's whaling fleet operated out of Leith Docks

and regularly voyaged to the South Atlantic.

On South Georgia, the whalers encountered

vast colonies of penguins.

When the crew set sail for Edinburgh,

amongst their cargo were three seals and six penguins.

Gifts for the zoo.

But it was by no means certain these creatures would survive

the 8,000-mile journey north.

They had to go through the equator. They had to go through hot places.

How they managed to keep them alive, I really don't know.

I mean, nowadays, when we move penguins,

we're moving them in a temperature-controlled environment.

We keep it cool. We recommend about six-degrees centigrade,

whether they're going by road or by plane.

Now, obviously, that wasn't something they could do in 1914, 1915.

They took a stock of dried fish with them

to feed the penguins on the way back.

And what they also did is stopped on their way to kill some sharks,

which they then fed to the penguins.

It was a tremendous achievement

to actually get them here in one piece and for them to be alive.

It was really amazing.

Visitors fascinated by these strange aquatic birds flocked to the zoo.

They are like no other birds. They're just so different.

They're so interesting, they're so inquisitive.

They're quite gregarious. They do enjoy each other's company.

And also they're not that particularly bothered about humans.

So I'm sure they would have been quite willing

to come up to people and do things like that,

which would have been an amazing experience for people to get that close to an animal

that they've never seen before on this side of the equator.

They're unbelievably comical to watch.

You can stand and watch them for hours

and they're always doing something and they're always active.

And they really do interact with each other and with the keepers

in a very comical and interesting way.

They're just amazing. There is no other type of bird like this

you can get this relationship with

in the same way as keepers, that we can with these individuals.

The penguins are as popular as ever.

And one tradition that still delights...

..the Penguin Parade.

# Do the funky penguin

# Do it right now

# Do the funky penguin

# Do it right now, listen...

There was a keeper that left a gate open by accident

and turned around and there was a load of penguins behind him.

So that's where the Penguin Parade started.

# Do the funky penguin

# Do it right now

# Do the funky penguin

# Make it funky now.

In the early days, marching penguins would venture beyond the zoo gates,

right into the heart of Edinburgh.

# Did you hear me?

# Did you hear me?

# Did you hear me?

# Won't you do the funky penguin?

# Do it right now. #

62 years later, the parade still pulls in the punters.

Enjoy the rest of your afternoon here at Edinburgh Zoo. Thank you.

During the 1920s and '30s, the animal population increased.

The zoo grew from strength to strength.

But all that was about to change.

SIREN SOUNDS

When war was declared in 1939,

Thomas Gillespie had to make some difficult decisions.

Destroyed, destroyed.

Destroyed.

There was a lot of public concern

venomous snakes might escape should a bomb hit.

You can see here that things like the copper-headed snakes

and the black-necked cobras, they were all destroyed

at the start of the war to prevent any escapes.

Which was quite common in a lot of zoo collections during the war.

There was lots of animals destroyed.

Armed guards were stationed by the more dangerous animals

should a stray bomb liberate them.

The zoo was hit - twice.

Incredibly, the only casualties were a dozen budgies and a chimpanzee.

But as war progressed, it was a lack of food

that caused the greatest impact.

With no fresh fish, the penguin population was decimated.

King penguins, the Gentoos and the rockhoppers died out completely.

Some animals were called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice.

A lot of the pigs were sold to the Ministry of Food.

And we see that repeated again and again.

-Food would have been a requirement.

-Yeah.

There's quite a lot of pigs disappearing off to the Ministry of Food.

Something here that's quite interesting,

we can only wonder what it means exactly,

but there's a Muscovy duck killed during the wartime.

And it says, "Killed for Mr Gillespie."

So one would assume Mr Gillespie had a party in the zoo in the night

and needed something to feed his guests on.

Despite the difficulties, the zoo scraped through the war years.

When peace finally came in 1945,

it was the presence of one Polish war veteran

that drew crowds back to Edinburgh Zoo.

Wojtek, a Syrian bear adopted as a cub

by a Polish regiment in North Africa during the war.

Raised by the soldiers,

Private Wojtek enjoyed a beer

and a wrestle, like the rest of troops.

He also carried ammunition to the front line.

When Wojtek was demobbed, he found a new home at Edinburgh Zoo.

But wartime losses had hit the zoo hard.

Once more, Thomas Gillespie was on the hunt for more animals.

It was about having the most exotic species they possibly could get.

The biggest, the most fierce.

The more weird, the more wonderful it would have been.

Zoo records show new arrivals were coming in thick and fast.

Among the names of people supplying Edinburgh Zoo

was a young animal collector, Gerald Durrell.

Durrell would become influential as conservationist,

writer and broadcaster.

But as a young man, he travelled around Africa and South America

collecting animals for British zoos.

The way zoos in those days received animals

was to purchase them from collectors.

And Gerry, his first expedition was 1947.

All he ever wanted to do with his life

was to do something with animals and to travel to exotic places.

He thought, "I can combine those things if I become an animal collector."

Back in those days, that is how zoos got their animals.

The collectors would go out,

bring the animals back by ship and they'd go into Liverpool Docks

and the zoo directors of the day would be waiting on the docks

for all these animals to be displayed.

And there was almost a bidding war for these wonderful creatures.

This was just the norm.

Animals were bought and sold and collected from the wild.

At this time, it was perfectly acceptable

to pluck animals from the wild.

Nature seemed limitless, there for the taking.

The possibility it could disappear was never even considered.

For Thomas Gillespie, the purpose of the zoo

was to bring the wild to the masses.

To amaze and to inspire.

When he retired in 1950, his vision had been fully realised.

"One species, Homo sapiens, is seen in greater numbers during summer

"than in any other season of the year."

People flocked in their thousands for a grand day out.

"Supplying and receiving fish is a combined operation

"between keeper and diner."

Post-war austerity gave way to prosperity of the '50s and '60s.

The zoo never had it so good.

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Hilltop Safari. My name is Charlie.

Coming up on the right, Taiwanese beauty snakes.

And the left, the binturongs, Asiatic bearcats.

It's great for all the family...

Hilltop Safari tour guide Charlie Hewat

fell in love with the zoo as a child in the 1950s.

In those days, we had trams, double-decker trams.

And they stopped at the zoo.

They stopped right outside the metal gate saying, "Zoo Park."

Wonderful! We're going to the zoo.

Run up the steps, so exciting.

# Zoo, zoo, zoo We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo... #

And it was wonderful.

# See the elephant with the long trunk swinging

# Great big ears and a long trunk swinging... #

At that time, a visit to the zoo

wasn't complete without an elephant ride.

And in the '50s, one of the zoo's biggest stars was Sally.

# We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo. #

She used to have this large howdah on her back

with the children strapped on either side.

They would sit sideways, rather like an Irish jaunty car.

She would go along there and back.

I think it was a shilling a ride.

That fascination never left the young Charlie.

And it would draw him back years later.

I remember my father saying,

"You don't want to be a damn keeper all your life."

Actually, I did.

In the early '60s, he could be seen

proudly leading the camels through the zoo.

This is my old zoo scrapbook.

We've got a picture of me in the centre wearing my full uniform.

Britches, leather leggings and boots, which we supplied ourselves.

By the 1960s, visitors were coming in droves.

The new zoo director Gilbert Fisher added a touch of showmanship.

Often seen out strolling with Scrappy, a four-year-old cheetah.

Scrappy was put on a leash every day and was walked around the zoo.

She was also taken out on Corstorphine Road by Gilbert Fisher.

Until one day, a motorbike passed and backfired.

Scrappy took off.

She took off at quite a speed. It gave him quite a fright.

But Fisher's showmanship had a purpose.

He wanted to inspire and educate the next generation of visitors.

He opened a miniature farm within the zoo

where children could feed and touch the animals.

It was a great success.

But the biggest draw remained one of the old favourites.

Here's a picture of dear Sally in 1964.

Sally didn't take to people very easily.

If she didn't like you, she would

get a hold of the brush with her trunk, pull it in and break it.

But after a fortnight, she got to know me and was very affectionate.

She was a very intelligent elephant.

Sally was allowed to open the back door,

which was extremely heavy.

Then she started to shut it when I was cleaning her out.

And I thought, "Not quite ready yet."

And she banged on the door.

With animal stars pulling in the crowds, the zoo was the place to be.

It was colourful, exciting, exotic.

It was all about entertainment.

And most crowd-pleasing of all was the chimps' tea party.

"Of all park mealtimes, it is the chimpanzees' tea party

"that draws the greatest crowds.

"Where lack of table manners is part of the show.

"Little chimpanzees, unlike little children,

"are expected to misbehave themselves at the tea table.

"And some are disappointingly polite.

"You see, animals usually are."

One of the stars was Cindy.

40 years on, she still lives at the zoo.

The last surviving tea party chimp.

Cindy is the oldest of 18 chimpanzees

living in the Budongo enclosure.

Looking after them is keeper, Sophie Pearson.

Cindy's been here a long time.

And she's seen a lot of changes in the zoos

and she's also bonded to people very closely

because she's been here so long.

So there's been keepers in the zoo that she will know their faces

from years and years and years ago, from when she was young.

Cindy was taken from the wild

and joined Edinburgh Zoo's tea-party chimps towards the end of the 1960s.

They only ever used baby chimpanzees in these tea parties

because an adult chimpanzee just isn't handleable.

Far too strong, far too volatile.

And so these babies were very much kind of humanised

and treated as a pet, or even like a child.

Hand-rearing chimpanzees made them easier to handle and train.

They were treated like little furry humans.

The chimps were dressed up and had a little tea party

in front of an audience of visitors.

The chimps might have been having a great time,

especially if they were with other chimps and they got nice food

and they got to dress up and play. Chimps like to do that.

But I don't think it was the correct way to work with chimpanzees

and to keep chimps in a captive environment.

Until the late 1960s,

very little was known about chimpanzees in the wild.

It was only when a young researcher, Jane Goodall,

studied a group of wild chimps in Tanzania

that the complexities of how they lived

and behaved began to be revealed.

And it was a world away from how they were kept in the zoo.

No-one really thought about what happens to that chimp

after it's too old to be used in a tea party.

What happens to a chimpanzee when it's eight, ten years old,

it can't be handled, it's way too big, way too aggressive.

And that animal has an association with humans

which it can no longer have.

And psychologically, that has to have a negative impact on a chimp

that then has to be put into a cage, or in an exhibit with other chimps,

where before it used to be able to hang out with people all the time.

It was clear the zoo needed to change its ways.

"One man everyone meets sooner or later

"is the senior game warden, Roger Wheater."

In 1972, Roger Wheater came from Uganda's largest nature reserve

to take the reins at Edinburgh Zoo.

I spent a lot of time with the wild animals.

As I like to say, I came out of the wild

into the captivity of Edinburgh Zoo.

And I moved from 5,000 square miles

to 75 acres on Corstorphine Hill.

So it was kind of quite a change.

But nevertheless, a very, very fascinating time

to come into the zoo world.

People were questioning a lot as to where we should be going.

One of the first things Roger tackled was the welfare of the chimps.

But it emerged there was an even darker truth

behind the way the chimps were collected from the wild.

The reality of young chimpanzees in zoos was that probably,

their parents and others had been killed

in order to obtain them in the wild.

And that was just not acceptable.

The chimpanzee tea parties stopped

because it wasn't the right thing to be doing.

For a newly-appointed zoo director

to call time on the tea parties after 40 years

was a bold statement of intent.

The decision to choose ethics and animal welfare over entertainment

signalled a dramatic change of direction.

With the knowledge of how wild groups of chimps lived,

Edinburgh Zoo set about improving

the quality of life for their own chimps.

Out went the small concrete cells,

in came a larger, more natural enclosure.

Out went cups of tea...

..in came scatter-feeding.

I've just got pipes here and we've made up some porridge and water to put in them.

Chimpanzees in the wild spend a lot of their day foraging.

So anything that gets them working, gets them thinking

and also if we can integrate natural behaviours in that,

so we might give them something where they need to use a stick

in order to get food out

or maybe they'll need to bang something against a wall

to dislodge some food.

It's mimicking a similar type of behaviour they might do in the wild.

Today, the chimps live in a large enclosure

where they can wander between outdoor and indoor areas.

But this is still a zoo.

And the challenge it faces is getting the balance right

between the needs of the animals

and satisfying the money-paying public.

Towards the end of the 1970s,

Roger Wheater was confronted with a moral dilemma

that went to the very heart of what the zoo was all about.

"A zoo isn't a zoo without elephants.

"For as long as anyone can remember, Edinburgh Zoo has had at least one.

"Every morning, while the rest of us are still waking up,

"14lbs of cabbages, 16 of turnips are on their way to Sally,

"the biggest Indian elephant ever kept in a zoo."

For decades, Sally had been a firm favourite at the zoo.

In 1976, she was joined by a younger elephant, Dali.

But Roger had reservations about having elephants in his zoo.

Having worked with elephants in the wild for many years,

I was very keen on them

and recognised that this situation was not good.

Because a lot of the old zoo ideas were two by two by two,

whereas in fact, that's not how the animals work in the wild.

They are social animals.

There is the security and the socialising

that goes on in a biggish group of animals.

Elephants are herd animals that roam over thousands of miles.

Roger became increasingly concerned about the odd behaviour

of the younger of the two elephants, Dali.

"She's known as the agoraphobic elephant.

"Afraid of open spaces.

"Her front two legs are fine,

"but she always keeps her hind legs firmly behind the threshold."

No-one could explain Dali's strange phobia.

But for four years, she steadfastly refused to leave her enclosure.

In 1980, Sally died.

It was only then the agoraphobic Dali finally overcame her fear.

And at that point, Dali came out backwards into the compound.

But Dali would be Edinburgh Zoo's last ever elephant.

In 1989, Roger decided to send her to a safari park

where she would be with other elephants.

I decided it was quite wrong to keep a social animal as a singleton.

And we put a fibreglass elephant at the entrance gate

with a little note saying,

"This is why we don't keep elephants, because we can't.

"We don't have the space or the finances

"to keep a big group of elephant,

"which is how they live in the wild."

A lot of my colleagues said, "You can't have a zoo without elephants."

And I beg to differ.

I said, "You shouldn't have a zoo if you can't keep elephants properly."

It was another defining moment in the zoo's history

when animal welfare was put before commercial interests.

The story of Edinburgh Zoo, like all other zoos,

had been about collecting animals

for the sole purpose of giving people a fun day out.

But the times were changing.

Trade in wild animals was now strictly controlled.

Some questioned the morality of keeping animals captive.

The very concept of a zoo was under attack.

To survive, their mission would have to be more than just entertainment.

Beyond the gates, there was a growing global crisis.

The very animals zoos had collected were now under threat.

But instead of being part of the problem,

the zoo could become part of the solution.

Now, just look at that.

This is a catalogue of animals

that are liable to become extinct in the foreseeable future.

Look at the thickness of it.

The greater the number of species that become extinct,

the closer, in fact, we come to extinction.

As a young man, Gerald Durrell had been an animal collector for zoos.

But it was during his later expeditions into the wild

that he realised something was terribly wrong.

"Six months ago, this feeding ground must have been thick forest.

"But now they find this.

"Vast areas have been cleared,

"and sometimes they leave pockets of jungle

"not big enough to support the animals left trapped in them."

I often heard him say he'd go back

to a place where he'd collected before

and it just wasn't the same.

The forests were not there.

He witnessed over-exploitation, loss of habitat.

There were fewer animals,

he had to go further into the bush to find any animals.

It was just human beings encroaching

and growing and taking over wild places.

Durrell was one of the earliest voices to raise the alarm.

He believed zoos could offer some hope.

Gerry published a book that he called, The Stationary Ark.

And in it, he set forth his ideas,

and ideas that were now coming to the fore,

about how zoos really could be an aide to species' survival.

With more animals being pushed closer to extinction,

the idea emerged that zoos could be a safety net.

They would breed animals co-operatively,

globally, building a sanctuary from extinction.

Captive breeding took Edinburgh Zoo in a new direction.

If you were going to have animals in, they had to have more of a purpose

than just there to be gawped at.

Now, most zoo animals are bred in captivity,

not plucked from the wild.

Today, there are much more managed captive-breeding programmes

and we work with lots of colleagues in Europe.

Most of our keeping staff

are spending a lot of time looking at the conservation

of the animals that we keep here in the zoo.

And they're actually really involved in the whole management of a species.

"The secrets of breeding penguins in captivity are experience

"and dedication to the job.

"For instance, when a chick hatches out in hot, dry weather,

"it tends to stick to the shell,

"which has to be removed with great care

"to avoid rupturing the skin.

"This one did start to bleed, but survived."

Captive breeding in zoos

has become a vital tool in preserving endangered species.

Northern rockhoppers are actually endangered out in the wild now.

So the individuals that we have here are unbelievably precious -

not just to us, but to the species as a whole.

We're so lucky to have them here

and they really are an interesting species to work with.

Another of the zoo's early captive breeding successes

was with the near-extinct scimitar-horned oryx.

These zoo babies would go on to play a starring role

in a hugely-ambitious plan

to reintroduce zoo-bred animals to the wild.

The thinking behind reintroduction

was quite simply that it must be good practice

to have a reservoir of animals

that might one day go back to a wild situation.

Reintroduction was the Holy Grail of the conservation movement.

In 1985, the oryx, born and raised in Edinburgh,

were successfully returned to the hills of Tunisia.

This is a marvellous story

of how zoos can co-operatively breed

and actually put something back.

This animal has now actually gone back to the wild.

It seemed that zoos had the perfect solution.

But it became clear that until the source of the problem was tackled,

reintroduction alone would be futile.

You can breed all the animals you like in captivity,

but if there's no habitat out there for them, you can't put them back.

If the threats to them, because they're being killed,

are still there, you can't put them back.

In China in 2006, the first ever captive-bred giant panda

was released into the wild.

But ten months later, he was found dead

after a fight with wild pandas.

A second was released nine months ago.

So far, he's survived.

Since Gerald Durrell and a handful of others

first voiced their concerns,

the conservation of endangered species

has become one of the most pressing issues of our time.

Edinburgh Zoo chief executive Chris West

believes his zoo can make a difference.

There's one end, really,

and that's securing a future for endangered species.

I tend to think of zoos

increasingly as little islands of species

that are dying out in the wild.

And we can just keep them in being

so that at some point in the future,

if we can come to our senses and restore and protect enough habitat,

they can go back out.

Reintroducing large mammals to the wild may be a distant dream.

But what zoos can do today

is play a vital role in preserving endangered species.

And right now, Edinburgh Zoo

is hoping to breed a giant icon of the conservation movement.

Pandas in captivity are tough.

They are inordinately expensive to keep.

And as a consequence of that, they've got to get them to breed.

And notoriously, this is a species that's not very good at breeding.

Few have been born in western zoos.

But the Chinese have mastered the art of panda breeding.

This is amazing!

Oh! They are so sweet! Look at them!

On a recent visit, Alison learnt some of their secrets.

They're tiny.

It's quite incredible to see

because there's, like 16, 17 baby pandas all moving about together.

It's amazing! They're so sweet!

Working closely with the Chinese,

Edinburgh Zoo now hopes to emulate their success.

We all work together.

And the main aim is the conservation of this iconic species.

And realistically, if we can't conserve and save the giant panda,

then, you know, we'll struggle with everything else.

But giant pandas are only fertile for 36 hours a year.

Edinburgh's head vet Simon Girling

is responsible for making sure the moment isn't missed.

Because of the very short window

that we have for Tian Tian coming into heat,

we are monitoring her through collecting urine samples

that she passes each morning and afternoon

and looking at the oestrogen levels,

the reproductive hormone levels within the urine.

And that will give us a very, very good fine-tuning

of when she's coming into heat.

If they get it right, the zoo will hit the jackpot.

A baby panda would not only help an endangered species,

but it could help spread the zoo's conservation message.

It would be tremendous.

The opportunity for us to attract more people

and convert them, if you like,

to being conservationists, would be that much greater.

So for lots of reasons, it would be wonderful.

The fact that it's a centenary year,

and it would be the cherry on the icing on the cake.

It's April.

Finally, the news everyone has been waiting for.

Hormone tests reveal Tian Tian is in heat.

With only 36 hours, the clock is ticking.

They will now cautiously bring the pandas together.

They are carnivores.

Although they eat bamboo, they are nonetheless carnivores

and it can be quite aggressive.

So there's a degree of apprehension about how that will go.

They may look cute, but the potential for hostility

means the introductions have to done carefully.

Yang Guang is allowed to enter Tian Tian's inner enclosure.

While she is kept behind a grill next door.

He must now wait until she is ready.

He waits...

..and waits.

And waits.

While Yang Guang is ready and willing,

Tian Tian shows no interest.

"The pandas at Edinburgh Zoo still haven't mated,

"despite strong signs they were ready earlier this week."

With the stakes so high and time running out,

the last hope is artificial insemination.

A new chapter in the zoo's history is about to be written.

For the first time ever in the UK,

a giant panda will be artificially inseminated here at Edinburgh Zoo.

Tian Tian is brought into the theatre.

This is an international effort.

Simon, Alison and their teams

are joined by panda experts flown in from China and Germany.

Knocking out any animal carries risks.

But when the patient is a precious panda,

the pressure mounts.

An ultrasound scan reveals Tian Tian

has ovulated a single egg earlier that day.

The team have timed it perfectly.

Dawn breaks on a new day at the zoo.

But the nation will have to wait several months

to find out if a new star will be born.

In the 100 years since Edinburgh Zoo came into being,

it has enchanted millions.

Its founder Thomas Gillespie wanted to share his love for the wild

by bringing it to the masses.

Since then, the world has changed.

The zoo has had to adapt.

But what hasn't changed is the passion of the people involved.

We've all got that common purpose. We love animals.

It's not like a nine-to-five job

where you turn up, do something and go home.

We'll stay here as long as the animals need us.

A lot of people think they're just in here doing a job,

but it's not, it's a passion and a vocation.

It's that passion the zoo wants to instil in its visitors today.

It's the power of the panda to capture the public's imagination

and pull in the crowds that is the zoo's most potent weapon

in the conservation battle.

So we are about to be joined by our next animal today,

who will be running on from the side.

So this is Dylan. And Dylan is a three-banded armadillo.

When I stand in zoos now, I look at the kids that are there

and I think to myself, "If one, just one of these kids comes in this year

"and they go up to the glass and they put their hands on the glass

"and a tiger comes and puts its nose there

"and they have a passion ignite so explosively, like mine did,

"then maybe, you know, the tiger's done its job

"and the zoo's done its job that year."

Because they'll want to spend the rest of their life

looking after animals.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd