We Brought a Zoo

The day we moved Bobby and to see him run freely on grass for the first time, it made us think this is what we want to do. This is where, you know, we're going to change our lifestyle from being bus and coach company to looking after animals. [Music] >> How's that then, Bobby? Good place for a Bobby boy. Bobby was already here when we acquired the site which at the time was born Zoo. We got to a stage we went for a change. We we' done most of the things within that industry. You know, we built new depots, built new coaches, and I think we just we just felt we needed something different. Bit of a challenge when you go into something that you don't know anything about whatsoever. And the place at the time, you couldn't really describe it as a zoo or wildlife park. It was more more like a scrapyard, a rubbish dump. And when we first applied for the license, the licensing people came down. They basically gave us 18 months to make the place look and act and so we could meet the requirements of the zoo license. Most of the animals are in pretty poor condition or in poor facilities. You'd have things like you'd have chimpanzees sitting on seats smoking cigarettes and it was entertainment rather than a conservation breeding center. There was also like animal rights people outside the front gates with banners and placards. When we were sort of seriously thinking of taking over the site, [Music] we had to make a decision. We realized that financially we couldn't do everything. We couldn't run a bus and coach and travel business. We couldn't try and build a wildlife park or a zoo. And this is why I think we decided that the zoo, the animals, the welfare, that was a new aim for us, new targets to aim for. And I think that's what drove us on. >> The animal that really drove us on was the lion. I think he was the icon. He was a special one. The first thing for us was to either rehome him or build him what we felt was a purpose-built enclosure. And I don't like to say the word cage, but it was more like a small prison, possibly 10, 15 ft square, made of old scaffold pole, had an old tilt over the top. There was no proper house for him to sleep in. Nice enclosure for him to run in. and he'd lived in that as far as I can aware all his life. >> When we built that enclosure, we utilized our own staff. None of them had worked in with wildlife or zoos, coach drivers or fitters in our workshops or welders, even office workers. And they all rallied around evenings, weekends, days off. We had to get Bobby into this big carrying crate that we'd made. We put him on a little trailer. We drove in on the back of the trailer with an old tractor across. We built the new house. We We got the carrying crate into the new house. We released Bobby into the house. And I think the the great thing was when we lifted the hatch of the house to let him come out into the new enclosure to see his face, you know, appear through the hatch and then sort of gingerely walk on grass for the first time. It was uncertain what it was. It was almost like what is this? But he soon sort of after hour or less than an hour or so sort of acclimatized himself to it. And just to stand there and watch him run round, he's never been a run before. >> That is something special. >> Giving that lion the opportunity, Bobby, just to feel not free as such, but as near to free as we could make it. Bobby boy >> and um that will stay worse forever that memory. [Music] [Music]