Talk to the animals…

We're a great fan of experiences and so earlier in the year had arranged for the the girls to get presents of a half day zookeeper experience at Edinburgh Zoo. We’d heard stories that it could be quite fun but we still weren’t really sure what to expect, so we just followed instructions and duly arrived with wellies and facemasks on  early on a Saturday morning ready to see what the animals could throw at us (apparently Covid restrictions have only just stopped for zoos!). It had taken quite a few months to get a booking so it was clearly quite popular, and we sat waiting in the entrance lobby quietly excited.

Their zoopkeeper guide was called Hannah, and she quickly explained the running order and equally quickly it became obvious that this was a zookeeping experience for the girls, and that Tanya and I were somewhat superfluous, mainly there to hold the coats so to speak. The girls were going to be working with their very own big five – red panda, meerkats, opossum, hairy armadillo and then a grand finale of feeding the penguins. There’d be some mucking out to do, some mucking in to help feed and train, and then a little bit of mucky play thrown in. Needless to say they loved it!! The whole experience was really, really well done and really, really hands on. And then with the rest of the day to look round the zoo (my personal highlights being the cheetah and chimpanzees), all in all it was a top-rated day out, really educational and fun. Thanks to all who contributed to the experience and special thanks to Hannah the zookeeper for being spot on in her approach and managing to get an unsure Niomi to feed the penguins.

Zookeepers!!

Instructions from Hannah

Bruce, the red panda

Mucking out

Training

On lookout duty

Loving the zoolife

With the hairy armidillo

Feeding time

A fishy tale

Videoclip: Zookeepers

Or you can watch the video here

How apt

Our closest relative