From left: a tapir and Tyler, Aaron and Cam Whitnall at Hertfordshire Zoo.Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The GuardianView image in fullscreenFrom left: a tapir and Tyler, Aaron and Cam Whitnall at Hertfordshire Zoo.Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The GuardianZoos‘My daughter just loves you’: stars of One Zoo Three have high hopes for HertfordshireAaron, Tyler and Cam Whitnall aim to make family-owned zoo a conservation leader ‘up there with Chester’Alexandra ToppingSun 20 Apr 2025 15.07 CESTLast modified on Sun 20 Apr 2025 21.37 CESTShareOutside the enclosure, eager visitors jostle for a glimpse of the rare Asiatic lions Sahee and Sonika,HertfordshireZoo’s newest residents. The beasts yawn imperiously in the sun, every twitch of their tails sparking an excited murmur.But when Aaron, Tyler and Cam Whitnall are spotted, the animals are instantly forgotten. The stars of children’sBBCprogramme One Zoo Three, are tenderly, but relentlessly, mobbed. “We got up at 5am to drive here,” explains one delighted, if bleary-eyed dad. “My daughter just loves you.”She is not the only one. The three brothers have become stars of children’s TV since the first series about their lives on their family zoo aired in 2000. But four decades after their grandparents bought “the worst zoo in the UK”, they have their sights on becoming a world-leading conservation organisation.“We want to be a beacon of hope here,” says Tyler, the middle brother, recovering from the adoration with a cup of tea in Zoo HQ. “One day we want to be known as the best zoo in the UK, up there with Chester, and a leader in terms of education, wildlife conservation, sustainability. We literally want to be at the top.”It’s a big ambition. Hertfordshire Zoo is small, even by UK standards, with about 1,000 animals across 16 acres – by comparison, Chester has at least 37,000 animals over its 128-acre site. But as the home of One Zoo Three, its footprint in the online world and children’s imaginations is outsized – and its presence on the global stage is growing.“We’ve got our fingers in every pie,” says Cameron, the youngest of the brothers, who admits to finding it a “bit awkward” when mums approach him about the show in the pub.Birth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’Read moreThe trio rolled out their fifth season of One Zoo Three last year, and the corporationadded the show to BBC Bitesize, its educational offering for schools. On the conservation front, the zoo has recentlyprotected penguins in South Africa, releasedrehabilitated lions back into the wildin Uganda and broughtfive traumatised lions from the war zone in Ukraineto their sister site theBig Cat Sanctuaryin Kent. It is also moving into research and preservation, recently signing a deal withNature’s Safe, a wildlife biobank to cryopreserve skin and semen samples.In the Easter holidays the busy zoo – with its colourful information boards, rammed play parks and regular talks – is a far cry from the bleak site that Peter and Grace Sampson, the brothers’ grandparents, bought in 1984 to build a depot for their successful coach company.It looked “as if a hurricane had gone through it” says the boys’ mother and zoo chief executive Lynn Whitnall. Animals were living in inhumane conditions. Footage from the old zoo shows a chimp dressed in human clothes, with a chain around its neck, smoking a cigarette. Its main attraction, alion called Bobby, was kept in a small enclosure with a corrugated iron roof and had never felt grass under his feet.Plans for the depot went out of the window. “The love of the animals took over,” says Lynn. After closing for 18 months and pulling in favours from coach drivers and mechanics to build new enclosures, the zoo was given a licence and opened as Paradise Park and Woodland Zoo in Easter 1986.“People weren’t really all that supportive, especially within the zoo profession,” says Aaron. “They kind of saw the family as outsiders.”skip past newsletter promotionSign up toDown to EarthFree weekly newsletterThe planet’s most important stories. Get all the week’s environment news – the good, the bad and the essentialEnter your email addressSign upPrivacy Notice:Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see ourPrivacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the GooglePrivacy PolicyandTerms of Serviceapply.after newsletter promotionBirth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’Read moreMany of the original animals had been rescued from closing circuses, and the family pulled every business lever from hospitality to animal petting to fund new habitats. After decades of investment and supporting conservation projects, the zoo’s reputation has “come a full 180”, he says. “Since Covid, we’ve had more zoo directors and important people from within the world of conservation visit us than we did in the 20 years before.”By any reckoning, growing up on site at the zoo gave the brothers an extraordinary childhood. When Cam, the youngest, got in a grump he would go and sit with the monkeys. Aaron slept with a rescued lioness cub who had been rejected by her family for several months. “We wouldn’t do it now, but after hours we would just go and sit in with the meerkats or the porcupines or the tapirs in the evenings,” says Cam.Those moments fired their passion to share a love of wildlife – either through experiences in the zoo, through the show or in their hyperactive social media output, says Tyler.At a moment when vast swathes of natural habitats are beingdestroyed by human development and the climate crisis– according to the most recent figures,wildlife populations have plungedby an average of 69% between 1970 and 2018. The brothers admit to a heavy feeling of responsibility, but argue that showing what good zoos can do – and making kids laugh, care and have hope – is critical to the conservation fight.“The way we’ve grown up is getting close to animals, that’s how we’ve fallen in love with them,” he says. “Sharing the wonder of wildlife is our slogan for a reason.”Explore more on these topicsZoosHertfordshireBBCCBBCConservationAnimalsfeaturesShareReuse this content
From left: a tapir and Tyler, Aaron and Cam Whitnall at Hertfordshire Zoo.Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The GuardianView image in fullscreenFrom left: a tapir and Tyler, Aaron and Cam Whitnall at Hertfordshire Zoo.Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The GuardianZoos‘My daughter just loves you’: stars of One Zoo Three have high hopes for HertfordshireAaron, Tyler and Cam Whitnall aim to make family-owned zoo a conservation leader ‘up there with Chester’Alexandra ToppingSun 20 Apr 2025 15.07 CESTLast modified on Sun 20 Apr 2025 21.37 CESTShareOutside the enclosure, eager visitors jostle for a glimpse of the rare Asiatic lions Sahee and Sonika,HertfordshireZoo’s newest residents. The beasts yawn imperiously in the sun, every twitch of their tails sparking an excited murmur.But when Aaron, Tyler and Cam Whitnall are spotted, the animals are instantly forgotten. The stars of children’sBBCprogramme One Zoo Three, are tenderly, but relentlessly, mobbed. “We got up at 5am to drive here,” explains one delighted, if bleary-eyed dad. “My daughter just loves you.”She is not the only one. The three brothers have become stars of children’s TV since the first series about their lives on their family zoo aired in 2000. But four decades after their grandparents bought “the worst zoo in the UK”, they have their sights on becoming a world-leading conservation organisation.“We want to be a beacon of hope here,” says Tyler, the middle brother, recovering from the adoration with a cup of tea in Zoo HQ. “One day we want to be known as the best zoo in the UK, up there with Chester, and a leader in terms of education, wildlife conservation, sustainability. We literally want to be at the top.”It’s a big ambition. Hertfordshire Zoo is small, even by UK standards, with about 1,000 animals across 16 acres – by comparison, Chester has at least 37,000 animals over its 128-acre site. But as the home of One Zoo Three, its footprint in the online world and children’s imaginations is outsized – and its presence on the global stage is growing.“We’ve got our fingers in every pie,” says Cameron, the youngest of the brothers, who admits to finding it a “bit awkward” when mums approach him about the show in the pub.Birth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’Read moreThe trio rolled out their fifth season of One Zoo Three last year, and the corporationadded the show to BBC Bitesize, its educational offering for schools. On the conservation front, the zoo has recentlyprotected penguins in South Africa, releasedrehabilitated lions back into the wildin Uganda and broughtfive traumatised lions from the war zone in Ukraineto their sister site theBig Cat Sanctuaryin Kent. It is also moving into research and preservation, recently signing a deal withNature’s Safe, a wildlife biobank to cryopreserve skin and semen samples.In the Easter holidays the busy zoo – with its colourful information boards, rammed play parks and regular talks – is a far cry from the bleak site that Peter and Grace Sampson, the brothers’ grandparents, bought in 1984 to build a depot for their successful coach company.It looked “as if a hurricane had gone through it” says the boys’ mother and zoo chief executive Lynn Whitnall. Animals were living in inhumane conditions. Footage from the old zoo shows a chimp dressed in human clothes, with a chain around its neck, smoking a cigarette. Its main attraction, alion called Bobby, was kept in a small enclosure with a corrugated iron roof and had never felt grass under his feet.Plans for the depot went out of the window. “The love of the animals took over,” says Lynn. After closing for 18 months and pulling in favours from coach drivers and mechanics to build new enclosures, the zoo was given a licence and opened as Paradise Park and Woodland Zoo in Easter 1986.“People weren’t really all that supportive, especially within the zoo profession,” says Aaron. “They kind of saw the family as outsiders.”skip past newsletter promotionSign up toDown to EarthFree weekly newsletterThe planet’s most important stories. Get all the week’s environment news – the good, the bad and the essentialEnter your email addressSign upPrivacy Notice:Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see ourPrivacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the GooglePrivacy PolicyandTerms of Serviceapply.after newsletter promotionBirth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’Read moreMany of the original animals had been rescued from closing circuses, and the family pulled every business lever from hospitality to animal petting to fund new habitats. After decades of investment and supporting conservation projects, the zoo’s reputation has “come a full 180”, he says. “Since Covid, we’ve had more zoo directors and important people from within the world of conservation visit us than we did in the 20 years before.”By any reckoning, growing up on site at the zoo gave the brothers an extraordinary childhood. When Cam, the youngest, got in a grump he would go and sit with the monkeys. Aaron slept with a rescued lioness cub who had been rejected by her family for several months. “We wouldn’t do it now, but after hours we would just go and sit in with the meerkats or the porcupines or the tapirs in the evenings,” says Cam.Those moments fired their passion to share a love of wildlife – either through experiences in the zoo, through the show or in their hyperactive social media output, says Tyler.At a moment when vast swathes of natural habitats are beingdestroyed by human development and the climate crisis– according to the most recent figures,wildlife populations have plungedby an average of 69% between 1970 and 2018. The brothers admit to a heavy feeling of responsibility, but argue that showing what good zoos can do – and making kids laugh, care and have hope – is critical to the conservation fight.“The way we’ve grown up is getting close to animals, that’s how we’ve fallen in love with them,” he says. “Sharing the wonder of wildlife is our slogan for a reason.”Explore more on these topicsZoosHertfordshireBBCCBBCConservationAnimalsfeaturesShareReuse this content
From left: a tapir and Tyler, Aaron and Cam Whitnall at Hertfordshire Zoo.Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The GuardianView image in fullscreenFrom left: a tapir and Tyler, Aaron and Cam Whitnall at Hertfordshire Zoo.Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian
From left: a tapir and Tyler, Aaron and Cam Whitnall at Hertfordshire Zoo.Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The GuardianView image in fullscreenFrom left: a tapir and Tyler, Aaron and Cam Whitnall at Hertfordshire Zoo.Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian
From left: a tapir and Tyler, Aaron and Cam Whitnall at Hertfordshire Zoo.Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The GuardianView image in fullscreenFrom left: a tapir and Tyler, Aaron and Cam Whitnall at Hertfordshire Zoo.Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian
From left: a tapir and Tyler, Aaron and Cam Whitnall at Hertfordshire Zoo.Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The GuardianView image in fullscreen
From left: a tapir and Tyler, Aaron and Cam Whitnall at Hertfordshire Zoo.Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian
From left: a tapir and Tyler, Aaron and Cam Whitnall at Hertfordshire Zoo.Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian
From left: a tapir and Tyler, Aaron and Cam Whitnall at Hertfordshire Zoo.Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian
Zoos
Zoos
‘My daughter just loves you’: stars of One Zoo Three have high hopes for Hertfordshire
‘My daughter just loves you’: stars of One Zoo Three have high hopes for Hertfordshire
‘My daughter just loves you’: stars of One Zoo Three have high hopes for Hertfordshire
Aaron, Tyler and Cam Whitnall aim to make family-owned zoo a conservation leader ‘up there with Chester’
Aaron, Tyler and Cam Whitnall aim to make family-owned zoo a conservation leader ‘up there with Chester’
Aaron, Tyler and Cam Whitnall aim to make family-owned zoo a conservation leader ‘up there with Chester’
Alexandra ToppingSun 20 Apr 2025 15.07 CESTLast modified on Sun 20 Apr 2025 21.37 CESTShare
Alexandra ToppingSun 20 Apr 2025 15.07 CESTLast modified on Sun 20 Apr 2025 21.37 CESTShare
Alexandra ToppingSun 20 Apr 2025 15.07 CESTLast modified on Sun 20 Apr 2025 21.37 CESTShare
Alexandra ToppingSun 20 Apr 2025 15.07 CESTLast modified on Sun 20 Apr 2025 21.37 CEST
Alexandra ToppingSun 20 Apr 2025 15.07 CESTLast modified on Sun 20 Apr 2025 21.37 CEST
Alexandra Topping
Share
Share
Outside the enclosure, eager visitors jostle for a glimpse of the rare Asiatic lions Sahee and Sonika,HertfordshireZoo’s newest residents. The beasts yawn imperiously in the sun, every twitch of their tails sparking an excited murmur.But when Aaron, Tyler and Cam Whitnall are spotted, the animals are instantly forgotten. The stars of children’sBBCprogramme One Zoo Three, are tenderly, but relentlessly, mobbed. “We got up at 5am to drive here,” explains one delighted, if bleary-eyed dad. “My daughter just loves you.”She is not the only one. The three brothers have become stars of children’s TV since the first series about their lives on their family zoo aired in 2000. But four decades after their grandparents bought “the worst zoo in the UK”, they have their sights on becoming a world-leading conservation organisation.“We want to be a beacon of hope here,” says Tyler, the middle brother, recovering from the adoration with a cup of tea in Zoo HQ. “One day we want to be known as the best zoo in the UK, up there with Chester, and a leader in terms of education, wildlife conservation, sustainability. We literally want to be at the top.”It’s a big ambition. Hertfordshire Zoo is small, even by UK standards, with about 1,000 animals across 16 acres – by comparison, Chester has at least 37,000 animals over its 128-acre site. But as the home of One Zoo Three, its footprint in the online world and children’s imaginations is outsized – and its presence on the global stage is growing.“We’ve got our fingers in every pie,” says Cameron, the youngest of the brothers, who admits to finding it a “bit awkward” when mums approach him about the show in the pub.Birth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’Read moreThe trio rolled out their fifth season of One Zoo Three last year, and the corporationadded the show to BBC Bitesize, its educational offering for schools. On the conservation front, the zoo has recentlyprotected penguins in South Africa, releasedrehabilitated lions back into the wildin Uganda and broughtfive traumatised lions from the war zone in Ukraineto their sister site theBig Cat Sanctuaryin Kent. It is also moving into research and preservation, recently signing a deal withNature’s Safe, a wildlife biobank to cryopreserve skin and semen samples.In the Easter holidays the busy zoo – with its colourful information boards, rammed play parks and regular talks – is a far cry from the bleak site that Peter and Grace Sampson, the brothers’ grandparents, bought in 1984 to build a depot for their successful coach company.It looked “as if a hurricane had gone through it” says the boys’ mother and zoo chief executive Lynn Whitnall. Animals were living in inhumane conditions. Footage from the old zoo shows a chimp dressed in human clothes, with a chain around its neck, smoking a cigarette. Its main attraction, alion called Bobby, was kept in a small enclosure with a corrugated iron roof and had never felt grass under his feet.Plans for the depot went out of the window. “The love of the animals took over,” says Lynn. After closing for 18 months and pulling in favours from coach drivers and mechanics to build new enclosures, the zoo was given a licence and opened as Paradise Park and Woodland Zoo in Easter 1986.“People weren’t really all that supportive, especially within the zoo profession,” says Aaron. “They kind of saw the family as outsiders.”skip past newsletter promotionSign up toDown to EarthFree weekly newsletterThe planet’s most important stories. Get all the week’s environment news – the good, the bad and the essentialEnter your email addressSign upPrivacy Notice:Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see ourPrivacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the GooglePrivacy PolicyandTerms of Serviceapply.after newsletter promotionBirth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’Read moreMany of the original animals had been rescued from closing circuses, and the family pulled every business lever from hospitality to animal petting to fund new habitats. After decades of investment and supporting conservation projects, the zoo’s reputation has “come a full 180”, he says. “Since Covid, we’ve had more zoo directors and important people from within the world of conservation visit us than we did in the 20 years before.”By any reckoning, growing up on site at the zoo gave the brothers an extraordinary childhood. When Cam, the youngest, got in a grump he would go and sit with the monkeys. Aaron slept with a rescued lioness cub who had been rejected by her family for several months. “We wouldn’t do it now, but after hours we would just go and sit in with the meerkats or the porcupines or the tapirs in the evenings,” says Cam.Those moments fired their passion to share a love of wildlife – either through experiences in the zoo, through the show or in their hyperactive social media output, says Tyler.At a moment when vast swathes of natural habitats are beingdestroyed by human development and the climate crisis– according to the most recent figures,wildlife populations have plungedby an average of 69% between 1970 and 2018. The brothers admit to a heavy feeling of responsibility, but argue that showing what good zoos can do – and making kids laugh, care and have hope – is critical to the conservation fight.“The way we’ve grown up is getting close to animals, that’s how we’ve fallen in love with them,” he says. “Sharing the wonder of wildlife is our slogan for a reason.”Explore more on these topicsZoosHertfordshireBBCCBBCConservationAnimalsfeaturesShareReuse this content
Outside the enclosure, eager visitors jostle for a glimpse of the rare Asiatic lions Sahee and Sonika,HertfordshireZoo’s newest residents. The beasts yawn imperiously in the sun, every twitch of their tails sparking an excited murmur.But when Aaron, Tyler and Cam Whitnall are spotted, the animals are instantly forgotten. The stars of children’sBBCprogramme One Zoo Three, are tenderly, but relentlessly, mobbed. “We got up at 5am to drive here,” explains one delighted, if bleary-eyed dad. “My daughter just loves you.”She is not the only one. The three brothers have become stars of children’s TV since the first series about their lives on their family zoo aired in 2000. But four decades after their grandparents bought “the worst zoo in the UK”, they have their sights on becoming a world-leading conservation organisation.“We want to be a beacon of hope here,” says Tyler, the middle brother, recovering from the adoration with a cup of tea in Zoo HQ. “One day we want to be known as the best zoo in the UK, up there with Chester, and a leader in terms of education, wildlife conservation, sustainability. We literally want to be at the top.”It’s a big ambition. Hertfordshire Zoo is small, even by UK standards, with about 1,000 animals across 16 acres – by comparison, Chester has at least 37,000 animals over its 128-acre site. But as the home of One Zoo Three, its footprint in the online world and children’s imaginations is outsized – and its presence on the global stage is growing.“We’ve got our fingers in every pie,” says Cameron, the youngest of the brothers, who admits to finding it a “bit awkward” when mums approach him about the show in the pub.Birth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’Read moreThe trio rolled out their fifth season of One Zoo Three last year, and the corporationadded the show to BBC Bitesize, its educational offering for schools. On the conservation front, the zoo has recentlyprotected penguins in South Africa, releasedrehabilitated lions back into the wildin Uganda and broughtfive traumatised lions from the war zone in Ukraineto their sister site theBig Cat Sanctuaryin Kent. It is also moving into research and preservation, recently signing a deal withNature’s Safe, a wildlife biobank to cryopreserve skin and semen samples.In the Easter holidays the busy zoo – with its colourful information boards, rammed play parks and regular talks – is a far cry from the bleak site that Peter and Grace Sampson, the brothers’ grandparents, bought in 1984 to build a depot for their successful coach company.It looked “as if a hurricane had gone through it” says the boys’ mother and zoo chief executive Lynn Whitnall. Animals were living in inhumane conditions. Footage from the old zoo shows a chimp dressed in human clothes, with a chain around its neck, smoking a cigarette. Its main attraction, alion called Bobby, was kept in a small enclosure with a corrugated iron roof and had never felt grass under his feet.Plans for the depot went out of the window. “The love of the animals took over,” says Lynn. After closing for 18 months and pulling in favours from coach drivers and mechanics to build new enclosures, the zoo was given a licence and opened as Paradise Park and Woodland Zoo in Easter 1986.“People weren’t really all that supportive, especially within the zoo profession,” says Aaron. “They kind of saw the family as outsiders.”skip past newsletter promotionSign up toDown to EarthFree weekly newsletterThe planet’s most important stories. Get all the week’s environment news – the good, the bad and the essentialEnter your email addressSign upPrivacy Notice:Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see ourPrivacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the GooglePrivacy PolicyandTerms of Serviceapply.after newsletter promotionBirth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’Read moreMany of the original animals had been rescued from closing circuses, and the family pulled every business lever from hospitality to animal petting to fund new habitats. After decades of investment and supporting conservation projects, the zoo’s reputation has “come a full 180”, he says. “Since Covid, we’ve had more zoo directors and important people from within the world of conservation visit us than we did in the 20 years before.”By any reckoning, growing up on site at the zoo gave the brothers an extraordinary childhood. When Cam, the youngest, got in a grump he would go and sit with the monkeys. Aaron slept with a rescued lioness cub who had been rejected by her family for several months. “We wouldn’t do it now, but after hours we would just go and sit in with the meerkats or the porcupines or the tapirs in the evenings,” says Cam.Those moments fired their passion to share a love of wildlife – either through experiences in the zoo, through the show or in their hyperactive social media output, says Tyler.At a moment when vast swathes of natural habitats are beingdestroyed by human development and the climate crisis– according to the most recent figures,wildlife populations have plungedby an average of 69% between 1970 and 2018. The brothers admit to a heavy feeling of responsibility, but argue that showing what good zoos can do – and making kids laugh, care and have hope – is critical to the conservation fight.“The way we’ve grown up is getting close to animals, that’s how we’ve fallen in love with them,” he says. “Sharing the wonder of wildlife is our slogan for a reason.”Explore more on these topicsZoosHertfordshireBBCCBBCConservationAnimalsfeaturesShareReuse this content
Outside the enclosure, eager visitors jostle for a glimpse of the rare Asiatic lions Sahee and Sonika,HertfordshireZoo’s newest residents. The beasts yawn imperiously in the sun, every twitch of their tails sparking an excited murmur.But when Aaron, Tyler and Cam Whitnall are spotted, the animals are instantly forgotten. The stars of children’sBBCprogramme One Zoo Three, are tenderly, but relentlessly, mobbed. “We got up at 5am to drive here,” explains one delighted, if bleary-eyed dad. “My daughter just loves you.”She is not the only one. The three brothers have become stars of children’s TV since the first series about their lives on their family zoo aired in 2000. But four decades after their grandparents bought “the worst zoo in the UK”, they have their sights on becoming a world-leading conservation organisation.“We want to be a beacon of hope here,” says Tyler, the middle brother, recovering from the adoration with a cup of tea in Zoo HQ. “One day we want to be known as the best zoo in the UK, up there with Chester, and a leader in terms of education, wildlife conservation, sustainability. We literally want to be at the top.”It’s a big ambition. Hertfordshire Zoo is small, even by UK standards, with about 1,000 animals across 16 acres – by comparison, Chester has at least 37,000 animals over its 128-acre site. But as the home of One Zoo Three, its footprint in the online world and children’s imaginations is outsized – and its presence on the global stage is growing.“We’ve got our fingers in every pie,” says Cameron, the youngest of the brothers, who admits to finding it a “bit awkward” when mums approach him about the show in the pub.Birth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’Read moreThe trio rolled out their fifth season of One Zoo Three last year, and the corporationadded the show to BBC Bitesize, its educational offering for schools. On the conservation front, the zoo has recentlyprotected penguins in South Africa, releasedrehabilitated lions back into the wildin Uganda and broughtfive traumatised lions from the war zone in Ukraineto their sister site theBig Cat Sanctuaryin Kent. It is also moving into research and preservation, recently signing a deal withNature’s Safe, a wildlife biobank to cryopreserve skin and semen samples.In the Easter holidays the busy zoo – with its colourful information boards, rammed play parks and regular talks – is a far cry from the bleak site that Peter and Grace Sampson, the brothers’ grandparents, bought in 1984 to build a depot for their successful coach company.It looked “as if a hurricane had gone through it” says the boys’ mother and zoo chief executive Lynn Whitnall. Animals were living in inhumane conditions. Footage from the old zoo shows a chimp dressed in human clothes, with a chain around its neck, smoking a cigarette. Its main attraction, alion called Bobby, was kept in a small enclosure with a corrugated iron roof and had never felt grass under his feet.Plans for the depot went out of the window. “The love of the animals took over,” says Lynn. After closing for 18 months and pulling in favours from coach drivers and mechanics to build new enclosures, the zoo was given a licence and opened as Paradise Park and Woodland Zoo in Easter 1986.“People weren’t really all that supportive, especially within the zoo profession,” says Aaron. “They kind of saw the family as outsiders.”skip past newsletter promotionSign up toDown to EarthFree weekly newsletterThe planet’s most important stories. Get all the week’s environment news – the good, the bad and the essentialEnter your email addressSign upPrivacy Notice:Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see ourPrivacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the GooglePrivacy PolicyandTerms of Serviceapply.after newsletter promotionBirth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’Read moreMany of the original animals had been rescued from closing circuses, and the family pulled every business lever from hospitality to animal petting to fund new habitats. After decades of investment and supporting conservation projects, the zoo’s reputation has “come a full 180”, he says. “Since Covid, we’ve had more zoo directors and important people from within the world of conservation visit us than we did in the 20 years before.”By any reckoning, growing up on site at the zoo gave the brothers an extraordinary childhood. When Cam, the youngest, got in a grump he would go and sit with the monkeys. Aaron slept with a rescued lioness cub who had been rejected by her family for several months. “We wouldn’t do it now, but after hours we would just go and sit in with the meerkats or the porcupines or the tapirs in the evenings,” says Cam.Those moments fired their passion to share a love of wildlife – either through experiences in the zoo, through the show or in their hyperactive social media output, says Tyler.At a moment when vast swathes of natural habitats are beingdestroyed by human development and the climate crisis– according to the most recent figures,wildlife populations have plungedby an average of 69% between 1970 and 2018. The brothers admit to a heavy feeling of responsibility, but argue that showing what good zoos can do – and making kids laugh, care and have hope – is critical to the conservation fight.“The way we’ve grown up is getting close to animals, that’s how we’ve fallen in love with them,” he says. “Sharing the wonder of wildlife is our slogan for a reason.”
Outside the enclosure, eager visitors jostle for a glimpse of the rare Asiatic lions Sahee and Sonika,HertfordshireZoo’s newest residents. The beasts yawn imperiously in the sun, every twitch of their tails sparking an excited murmur.But when Aaron, Tyler and Cam Whitnall are spotted, the animals are instantly forgotten. The stars of children’sBBCprogramme One Zoo Three, are tenderly, but relentlessly, mobbed. “We got up at 5am to drive here,” explains one delighted, if bleary-eyed dad. “My daughter just loves you.”She is not the only one. The three brothers have become stars of children’s TV since the first series about their lives on their family zoo aired in 2000. But four decades after their grandparents bought “the worst zoo in the UK”, they have their sights on becoming a world-leading conservation organisation.“We want to be a beacon of hope here,” says Tyler, the middle brother, recovering from the adoration with a cup of tea in Zoo HQ. “One day we want to be known as the best zoo in the UK, up there with Chester, and a leader in terms of education, wildlife conservation, sustainability. We literally want to be at the top.”It’s a big ambition. Hertfordshire Zoo is small, even by UK standards, with about 1,000 animals across 16 acres – by comparison, Chester has at least 37,000 animals over its 128-acre site. But as the home of One Zoo Three, its footprint in the online world and children’s imaginations is outsized – and its presence on the global stage is growing.“We’ve got our fingers in every pie,” says Cameron, the youngest of the brothers, who admits to finding it a “bit awkward” when mums approach him about the show in the pub.Birth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’Read moreThe trio rolled out their fifth season of One Zoo Three last year, and the corporationadded the show to BBC Bitesize, its educational offering for schools. On the conservation front, the zoo has recentlyprotected penguins in South Africa, releasedrehabilitated lions back into the wildin Uganda and broughtfive traumatised lions from the war zone in Ukraineto their sister site theBig Cat Sanctuaryin Kent. It is also moving into research and preservation, recently signing a deal withNature’s Safe, a wildlife biobank to cryopreserve skin and semen samples.In the Easter holidays the busy zoo – with its colourful information boards, rammed play parks and regular talks – is a far cry from the bleak site that Peter and Grace Sampson, the brothers’ grandparents, bought in 1984 to build a depot for their successful coach company.It looked “as if a hurricane had gone through it” says the boys’ mother and zoo chief executive Lynn Whitnall. Animals were living in inhumane conditions. Footage from the old zoo shows a chimp dressed in human clothes, with a chain around its neck, smoking a cigarette. Its main attraction, alion called Bobby, was kept in a small enclosure with a corrugated iron roof and had never felt grass under his feet.Plans for the depot went out of the window. “The love of the animals took over,” says Lynn. After closing for 18 months and pulling in favours from coach drivers and mechanics to build new enclosures, the zoo was given a licence and opened as Paradise Park and Woodland Zoo in Easter 1986.“People weren’t really all that supportive, especially within the zoo profession,” says Aaron. “They kind of saw the family as outsiders.”skip past newsletter promotionSign up toDown to EarthFree weekly newsletterThe planet’s most important stories. Get all the week’s environment news – the good, the bad and the essentialEnter your email addressSign upPrivacy Notice:Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see ourPrivacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the GooglePrivacy PolicyandTerms of Serviceapply.after newsletter promotionBirth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’Read moreMany of the original animals had been rescued from closing circuses, and the family pulled every business lever from hospitality to animal petting to fund new habitats. After decades of investment and supporting conservation projects, the zoo’s reputation has “come a full 180”, he says. “Since Covid, we’ve had more zoo directors and important people from within the world of conservation visit us than we did in the 20 years before.”By any reckoning, growing up on site at the zoo gave the brothers an extraordinary childhood. When Cam, the youngest, got in a grump he would go and sit with the monkeys. Aaron slept with a rescued lioness cub who had been rejected by her family for several months. “We wouldn’t do it now, but after hours we would just go and sit in with the meerkats or the porcupines or the tapirs in the evenings,” says Cam.Those moments fired their passion to share a love of wildlife – either through experiences in the zoo, through the show or in their hyperactive social media output, says Tyler.At a moment when vast swathes of natural habitats are beingdestroyed by human development and the climate crisis– according to the most recent figures,wildlife populations have plungedby an average of 69% between 1970 and 2018. The brothers admit to a heavy feeling of responsibility, but argue that showing what good zoos can do – and making kids laugh, care and have hope – is critical to the conservation fight.“The way we’ve grown up is getting close to animals, that’s how we’ve fallen in love with them,” he says. “Sharing the wonder of wildlife is our slogan for a reason.”
Outside the enclosure, eager visitors jostle for a glimpse of the rare Asiatic lions Sahee and Sonika,HertfordshireZoo’s newest residents. The beasts yawn imperiously in the sun, every twitch of their tails sparking an excited murmur.
But when Aaron, Tyler and Cam Whitnall are spotted, the animals are instantly forgotten. The stars of children’sBBCprogramme One Zoo Three, are tenderly, but relentlessly, mobbed. “We got up at 5am to drive here,” explains one delighted, if bleary-eyed dad. “My daughter just loves you.”
She is not the only one. The three brothers have become stars of children’s TV since the first series about their lives on their family zoo aired in 2000. But four decades after their grandparents bought “the worst zoo in the UK”, they have their sights on becoming a world-leading conservation organisation.
“We want to be a beacon of hope here,” says Tyler, the middle brother, recovering from the adoration with a cup of tea in Zoo HQ. “One day we want to be known as the best zoo in the UK, up there with Chester, and a leader in terms of education, wildlife conservation, sustainability. We literally want to be at the top.”
It’s a big ambition. Hertfordshire Zoo is small, even by UK standards, with about 1,000 animals across 16 acres – by comparison, Chester has at least 37,000 animals over its 128-acre site. But as the home of One Zoo Three, its footprint in the online world and children’s imaginations is outsized – and its presence on the global stage is growing.
“We’ve got our fingers in every pie,” says Cameron, the youngest of the brothers, who admits to finding it a “bit awkward” when mums approach him about the show in the pub.
Birth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’Read more
Birth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’Read more
Birth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’Read more
Birth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’
Birth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’
Read more
Read more
The trio rolled out their fifth season of One Zoo Three last year, and the corporationadded the show to BBC Bitesize, its educational offering for schools. On the conservation front, the zoo has recentlyprotected penguins in South Africa, releasedrehabilitated lions back into the wildin Uganda and broughtfive traumatised lions from the war zone in Ukraineto their sister site theBig Cat Sanctuaryin Kent. It is also moving into research and preservation, recently signing a deal withNature’s Safe, a wildlife biobank to cryopreserve skin and semen samples.
In the Easter holidays the busy zoo – with its colourful information boards, rammed play parks and regular talks – is a far cry from the bleak site that Peter and Grace Sampson, the brothers’ grandparents, bought in 1984 to build a depot for their successful coach company.
It looked “as if a hurricane had gone through it” says the boys’ mother and zoo chief executive Lynn Whitnall. Animals were living in inhumane conditions. Footage from the old zoo shows a chimp dressed in human clothes, with a chain around its neck, smoking a cigarette. Its main attraction, alion called Bobby, was kept in a small enclosure with a corrugated iron roof and had never felt grass under his feet.
Plans for the depot went out of the window. “The love of the animals took over,” says Lynn. After closing for 18 months and pulling in favours from coach drivers and mechanics to build new enclosures, the zoo was given a licence and opened as Paradise Park and Woodland Zoo in Easter 1986.
“People weren’t really all that supportive, especially within the zoo profession,” says Aaron. “They kind of saw the family as outsiders.”
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Birth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’Read more
Birth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’Read more
Birth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’Read more
Birth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’
Birth of endangered red panda cub at UK zoo a ‘symbol of hope’
Read more
Read more
Many of the original animals had been rescued from closing circuses, and the family pulled every business lever from hospitality to animal petting to fund new habitats. After decades of investment and supporting conservation projects, the zoo’s reputation has “come a full 180”, he says. “Since Covid, we’ve had more zoo directors and important people from within the world of conservation visit us than we did in the 20 years before.”
By any reckoning, growing up on site at the zoo gave the brothers an extraordinary childhood. When Cam, the youngest, got in a grump he would go and sit with the monkeys. Aaron slept with a rescued lioness cub who had been rejected by her family for several months. “We wouldn’t do it now, but after hours we would just go and sit in with the meerkats or the porcupines or the tapirs in the evenings,” says Cam.
Those moments fired their passion to share a love of wildlife – either through experiences in the zoo, through the show or in their hyperactive social media output, says Tyler.
At a moment when vast swathes of natural habitats are beingdestroyed by human development and the climate crisis– according to the most recent figures,wildlife populations have plungedby an average of 69% between 1970 and 2018. The brothers admit to a heavy feeling of responsibility, but argue that showing what good zoos can do – and making kids laugh, care and have hope – is critical to the conservation fight.
“The way we’ve grown up is getting close to animals, that’s how we’ve fallen in love with them,” he says. “Sharing the wonder of wildlife is our slogan for a reason.”
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