You can hear the lions roar at night.
In the morning the gibbons ‘hoo, hoo’ loudly.
There’s a small zoo, a charity, populated by rescue animals, at the end of the road.
February.
The bear enclosure.
One brown bear is hibernating, with another one, rescued from a cellar in an Eastern European country, due soon. There’s a young man, with a small boy, circling the enclosure. An older man in an orange reflective jacket is picking up litter.
Young man: Whare’s the bears?
Man in orange jacket: They’re sleepin.
Short pause.
Young man: Can ye no waken them up fir the laddie?
Silence
March.
The Artic wolves area. It’s huge. at least an acre of hilly, wooded land.
Two white wolves are pacing round. There’s a man and woman with a buggy and a small girl seated in it. The girl is licking a lollipop. The man says something I can’t hear, to which there is a loud, exasperated reply.
Woman: Fine. If ye want a dug git a bloody dug. Am no clearin up efter it. You’ll clear up its shite.’
April
The spider monkeys. There are three of them in the bloc. A woman is standing, with three small children. Fingers and noses are pressed up against the glass barrier.
Woman: Now behave, otherwise we are heading straight back to the car.
Small boy: Hello monkeys.
Woman: Did you know that we are related to the monkeys.
Other small boy (waving): Hello monkeys.
Woman: A man called Darwin wrote his Theory of Evolution and said we were descended from monkeys and apes.
Small girl: Ice cream?
Small boy: Ice cream, yeah.
Woman: Alright, ice creams, but only if you behave, otherwise it’s back to the car.
Other small boy (waving): Bye bye monkeys.
One Pagers 