REVIEW: Inside The Zoo, Series 1 Episode Two

 REVIEW: Inside The Zoo, Series 1 Episode Two 

It's always interesting watching shows that are filmed at places you have previously visited, and so when I saw Inside The Zoo was going to air this week I had to check it out. I have been both to the Highland Wildlife Park and Edinburgh Zoo, and it is really clear when you visit just how much the staff clearly care about the animals that they look after.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the first two episodes of this show, and in the second episode in particular you really get a feel for the passion of those who work in these brilliant attractions.

Firstly there's the whole scenario with Dennis the monkey, who ends up in a fight and comes away with two nasty gnashes. The vets work tirelessly to get him in the crush cage and to the vet surgeon, who operates on the poor monkey whilst he is sedated. They take such care with the monkey, waiting until Dennis has properly recovered and time has passed from the fight enough for disagreements between the monkeys to have petered out, and it really does show how wrong people are who question whether zoos are humane. Of course they are humane. Sure, some may be better than others, but the vast majority of these zoos do a hell of a lot to look after the animals who roam their enclosures.

And they don't just cage the animals either, they work on various conservation projects that help to protect endangered species. Take this episode, for instance, where the two zoos team up for the Scottish Beaver Wildlife Project. This sees the two zoos release a pair of beavers into a nearby loch, in order to help protect the beaver population and reintroduce beavers to the Scottish environment. It's such a great thing to see highlighted on a BBC documentary series like this, and shows that zoos are more than just animals in enclosures.

I'm so glad the panda's cancer did not return. That must have been a really awful situation when they discovered he had cancer and had to have him castrated, but it's good that they successfully managed to stop the spread.

Oh, and that cheeky baby monkey who somehow managed to escape from the enclosure really demonstrates the amount of work that goes into the zookeepers making sure both the animals and the visitors are safe.

I've always thought zoos are such great places to visit, and two episodes in this series shows exactly why.

What are your thoughts on Inside The Zoo's second episode? Let me know in the comments.