Our Lives - Zoo Mum

Cheetah mum Sia has just given birth to her first litter of cubs.

Colchester Zoo curator Sarah Forsyth is there

to welcome them to the world.

Right, number one. You going to stay still?

CHEETAH CUBS SQUEAK

SHE LAUGHS Yes, you can tell me off.

These five little furballs should go on display to the public

in a few weeks' time...

..but the zoo is in lockdown.

No visitors means no income,

and it's unclear when they'll be able to welcome the public back.

Over the last three months,

we've had a very small number of staff in.

We've had no visitors,

and we've completely had the zoo to ourselves.

And, for us, we've felt like we've been in a bit of a bubble,

you know, we've got our own little family,

we're all just seeing the same people every day.

We've almost felt a bit disconnected from the outside world as well.

Sarah lives on-site,

so right now, this secret sanctuary is her whole world.

She's taking us into that world,

at the toughest time in its history...

THEY TALK INAUDIBLY

..as she leads the zoo through to reopening.

This job isn't just a nine-to-five job.

It is a lifestyle, and I guess it has kind of taken over.

I made the choice not to have a family

because the zoo and the animals...

SHE LAUGHS ..they're kind of my family.

All of my nurturing is taken out on the animals.

Yeah, the hard work starts once baby's born.

I like to watch them growing up,

and I like to record them growing up.

I've got hyena cubs in here, I've got otter pups,

I've got two lots of cheetah cubs,

I've got three or four rhino calves that we've had.

Sarah established the zoo's successful rhino breeding programme,

and baby Lottie is its latest arrival.

That's from the security cameras in the zoo,

and that's actually just as she's being born.

Despite a huge reduction in staff numbers,

caring for the animals must go on as normal.

Today is going to be the first day

that Lottie will have met the giraffe up close and personal.

Obviously, they've seen each other for the last six months,

but today they're actually going to be in the same enclosure together.

Obviously giraffe have got long legs,

big feet.

And rhino calves like running around amongst their legs and their feet.

Even an adult rhino, potentially,

if it was kicked by an adult giraffe,

it could be fatal.

You know, they're huge animals, the giraffe,

they've got massive feet, they're very, very powerful.

They're gentle, they're not generally aggressive at all,

but we're very protective of Lottie, we love her.

When we do mix first time, if things just don't go to plan,

we're prepared to intervene and separate if need to.

The team stand ready with fire extinguishers,

the perfect tool to distract a high-kicking giraffe.

I can see she's got the devil in her eye already.

SHE LAUGHS Is she going to charge after them?

Lotts!

Oi!

Basically a toddler getting under your feet!

SHE LAUGHS That's exactly what she is.

Lottie! See, I knew she would.

Yeah, I'm watching you.

Come on!

PEOPLE APPLAUD Yeah!

The sea lions normally do three shows a day

to a cheering crowd.

Despite the lack of an audience,

trainer Lizzie is keeping her pals ready to perform.

SEA LION BARKS

That's her killer whale impression!

THEY CHUCKLE

Are you still managing to keep up the training as often as possible?

We're trying to.

So, obviously, some staff are on furlough,

so instead of all five sea lions

getting out every single day,

what we're doing is we're kind of transitioning them.

So, some sea lions kind of take it in turns.

Just so that we get a really good look at them.

We've been focusing mostly just on those health behaviours...

Yeah, of course. ..and keeping them fit as well.

Because if they're not going out three times a day,

then obviously they're not using as much energy.

And they're losing a bit of their muscle tone as well, we've noticed.

So, they are all healthy, but it is still nice to have them

do those fitness behaviours, like the porpoising.

So, yeah, behaviours like that you still know, don't you, Sydney?

LIZZIE LAUGHS

She says, "I'm not going to forget that one, I love it!"

Do you think she's ready?

The moment we can say, "Let's start doing displays again,"

she's ready to go?

Especially with Sydney, she is a superstar.

So I definitely think she will be ready for the audiences

when they do come back to the zoo.

She's very, very excited to see everybody, aren't you?

The zoo is making the most of no-one being here

and updating some of the animal enclosures.

While the work is done,

the sheep and goats have been holidaying together

in a grassy paddock.

Now it's time for them to go home.

With the visitors here, we'd have to load up vehicles,

we'd have to do it at specific times.

It would have to be a well-oiled machine.

But Lisa, the head of section, has come up with a brilliant idea

of "Let's just run the goats through the zoo -

"right from the top all the way to the bottom."

So we just run them all the way down past sea lions, down past bears.

Right. Left to the lions.

Yeah. And then round the back of farm.

And they're there. And they're in. Yeah.

I think, with enough bodies and encouragement, they'll be fine.

SARAH CHUCKLES We don't need to run.

It's either going to work perfectly...

Yep. ..or it's going to be chaos.

I'm going to go with perfect. Good plan.

SARAH CHUCKLES OK!

GOATS BLEAT

Come on then, guys! Watch out.

I don't know where they've gone, Lis, but they're on the move.

So far, so good!

Come on!

Come on, guys! Keep going!

Oh, look!

We were checking for stragglers. We were checking for stragglers!

SARAH LAUGHS

That would normally take me about an hour to do.

I'd split the group up into three or four

and put them in the horse trailer, drive them down, let them out,

it's about an hour's work.

So, that took seven minutes.

Today is a big day for a recent arrival at the L'Hoest's Monkeys,

where mum and baby have been separated from the group.

So, baby's going to go up to vet room now.

So we need to formally sex, cos we haven't been able to see

if it's a girl or a boy yet, so we'll be doing that.

And then we're also going to microchip her as well.

So, we have a bit of a thing at the moment

with regards to the name.

So, we're hoping this is a female, and it's going to be called Sarah,

aka Sez, after our curator.

MONKEY SQUEAKS

THEY TALK INDISTINCTLY

If the baby is named after Sarah,

it will be the first time she has had an animal named in her honour.

I'd like to know whether it is a boy or a girl.

I know these aren't the easiest ones to tell, though, are they?

No. Not necessarily, but...

Yay!

It's the news Sarah has been hoping for -

baby monkey will be named Sarah Junior.

Oh...

SARAH CHUCKLES

But wait a minute...

..vet John has spotted something!

Changed your mind?

Oh, no!

It's a boy.

You were supposed to be a girl.

Are you disappointed? You've let me down.

I've always wanted to work with animals.

I guess, as any kid, when you think about working with animals,

you think of being a vet.

So I did work experience in a veterinary surgery

and realised that wasn't quite what I was looking for.

Come, Blue.

I went to college and studied animal care,

and I just did not stop until I got to the position I wanted to be in.

Sarah's determination saw her become a zoo curator unusually young -

she was just 30.

In over a decade in the job, she has never faced a time like this.

Come, Blue.

So, I think the three months we've been closed,

we've already lost millions,

and that is what keeps us going through winter.

I guess what I've really missed is my friends and my family.

I see my family quite a lot and haven't been able to do so

during this lockdown period.

On a tough day, coming down to an environment like this

with this boy is what gets me through.

You know, they say animals are soothing, and absolutely they are.

And, yeah, I don't know what I'd have done without him

during lockdown, to be honest.

ALARM BLARES

Living on-site means Sarah can be there fast if there's an emergency.

There's five of us that live on-site

that are basically the out-of-hours security team.

And all of our phones are remotely connected

to all of the cameras that are on-site

and all of the security alarms as well.

Rhino horn is worth more than its weight in gold

on the black market,