As The Secret Life of the Zoo reaches its final episode, we’ll be sad to say goodbye to the staff and the adorable animals of Chester Zoo.
The series has proved a welcome pick-me-up each week, shedding light on delightful births, sad deaths, and everything in between.
In this last episode of the series, the staff take on a job that sounds like the set-up to a joke: taking part in the annual bat census.
It’s a task that proves as arduous as it sounds – each bat in the enclosure must be caught so that they can keep track of how many new arrivals there have been in the past year.
Cue lots of swooshing nets, entanglements, flapping and panicking.
Still, according to staff the tricky task isn't a total chore – as team member Kirsten says: “It’s the most fun thing in the world, to catch a bat.”
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“They don’t know that we’re only trying to help them, and we’re actually just going to check them, tell if they’re a boy or a girl, and then whack them back.”
Unless a second series of this charming documentary series is commissioned, the next best thing will be a trip to Chester Zoo itself.
Channel 4, 8pm
