GONE WILD
I quit my 9-5pm NHS job and bought a zoo – there’s a lot of poo to clean up but it brings me joy every day
It was nine months before we were able to move in and, even then, we didn’t have a single animal
Lynsey Martin, 35, lives with her partner Ryan, 28, and their 11-month-old son Kai, in Call of the Wild Zoo, Essex.
Here the mum tells how the couple renovated the zoo which had been closed for four years and was in total disrepair, with vandalised buildings and not an animal to be seen.
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“Walking around the zoo with my baby boy on my hip, feeding the monkeys and meerkats, I couldn’t believe this was now my home. If you’d told me four years ago that I’d have ditched my nine-to-five office job in the NHS to spend my days running a zoo, I’d never have believed you.
My partner Ryan and I met online and had our first date at a restaurant near my home in Essex in October 2019.
As we sat chatting, Ryan told me he worked as a tiger keeper at Colchester Zoo. It’s not your average job, and I have to admit I was impressed.
He said it was his dream to own a zoo one day, and I was instantly struck by how passionate he was – although I never believed it would actually happen.
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In June 2020, we moved in together. Ryan was always on the lookout for land for his zoo, and he’d make plans and sketches of how it might look.
I still thought it was just a pipe dream, until in May 2021, he found an old, derelict zoo site for sale. He’d worked there years ago when it was a zoo called Tropical Wings. A few weeks later, he came home, saying: ‘We’ve got the keys!’
No animals
We used my inheritance from my late dad, plus Ryan’s savings, to buy and renovate it. A huge 10-acre site, the zoo had been closed for four years and was in total disrepair – buildings had been vandalised, the gardens were overgrown and there were no animals. I walked the grounds wondering how on earth we were going to turn things around. It was incredibly daunting.
Ryan quit his job and threw himself into renovating the zoo, living off savings to make ends meet.
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We roped in family and friends to help with clearing, gardening and even building work.
When the money started running out, we opened the site for community days and charged an entry fee to show the progress we were making, just to try to stay afloat.
There was a house for us to live in on-site, but that too needed completely gutting.
I quit my job, which was scary, but I knew it was something I had to do as the zoo was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
It was nine months before we were able to move in and, even then, we didn’t have a single animal.
Ryan reached out to other zoos to start building up a collection of donated animals. Initially, we had lemurs, otters, goats, wallabies, meerkats and some reptiles.
In September 2021, I quit my job, which was scary, but I knew it was something I had to do as the zoo was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I went from sitting in an office to helping look after the animals.
I reared meerkats by hand, which was an amazing experience, though it was very challenging if they got poorly. And there is always a lot of poo to clear up!
More than 40 staff
We finally opened in February 2022, and since then, the zoo has gone from strength to strength. Now, we have zebras, flamingos, binturong, colobus monkeys and an endangered species of crocodile.
Later this year, we are opening a penguin enclosure and we’re keen to focus on conservation, getting involved with breeding programmes to help endangered animals.
To add to the chaos, six months after opening the zoo, I found out I was pregnant.
Since I was a little girl, it has been my dream to run my own shop, and now we have one on-site selling zoo merchandise, plus I’ve been busy designing my own clothing range to sell.
I’m the retail marketing director and we have more than 40 staff working for us now.
To add to the chaos, six months after opening the zoo, I found out I was pregnant, and in April 2023, I gave birth to our son Kai.
We knew it wouldn’t be easy, but we are lucky to have supportive family and friends.
Kai comes out and about around the zoo with me every day. He’s only just beginning to take notice of the animals and I think rather than first words, he will probably make animal noises! He loves watching the monkeys in particular.
If someone had described this life to me four years ago, I’d have said: ‘You’re mad.’ It still doesn’t feel real, but it brings me joy every single day.”
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BTW
- 600,000 birds and mammals are kept in zoos in the UK.*
- Conservation projects at zoos are helping to restore around 76 native species in the UK, including beavers and storks.**
Sources: *RSPCA **Zoological Society London
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