'We bought a zoo and our lives turned upside down'

Two years ago, Ryan Shorter realised his childhood ambition of opening a zoo.

Since he was a little boy, it was all he had dreamed of, but a disastrous opening day made him question his decision.

Adding to the chaos, six months after opening Call of the Wild Zoo, near South Woodham Ferrers, in Essex, he found out his partner was expecting their baby.

Here, in his own words, he talks about living at the zoo with his little boy and his hopes for their future.

Growing up, my dream was always to open a zoo and rescue animals. The first problem was that I'm not the most academic person and I was rubbish at science. My teacher said I might not be able to study it but I was determined. I got a degree in zoology and then I did a masters in wildlife conservation.

I come from a very working class family and didn't know where to start but I went to volunteer at a zoo called Tropical Wings in South Woodham Ferrers, known for its butterfly house. That was my foot in the door, and they took me on as an employee.

I left to join London Zoo's reptile team and then Colchester Zoo's displays team, where I gained the confidence to talk in front of 400 people. I ended up working with their tigers and breeding three tiger cubs. That was the first time in 50 years that had ever happened, so I was very privileged to experience that.

While I was working as a tiger keeper, I met my partner Lynsey and on our first date I told her about my dream. We moved in together and I started setting up a business going into schools with rescue animals, but Covid hit and destroyed my plans.

Through lockdown we had about 25 animals at home, including meerkats and chameleons. It was a crazy house. Lynsey was working for the NHS but she began learning about the animals.

We saw a garden centre up for sale and we looked at opening a butterfly farm and a small reptile house but planning permission got turned down based on parking issues. It was setback after setback. So I decided to start a painting and decorating company and started installing kitchens.

In May 2021 we bought the land from the owners of Tropical Wings. They had closed the site due to ill health and it had been derelict for years. It was in total disrepair, with vandalised buildings, but I thought 'this is my chance'. I used the money I earned through painting and decorating to buy it.

Lynsey left her job to help me, which was a big risk. In January 2022 we got our zoo licence and we opened our doors a month later. We built up 14,000 followers in 24 hours on Facebook. But it was far from plain sailing.

It was always my ambition and passion and finally opening day was here. I wanted to do justice for the previous owners who had given me my break. It was amazing to see the park open but it was a total disaster. I thought my dream was over. I honestly could have cried. It was the most stressful day of my life.

It hadn't stopped raining all week, it was freezing cold, and we thought people would wait for the better weather. But they didn't. They all turned up at the same time and we had 500 people queuing to get in first thing. We filled up our car park and the local roundabouts and the road that gets you to the zoo. We held up all of the buses and we upset the council and other local businesses.

The priority had always been to get the zoo ready and make sure the animals were ok. The car park was a massive oversight from me, it should have been the most important thing but I didn't think about it. Cars were sinking and I started to panic. I called a local company and persuaded them to send me a dump truck, so we could get people out of the car park. Once the cars were out, I got on my hands and knees and started laying tarmac.

To make it worse, we only had rabbits and guinea pigs and a few owls and other rescue animals I had at home. We got lots of bad reviews. I kept thinking there was no way back. Why would these people return when they'd had such a bad experience? People were one hundred per cent right, it wasn't good enough but we couldn't afford to leave it closed any longer. The animals still needed feeding, plus the vet bills and heating.

In the first two weeks, we received 15,000 visitors. We were not expecting that or prepared for that. We only had a handful of employees and volunteers helping us run the place. We only managed to come back from that terrible start because we didn't stop working. We kept going. My mum set up all of the catering facilities on site, Lynsey set up the shop and took on the marketing. We went out there meeting and greeting the public, who became familiar with our faces. People could see we were grafting.

By the summer, people wanted to see what changes we had made. Without the local community, this zoo would never have survived. Despite all of the bad publicity, they have supported us. The zoo costs roughly around £100,000 each month to run, including vet bills, heating, food and animal care, and we could not do it without them.

Last April, we had a little boy called Kai, adding to the chaos!

We live on site and it is still a new way of life for us, but it is all that Kai has ever known. When he was born, I realised I needed to find a balance between life and work, which I'm not good at but I'm trying.

He loves watching the monkeys and flamingos and is having the childhood most people dream of, with a zoo as his back garden. One day hopefully he will take it over.

When we opened we received 1,100 applications to volunteer and I read every single one and took on 30 people. A lot of the volunteers are now paid keepers and maintenance staff and we have 42 employees. We look after over 500 animals, from 93 different species, including zebras, flamingos, colobus monkeys, crocodiles, rainbow lorikeets, and we have 19 penguins arriving in May.

Animal conservation is still my passion and always will be. We're a small zoo with a big heart. We want to do more conservation work and we're sending keepers to Madagascar and Nepal. We are getting involved with breeding programmes to help endangered animals.

In all honesty, I hope we can shut the zoo one day. That is the ultimate aim. I hope one day it's no longer needed because humans are not having such a negative impact on wild animal populations.

The last two years have been crazy, I underestimated how hard it would be but I'm so proud of everything we have achieved. I want Kai to know you can dream something and it can happen. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it.

As told to Charlie Jones

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