Dartmoor Zoological Park

Dartmoor Zoological Park

Dartmoor Zoo logo
Date opened	1968 (1968)
Location	Dartmoor, Devon, England
Land area	30 acres (12 ha)
Coordinates	50.407°N 3.997°W / 50.407; -3.997
Website	dartmoorzoo.org

Dartmoor Zoological Park is a 30-acre (12 ha) zoological garden located near the village of Sparkwell, on the south-west edge of Dartmoor, in the county of Devon in the South West of England.

Formerly known as Dartmoor Wildlife Park, it had been opened in 1968 by Ellis Daw on farmland bought by his family in 1948. During a time of crisis, it was forced to close to the public on April 23, 2006. In August of that year, it was bought for £1.1m by the Mee family consisting of mother Amelia and brothers Ben and Duncan Mee, who reopened the zoo to the public in July 2007 after a major refurbishment.

We Bought A Zoo

The current owners, the Mee family.

In 2007, the story was the subject of a 4 part television documentary, entitled Ben's Zoo, which followed owner Benjamin Mee and his staff as they revamped the park for the 21st century. It was shown on BBC Two in November and December of that year.

Although Ben's Zoo was followed by a second series, it was aired in several overseas locations and repeated several times on Nat Geo Wild throughout 2010 & 2011. There are no plans for a DVD release of the series.

Benjamin Mee, a former DIY columnist for The Guardian, also wrote a book about his experience refurbishing and living at the zoo, We Bought a Zoo: The Amazing True Story of a Young Family, a Broken Down Zoo, and the 200 Wild Animals That Change Their Lives.

In 2009, 20th Century Fox purchased the film rights to Mee's book and filming on We Bought a Zoo began in January 2011 under the direction of Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire) following a rewrite of the original adaptation written by Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada).

Matt Damon stars alongside Scarlett Johannson, Thomas Haden Church, Colin Ford, Patrick Fugit, and Elle Fanning. The film was released in the U.S. and other major territories on 23rd December 2011. It will be released in the UK on 16th March 2012.

The project is produced by Julie Yorn (Bride Wars, Max Payne) and Mark Gordon, (Saving Private Ryan, The Day After Tomorrow, Tomb Raider).

In the movie, the zoo is called Rosemoor Wildlife Park, and is situated in America, instead of Dartmoor Zoological Park in England, but the story is largely the same.

Animal welfare concerns

The original Dartmoor Wildlife Park became the subject of local debate after a 2001 report by the Captive Animals Protection Society raised questions about the welfare of the animals and the conditions in which they were kept, even though there had been no accidents in the zoo's 33-year history. The group criticised the living conditions for the animals and the safety barriers, calling for the zoo's license to be revoked. The council were reluctant to revoke the zoo's license, due to concerns over the future of the animals, but did charge Ellis Daw with 16 offences after the zoo was investigated. All but one of these charges were dropped, but Ellis Daw was found guilty of breeding Siberian tigers outside of an organised breeding programme, and of keeping them in poor conditions. For this, Daw received a £200 fine and a conditional discharge, and the tigers were sent to a wildlife centre in Holland.

External links

• Media related to Dartmoor Zoo at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website