I understand that the movie "We Bought A Zoo" is based on a true story of an English zoo, but the Hollywood version was filmed outside of LA. On Location: Thousand Oaks ranch becomes an animal sanctuary - latimes.com
Thank you for the link describing where the movie was filmed. I knew it had been somewhere in California, I just didn't know where. And I got the impression that the 'unnamed southern california town' where the zoo was located was in San Diego County. They kept saying the vet was from San Diego and Matt Damon's character once mentioned El Cajon. Just a guess, though.
There had been a short documentary tv series made over here in the UK shortly after Ben Mee had bought dartmoor zoo. Was quite interesting, However I cant remember what it was called or when it was made but definitely remember watching it and the footage of the jaguar escaping