When I was a lot younger, I grew up on the Dorling Kindersley 'Eyewitness' books and their associated television series. Now I have found my stash of the books hidden in my house and several videos of the old TV series, I am curious as to where some of the animals photographed or filmed were from. The one picture in the books that really captured my attention was of a Doria's tree kangaroo (here: Vorschau). Although they are not listed on Zootierliste, I have heard the species was kept at both Twycross and Blackpool Zoos - I was wondering if anyone recognised the enclosure in the picture. I will admit to being more interested in the animals in the television series, with many different species being filmed in a studio in the UK. I was curious if anyone knew the origins of the following animals: - The gorilla from the 'Ape' episode; it is a youngster and can clearly be seen wearing a collar (at 0:27 seconds into this video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVKpYmDXbhc); there are also a baby chimpanzee and baby siamang included in this episode, again I am unsure of where they came from - The two elephants from the 'Elephant' episode; a young African calf and a fully-grown female Asian elephant that is, at one point, put in full finery and ridden - part of me almost wonders if this is Anne the ex-circus elephant (can be seen from 2:50 to 4:05 in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q97d2Q7AkFQ) - The tiger, lion and black leopard from the 'Cat' episode - their trainers can be seen in part of the making-of episode (around 12:00 minutes in in this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si81S8yu_6A) - The striped hyena from the 'Monster' episode - again the trainer can be seen in the making-of section (from 2:05 to 2:55 here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwCnxScc0sc) - The squirrel monkey from the 'Jungle' episode - the making-of episode says (at around 8:45 here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q97d2Q7AkFQ) that they were provided by a primate sanctuary in Sussex - The king penguin from the 'Arctic and Antarctic' episode - the making-of for this episode states that the penguin was unable to be moved to the studio and so instead they went and built a studio in the grounds of the penguin's home; an exterior shot of the building and filming of the penguin can be seen from 1:30 to 2:12 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30aot0bayes - The brown bear from the 'Bear' episode - I must admit I didn't see this episode when it came out, but when looking through clips I found this shot obviously taken in a studio (from 0:00 to 0:12 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUCk17-ZW7A); although it is referred to as a grizzly bear, I am not sure how correct this is To put these into a time context, the series was made between 1995 and 1997. Hoping at least someone knows where these animals are from.
Tree Kangaroo image - I am 80% certain that is from Twycross I can't view the videos on my phone - but the lion, tiger, bear and hyena are very likely from Heythrop (owned by Jim Clubb) as for the young Gorilla, Port Lympne maybe? Though they had gone out of Chimps by then
I looked at the Gorilla one- the young Gorilla has been placed in a sort of 'set' situation, so it could be from anywhere- not necessarily filmed in the UK either. The commentary has a couple of mistakes- 'groups rarely contain more than 15 animals'- they are often double that size and one mountain Gorilla group until recently numbered 64 animals! The shots at the end of two males 'fighting' are a Mountain silverback and blackback male(probably his son) energetically playing and then the younger male chasing the silverback round in a circle- but I suppose its the best they could do to show 'aggression'.
The hyena was definitely with jim clubb, the squirrel monkeys were provided by penny boyd who used to have a wildlife sanctuary that i cant remember the name of? was it Bairstow?
the Asian elephant is one of Bobby Roberts elephants but its not Annie and the young African elephant is Flora formly at Dudley zoo now at Nantes safari park in France .
The raptors were from the National Centre for Birds of Prey, now named the International Centre for Birds of Prey.
Very delayed update, but I have since found out that the gorilla was filmed at Twycross Zoo. It was moved across from its enclosure to a set constructed in a disused building on the zoo site.
There are worse mistakes - the Cat episode stated that the cats have an evolutionary lineage which dates back 500 million years! [in other words, about 40+- million years after the Cambrian Explosion, apparently] @DesertRhino150 The brown bear prominently features in the third Making of Eyewitness - it is, in fact, 'Hercules' - a brown bear known well for his various roles in television.
