Predecessors

The Lions of Longleat is a 1967 BBC One documentary about the newly opened safari park with commentary by Lord Bath and Jimmy Chipperfield.^[1] Another series, Lion Country, aired between 1998 and 1999 with a total of 55 episodes.

Original series

The first series of Animal Park, originally broadcast in 2000 on BBC One, was presented by Kate Humble and Paul Heiney.^[2] In series two, Heiney was replaced by Ben Fogle. Altogether, there were nine series and 150 episodes of Animal Park, with the last episode originally airing on 25 March 2009.

Spin-offs

There have been two spin-offs from the main series. Animal Park: Wild in Africa was originally broadcast in 2005 on BBC Two.^[3] Set in Namibia, it documented the work of wildlife conservationists.

Another spin-off, Animal Park: Wild on the West Coast, had a similar format in California, and was originally broadcast in 2007 on BBC Two.^[4]

2016 revival

In 2016, the BBC announced that Animal Park would return for a tenth series to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Longleat Safari Park.^[5] This series aired for five episodes in August 2016 in a daytime slot. The show was renamed Animal Park: Summer Special and was presented by Kate Humble and Ben Fogle, with Jean Johansson as a reporter.

An eleventh series was broadcast in 2017. Five episodes aired during Easter, with a further ten airing during the summer.^[6]

Animal Park: Summer Special, series twelve, was aired in August 2018.^[7] Episode 3 celebrated the life of the gorilla 'Nico', who died in January 2018 at the age of 56.^[8][9] Episode 7 featured wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas, who used his remote-control BeetleCam to take a series of close-up photographs of the animals.^[10]

Humble and Fogle continued as presenters for the 2019 and 2020 series.

Series fourteen, episode 4 (first aired in August 2020) celebrated the life of the former owner of the Longleat estate, Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath, who died in April 2020.^[11][12] His son Ceawlin Thynn, 8th Marquess and his wife Emma have since appeared on several episodes.

Series fifteen, aired in December 2020, had a Christmas theme.^[13] In 2021, wildlife cameraman Hamza Yassin joined the presenting team.^[14]

Series seventeen aired in August 2022, with Megan McCubbin replacing Johansson.^[15]

Main series

Some episodes from series six and eight have been re-edited into 15, 25, 30 and 45 minute programmes to be repeated and used as schedule fillers.

Animal Park: Wild in Africa

Animal Park: Wild on the West Coast