We Bought a Zoo

About this book

The remarkable true story of a family who move into a rundown zoo already a BBC documentary miniseries and excerpted in The Guardian. In the market for a house and an adventure Benjamin Mee moved his family to an unlikely new home: a dilapidated zoo in the English countryside. Mee had a dream to refurbish the zoo and run it as a family business. His friends and colleagues thought he was crazy. But in 2006 Mee and his wife with their two children his brother and his 76-year-old mother moved into the Dartmoor Wildlife Park. Their extended family now included: Solomon an African lion and scourge of the local golf course; Zak the rickety Alpha wolf a broadly benevolent dictator clinging to power; Ronnie a Brazilian tapir easily capable of killing a man but hopelessly soppy; and Sovereign a jaguar and would-be ninja who has devised a long term escape plan and implemented it. Nothing was easy given the familys lack of experience as zookeepers and what follows is a magical exploration of the mysteries of the animal kingdom the power of family and the triumph of hope over tragedy. We Bought a Zoo is a profoundly moving portrait of an unforgettable family living in the most extraordinary circumstances.