Ribby Hall wildlife centre stars on CBeebies

Ribby Hall Village's Wild Discovery is to feature on BBC's CBeebies.

The channel approached the Lancashire wildlife attraction about filming a section for Ferne & Rory’s Vet Tales programme, where the two hosts help children understand that, just like humans, animals can get sick and sometimes need help from a vet.

The BBC filmed at Wild Discovery over the course of two days in five-hour shifts, during which nine-year-old scoolboy Austin Trickett worked alongside his father Neil as zookeeper for the day and Albert the Armadillo received a full health check and was microchipped.

Home to 44 different species and 225 individual animals, many of which have been rescued, the centre will celebrate its second birthday this summer.

It was a personal ambition of Neil Trickett and his wife Ella to create a wildlife centre and zoo where children and adults alike can enjoy up close experiences with animals that they may never have seen before. Families can visit the attraction as a day visitor or as part of their holiday when staying at Ribby Hall Village, enabling everyone to learn about the animal world.

Wild Discovery’s primary vet and specialist exotic veterinary surgeon Siuna Reid, who is based out of Greenways Veterinary Health Centre in Lytham St Annes, was responsible for connecting Wild Discovery with the BBC.

Austin said: “The whole thing was great fun! During the filming, at times I really had to try and not laugh because the meerkats, who are incredibly nosey animals, kept trying to get in on the filming and kept on nipping at my dad to get their share of the attention!

"The producer had to keep saying ‘cut’ because of my dad screeching when the meerkats managed to get at him; it’s a good job nobody heard him swear!”

The episode filmed at Wild Discovery at Ribby Hall Village is scheduled to be aired on Tuesday 27th February 2018 at 4.30pm.