Life at zoo is wild for schoolboy
Not every schoolboy has a host of exotic animals including lions, tigers and bears living in his back garden. But then 10-year-old Harry Lewis is not every schoolboy.
The animal-mad youngster lives on site at Dudley Zoo where his parents Matt and Lesley are full-time keepers and he enjoys mucking in to make the day run smoothly. The youngster has been animal crackers ever since his parents can remember and loves helping out by cleaning up and chatting to visitors about the different animals.
"Harry has always loved animals right from when he was a young baby and he spends all his spare time at the zoo," said Lesley.
"We live on site so it really is like having a very large back garden with lots of exotic animals to care for."
Harry's favourite animal is the lion Itar who arrived at the zoo earlier this year from a park in Holland.
He said: "I have lived at Dudley Zoo all my life.
"We have loads of different animals here like kangaroos, chimps, flamingos and giraffes.
"My favourite animal is the lion. I sometimes hear him roar when I'm in bed.
"I did find it scary, but I'm used to it now and he's not as noisy as the peacock that roams the zoo grounds."
Matt, curator at the zoo, and Lesley first met at the attraction where they have worked for the past 20 years.
And Harry hopes to one day follow in their footsteps and care for animals full time.
He added: "I help them out in loads of different ways.
"I feed and clean out the animals and also chat to visitors to the zoo's farm about the various creatures there and how to hold them.
"I have my own zoo keeper uniform which is a green sweatshirt and brown trousers."
Harry's lifestyle is so unusual that he has even been filmed by the BBC children's programme Newsround to allow other youngsters to share a day in his unique life inside the zoo.
Lesley said: "He was a bit nervous when Newsround approached him, but soon got into the swing of things and loved every minute of filming at the zoo."
