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. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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.
Animal Park: Summer Special, series twelve, was aired in August 2018. Episode 3 celebrated the life of the gorilla 'Nico', who died in January 2018 at the age of 56. 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. 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. 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. In 2021, wildlife cameraman
Hamza Yassin joined the presenting team. Series seventeen aired in August 2022, with
Megan McCubbin replacing Johansson. ==Transmissions==