Edinburgh Zoo: We try out the £2,000 bespoke private tour

I have fond memories of Edinburgh Zoo. Many trips were enjoyed there as a child with my grandparents and growing up it quickly became the highlight of the summer holidays

But admittedly it’s been a very long time since my last visit and as I arrive in the capital on a freezing cold day, wrapped up within an inch of my life, I am intrigued to see if it still holds the same appeal.

I’m here for a very different experience to the ones I had as a child however. Today, I’m here to try out one of the zoo’s new bespoke tours.

The idea is a VIP, build-your-own wild adventure for the day, and it’s the zoo’s only guaranteed entirely private experience. But it’s not a cheap day out. A package for two guests comes in at a whopping £2,000. The day includes entry to the zoo for two, coffee and cake vouchers, and lunch on site.

You get to pick four animals to see up close, anything from Queensland koalas and red pandas to their big cats or Pygmy hippos (a great opportunity for fans to see the incredibly rare baby Haggis who shot to fame last year, following in the footsteps of fellow pygmy hippo Moo Deng in Thailand who went viral on social media).

I’m seeing the big cats, koalas, armadillo and sloths, but as a self confessed animal lover, I would have been delighted with pretty much anything.

A quick stroll around the zoo to spot the meerkats, a few otters and of course, the penguins, I head to meet my guide for the day, zoo keeper Lynsey.

Zoo keeper Lynsey is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to the zoo’s residents. Credit: Edinburgh Zoo.

She’s engaging, enthusiastic and has the air of someone who genuinely loves their job. We enter the keeper’s hut where Lynsey tells me what the day has in store and then she hands me a huge metal dog bowl filled with red meat.

‘You’ll be walking a lot today, and the first part is all uphill, so we’ll take our time,’ she tells me.

And she’s not wrong. After five minutes of climbing towards the big cat enclosure I am quickly reminded of the very steep incline the zoo is built on – a much easier ascent as an excited child.

As we trudge up the hill to meet Sumatran tiger Lucu, Lynsey tells me that he’s one of the rarest species of tiger, classified as critically endangered.

‘It is estimated there are as few as 300 remaining in the wild,’ she says.

Lucu spots us a mile off and quickly moves across his enclosure to a private area where we feed him chunks of the meat with a huge pair of tongs.

Sumatrans are one of the rarest species of tiger, classified as critically endangered. Credit: Edinburgh Zoo.

He’s smaller than I imagined he would be, but it’s still incredibly surreal and intimidating to be up this close as he paces in front of us patiently waiting for his food.

Lynsey senses my nerves, but with her calming presence I quickly get into the swing of it and before I know it we have made it to the bottom of the bowl.

‘Lucu, all done,’ Lynsey says, and then she signals to the tiger with her hands that the feeding is finished.

‘We like to let the animals know the food is finished and there won’t be anymore just now,’ she tells me. And Lucu clearly knows the drill as once Lynsey has spoken, he heads back off into his enclosure for a lie down.

We head over to meet four-year-old Asiatic lion Jay next and I am immediately astonished at the size of him.

‘I showed you Lucu first because if we had seen Jay and then went to Lucu he would have looked even smaller than you thought,’ Lynsey says.

As we feed Jay, Lynsey tells me about the zoo’s efforts to help the declining population of  Asiatic lions (just 600 remain in the wild). They recently welcomed eight-year-old Asiatic lioness, Bindee, who they hope will eventually mate with Jay.

‘Their enclosures are next to each other, but we are keeping them separate to begin with, and then they will be gradually introduced to each other,’ Lynsey says.

As she tells me this, Jay heads over near to where Bindee is padding around and begins to rub himself on the fence and show off his ferocious roar.

It is hoped Jay and Bindee will one day have cubs to help with the population decline of these big cats. Credit: Edinburgh Zoo.

‘These are all good signs,’ Lynsey says. ‘Hopefully we’ll get some cubs at some point.’

‘His roar is quite something, isn’t it. We often get people who live near the zoo telling us they can hear him from time to time.’

The Queensland koalas are our next stop and Lynsey tells me we are going to see one of the zoo’s three koalas get weighed.

‘This is very special,’ she says. And as we step behind the door I can see she is visibly excited.

She’s worked at the zoo for ten years, but hasn’t had much up close time with the koalas and her eagerness is infectious.

Koala keeper Lorna enters the room holding one of the zoo’s three bears, Kalari, and we are stunned into silence. The adorably fluffy marsupial looks completely unfazed as we quietly coo and ahh over her.

Weigh day for the koalas.

The room is filled with Eucalyptus and the plant’s aroma fills the room.

‘They mostly eat Eucalyptus,’ Lorna tells me. ‘It is toxic to most animals but koalas have a specialised digestive system which allows them to eat it safely.

‘They sleep for between 18 and 22 hours a day but they can be very active when they are up and about, and they can run fast when they want to.’

I am lucky enough to have a little pet of Kalari’s incredibly soft but dense fur, before Lorna pops her onto a tree branch perched on top of the scale to weigh her.

It’s then a quick break for private two-course lunch at Mansion House – a £72 per person upgrade on the zoo experience package. There are also options to upgrade your lunch to an afternoon tea (£34pp) or a private afternoon tea (£40pp).

Lynsey meets me after lunch and it’s onwards to the armadillos and the sloths. These are clearly Lynsey’s speciality and her love for them is evident as she regales us with facts about the species and the personality traits of the ones we are seeing.

Credit: Edinburgh Zoo.

First on the agenda is to make up their food. We mix the dry ingredients with some water to make a porridge like consistency and Lynsey adds on some locusts toppers.

Three-banded armadillos Rio and Pacha are small and fit perfectly into the palms of my clasped hands. They are the only armadillo species able to roll into a ball (think Tuk Tuk from Raya and the Last Dragon).

The larger hairy armadillos are housed with sloths Nico and Feira. Lynsey tells us to be careful not to step on them as they scurry around the floor and attempt to climb up my welly boots.

Nico and Feira pretty much live up to their sloth reputation. Nico hangs upside down and takes a few chunks of sweet potato and aubergine from me before very slowly climbing to the roof of his enclosure.

Credit: Edinburgh Zoo.

Feira is snuggled up a crate, her enormous claws dangling down. She barely opens her eyes as she takes some veg which hangs out of her mouth like a cigar until she is ready to actually eat it.

Maybe not as exciting as the big cats, and admittedly not as thrilling as the koala, but I was impressed with the sluggish sloths and seeing them up close was incredible.

As we wander back to the keeper’s hut to end the day, Lynsey chats to me about the other animals we pass by – she is a fountain of knowledge and it’s truly impressive how much she knows about the residents here.

As I walk back to my car armed with a zoo goodie bag and a free t-shirt I am feeling pretty incredible, and all in all, the day surpassed my expectations.

Turns out I do still love the zoo, and I can only imagine how thrilled the younger version of myself would have been to be lucky enough to enjoy a day like the one I had.

But only time will tell whether people will be willing to pay the price to have the surreal experience of seeing these animals up close.

Read more Wildlife stories here.

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