Blue Peter fame for adorable Telford meerkats
There's an old adage that it's best never to work with children and animals on live television – even if they're as adorable as these cheeky meerkats.
But Scott Adams, of Telford's Exotic Zoo, is proving them wrong after nearly two years of appearances on the BBC's Blue Peter.
His latest segment on the long-running children's TV show was on June 22, and he took some of the zoo's most popular residents, Immy and Imara, with him.
And he's already been booked for multiple appearances after the summer holidays.
He said: "Unlike most shows Blue Peter is filmed live and being live on telly with live animals, you don't always know what's going to happen.
"Luckily nobody's been bitten or pooped on too badly.
"They originally asked me to do a one-off show that went really well, and they keep asking me back.
"I'm not sure how many times I've been on it now, but I've got a lot of Blue Peter badges, put it like that.
"Getting to do the animal pieces on Blue Peter is not just fun for me and good for the business, it's really engaging for the local schools. It's exciting for them to see me and the animals after watching us telly the night before. It helps us make the work even more engaging.
"The reason we do it is to teach kids about conservation, and with Blue Peter we get to do it on a bigger scale. We're teaching tens of thousands of kids all over the country."
Work is continuing on the Exotic Zoo, based at Lakeside Plant Centre in Priorslee, and Scott is still aiming to open for the beginning of the summer holidays.
They opened for a few days over the Easter holidays and Scott said the event proved a success, even though it wasn't complete.
The zoo has been built with the help of veterans from Combat Stress in Newport.
