Dudley Zoo

Now, how a bull elephant seal came to be floating in Loch Ness remained a mystery until the following day, when John Shields, the Flamingo Park Zoo's education officer, admitted that it was his doing.

Shields explained that an expedition to the Falkland Islands had recently brought the seal back to the UK where it had lived briefly at the Dudley Zoo but had died soon after arrival.

When he learned of this Shields realised it offered an opportunity for him to prank his colleagues who he knew were going up to Loch Ness to search for the monster.

Shields gained possession of the elephant seal, shaved off its whiskers, padded its cheeks out with stones and kept it frozen for a week before he then dumped it in the loch and phoned in a tip to make sure that his colleagues found it.

No trees, no size of trees in the yard.

So I remember at five going to Dudley Zoo with the school and seeing apple blossom for the first time.

Oh, my goodness.

And I literally thought it was the most beautiful thing ever.

I think it was my first time I went away on my own to like a tropical jungle environment.

I got a tax back from my first job, which was the best job I've ever had, which was Dudley Zoo, a local zoo to me.

And I got 800 quid tax back when I left.

And first thing I wanted to do was go and travel to wild places.