Night-time at the Zoo
Slow Radio: Dusk to dawn at the Isle of Wight Zoo.
Slow Radio: Dusk to dawn at the Isle of Wight Zoo
On the beautiful Sandown Beach on the Isle of Wight stands a historic fort, now home to the Isle of Wight Zoo. It is run by the Wildheart Trust, which promotes the survival of endangered species, and is well known as a centre for rescued big cats who, along with pocket sized primates and other even smaller animals have a starring role in this portrayal of the sounds of the zoo. The programme moves from dusk, as the animals prepare for sleep, through the small hours of the night, when the silence is punctuated by the sound of snoring, to dawn and the beginning of a new day.
(The music is from the Symphonia Domestica, which Richard Strauss worked at while on holiday in Sandown in the early years of the last century, staying at a hotel just a few hundred yards from the zoo.)