Former wildlife centre zookeeper Billy Buchan

Amore appropriate song couldn’t have been chosen for the funeral of Billy Buchan from Dundee. As mourners gathered to pay tribute to Camperdown Wildlife Centre’s inaugural zookeeper, Talk to the Animals by Sammy Davis Jr was played.

But unlike the lyrics in the song, Billy, who died aged 67, did far more than just imagine speaking to animals – he devoted his life to their nurture and conservation.

Born on February 19 1954, Billy was the son of Ben and May Buchan from Perth.

To provide for his three children – Billy, Dennis, and Fiona – Ben worked as a shepherd, then a milkman, before joining the staff crew on the Dundee buses.

May worked in a graded egg factory then latterly, Mccolls newsagents.

They raised their children in Perthshire where Billy went to Kettins Primary, then Newtyle School.

He later studied at Forfar Academy before his family moved to Dundee when Billy was a teenager.

Fiona Jack, Billy’s sister, said: “Billy left school at 15 and a half and went to work in a box factory but it wasn’t for him.

“He started working with the animals at Camperdown when he was 17.

“That would be all he would do until he retired.”

However, Billy never treated his work as simply a day job.

“He travelled all over, going to zoos and learning everything he could,” said Fiona.

“And it wasn’t unusual for him to bring animals home to mum and dad’s, including things like snakes.”

Billy lived in Charleston, Dundee, from 1971 and joined the team at the wildlife centre shortly after.

Not ambitious to climb the career ladder, his priority and focus was always just looking after the animals.

Brad Yule is the conservation network manager at Camperdown and had known Billy for decades.

“I started volunteering at the park when I was 14 and Billy was there then,” he said.

“But if you see the place now it would be easy to forget that when he began it wasn’t really a zoo at all.

“There were just enclosures dotted around the place but that meant in 1974 – when it officially started becoming a proper zoo – Billy was the first proper zookeeper.”

Along with his best friend Joe Morrow, Billy loved to travel the world, especially if it meant getting up close and personal with the wildlife.

The two friends met in 1979 through a mutual interest in rare animal breeds and natural history.

Joe said: “He was very much all about the animals but he also had a huge capacity to make friends. People really did love him.

“Billy was a proud gay man and he loved to take part in Pride, and to stand up for issues of diversity and inclusion.”

Billy was diagnosed with cancer in 2018, almost as soon as he retired.

Throughout his illness he still enjoyed his garden and made time for his family.

He is survived by Fiona and his four nephews.

DEDICATED: Billy Buchan loved working with animals.