Animal Park

Kate Humble on her joy at being surrounded by amorous penguins, mischievous monkeys and a gigantic spider at Longleat Safari Park

NEW I’ve loved Longleat since I first visited it during a holiday as an eight-yearold, so I’m excited to see Kate Humble and Ben Fogle are back with five summer specials from the park. Kate meets big cat keeper Amy and gives us the lowdown on the all the drama, including a love triangle on Penguin Island, and a house-move for a bamboo spider.

Over the past few months, Kate Humble has been to the Arctic Circle and Yellowstone National Park in the US to front wildlife shows. But this week she’s back on familiar ground, returning to Longleat Safari Park with Ben Fogle to co-present the 12th series of BBC1’S Animal Park.

‘Longleat’s like my second home to me, but without having to do the cleaning!’ laughs Kate, 48. ‘Many of the keepers have worked at Longleat for as long as we’ve been doing the series, which is nearly 20 years, so Ben and I feel like we are part of an extended family, albeit one with lots of animals.’

The pair are back, along with Jean Johansson, for 10 actionpacked summer specials. It’s the busiest period of the year for the park and it is also a hectic time for the Animal Park team.

‘We have more daylight, so we can film for longer,’ says Kate, ‘starting at

8.00am and finishing at 6.00pm. The grounds at

Longleat House are stunning in summer.’

Here, Kate tells us what we can look forward to seeing in the new series…

There is an amazing penguin romance

Kate Humble