Meet the zoo ranger with the coolest job in Warrington

Last week, the zoo ranger celebrated 40 years at Walton Hall and Gardens Children’s Zoo where a plaque was installed to celebrate his hard work and dedication.

Peter, who is originally from Penketh, has loved animals from a very early age and always wanted to be a zookeeper.

This came from his childhood where he had plenty of pets and would spend the summer holidays working at his auntie’s farm near Preston.

So for him, his job feels more like a hobby than actual work.

When Peter began working at the children’s zoo, there were just 10 old cages with a few animals and birds in them.

“I came basically to build the zoo as there was no zoo there,” he said.

“We wanted to open it and make it larger. And my job was also to make a walkway around the zoo.”

Peter also got to choose what animals to bring to Walton - and has since introduced many different species. And now out of the many that are there, his favourite is the donkeys.

And the proudest moment of his career in Walton so far has been when he hand-reared the much-loved BoBo the donkey.

Peter was with BoBo’s mother when she went into labour at 6am, but when she gave birth to him, she treated him badly and tried to attack and kill him.

BoBo was also unable to feed from his mother, so this resulted in Peter having to hand-rear the newborn who lived with him for six months until his feeding started to reduce.

BoBo lived in Peter’s kitchen and was the size of a Labrador when he returned to the children’s zoo.

Peter said: “It was fantastic having him, baby donkeys are the cutest things ever.”

Although no two days are the same for Peter, he talked the Warrington Guardian through his typical daily routine.

He usually starts work at around 8.30am. His first job is to make sure all the animals are happy and healthy before giving out a morning feed.

Then he moves the donkeys and alpacas and lets the pigs out and makes sure all of the animals who were put to bed the night before are checked and let out.

Next, Peter then begins watering - making sure all the zoo’s residents have fresh water – before mucking out and cleaning and setting the student interns daily jobs.

Around 1pm is then feeding time for the animals before the lockdown routine begins where the zoo team start to put things away and animals back to bed before it gets dark.

An average day for Peter finishes at around 4.30pm.

Peter with the specially installed plaque (Image: Newsquest)

Speaking about his four decades at the zoo, Peter said: “It has been fantastic, I have a great team around me at Walton Gardens.

“I have been very lucky over the past 40 years, I’ve had some very good managers and I think the team I’m working with now is one of the best.

“It doesn’t feel like a job at all, it is just like a hobby.”

Besides his hard work with all the animals, Peter has also worked closely with students from Myerscough College who often complete internships at the zoo.

His favourite part about this scheme is sharing his passion for the zoo and animals with students.

And to honour Peter’s 40 years at Walton Hall and Gardens Children’s Zoo, the team there have worked in partnership with Myerscough College to launch the Peter Cookson-Dean award, which will be given to a student each year for outstanding achievement in animal care.

The donkeys are Peter's favourite animals (Image: Newsquest)