Heythrop Zoo is a private animal training centre not open to the general public, but hosts open days each year in September. The zoo do lots of training of their animals for TV and films. One of their lions appeared in Fantastic Beasts!
During the open day, there were lots of talks and training presentations, and you also get access to one of their studio shows, which consisted of the trainers up close with the lions, leopard and tiger! It was pretty intense and not something you generally see anymore.
The zoo has quite a large number of species, including meerkats, raccoons, wolves, a pygmy hippo, sloths, lions, tigers, leopards, brown bears and lemurs. It also has quite a nice reptile collection.
The penguin parade was good fun as well, the kids enjoyed feeding them some fish.
For £14 per ticket, this collection is well worth a visit.