Ben and his family buy Dartmoor zoo in the hope of turning the business around.
Ben is concerned by the amount of paperwork he has to do.When his wife discovers she has cancer Ben realises that the zoo is the least of his worries and problems.
A government inspector is due to check the zoo out. Ben and the team desperately try to make sure everything is ready so that the zoo will be passed so that it can open.
Ben and the team have Dartmoor Zoo ready open to the public after 10 months of hard work. Fudge, the elderly European Brown Bear is seen by an animal dentist. At the end of the first season of being open Ben tries to calculate if the zoo has made enough money to sustain it's self during the winter months.