Following the daily drama of life at Britain's biggest zoo; Chester Zoo is home to 7,000 animals from 400 species, and is visited by more than a million people each year.

Rafters the giraffe is hit by a life-threatening illness, which worries the keepers; in the reptile house, meanwhile, the vets get to grips with one of the world's largest snakes.

The torrential summer rain threatens to wipe out Chester Zoo's baby flamingos; keepers must act fast to avert disaster as parent birds squabble over the remains of their flooded nest sites.

Senior keeper Darren Langford plays mom to a baby bird as the battle to save Chester Zoo's flood-hit flamingo colony continues.

There is cause for celebration at the zoo as two cubs are born to a pair of beautiful but endangered red pandas.

Mick Jones, head keeper of the Zoo's Asian elephants, turns matchmaker; he has the unenviable job of introducing female elephant Birma to bull elephant Upali, often with dangerous consequences.