A trip to Jersey Zoo taken sometime in the 1970s

Jersey Zoo was opened on the Island of Jersey in 1959 and was therefore well established when this Super 8 vintage home movie was taken sometime in the mid 1970s.

About the Jersey Zoo film

This film is one of many in a large collection of Super 8 movies I purchased from eBay a few weeks ago, and the fifth one I’ve published so far on vintage home movies. Like other films in the set, it has a subject which was quite popular with home moviemakers – in this case, a trip to the zoo.

The other zoo films I’ve published were all within the UK, but his one was taken slightly further afield on the Island of Jersey in the Channel Islands.

I noticed that the last film from this set I published had a hair stuck in the film gate which left a line at the top of the image as a permanent mark on the film – I’m afraid to say this film is exactly the same; It’s a shame the photographer didn’t clean the film gate when they replaced the film cartridge.

The film starts with a group of people on the runway of an airport, boarding the plane for the flight to Jersey. I don’t know which airport they flew from, so I’m afraid there is no clue as to the part of the country the family who shot this film lived in.

There are some interesting seconds of footage next, which were taken from the aircraft as it flies over the island of Jersey or possibly Guernsey. As I said, this only lasts a few seconds, but the outline of the island can be clearly seen, along with some very inviting beaches.

Unfortunately, the landing of the aircraft was not filmed, so the next sequence of the film was taken in Jersey Zoo and shows two baby animals playing. I’m not an expert on wildlife, and I’ll probably show my ignorance here, but to me, they look like baby bears, and it’s apparent that the filming was carried out through glass as it’s possible to see reflections of people walking about on the glass during some parts of the film.

There isn’t much I can add as commentary to the remainder of the film, which follows a normal family tour of the Zoo, showing many animals in their cages and compounds.

The Film from Jersey Zoo

The film of Jersey Zoo is shown as an embedded YouTube video below – if you have any comments about the film, please let me know in the comments below.