Sue Woodgate, zoo business manager, started her career in 1984 as a 17-year-old junior keeper.
As a six-year-old she lived at the zoo in Alfriston in a caravan with her family while they looked for a more permanent home.
Sue, 67, said: “My father came to Sussex to work at the zoo with the rare breeds of cattle and my mother worked in the bakery and to begin with we lived on site until we found a house.
“It was a great experience for my brother and I to live at a zoo, I think it’s every child’s dream.
“It certainly sparked a lifelong love of animals in me and is a big part of the reason I am still here today.”
Sue has cared for thousands of animals during her career. She has had a variety of roles including being a zoo apprentice, head keeper, animal manager and now zoo business manager, a job she has had since 2018.
She said: “Forty years sounds like a long time, but it’s gone so quickly.
“I’ve enjoyed each of my roles because they’ve all been so varied and I’ve always worked with great people and even greater animals.
“We aren’t supposed to have favourites her, but I must admit a capuchin monkey named Barney stole my heart along the way and I had a really special bond with Humboldt penguin Peter – he had been hand-reared and so imprinted on humans, I was the penguin keeper when he arrived so he saw me as family and I adored him.”
Sue, who is the longest-serving staff member at the zoo, said a wildfire in July 2018 in the field next door to Drusillas was one of her most terrifying memories from work over the last 40 years.
She said: “We had to evacuate 1,500 visitors and then help keep the fire at bay by forming a chain and passing water buckets dousing the building roofs and floating embers floating all over the park.
“We were fortunate that none of the animals were harmed, but at one point we had to put plans in place to evacuate the whole zoo.”
Although she loves the job, Sue said saying goodbye to an animal is “always emotional”.
She said: “It never gets any easier. These animals become second family, much like your domestic pets would, and it hits hard every time.”
Sue has no plans to retire and is looking forward to working at the zoo for years to come.
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