Colwyn Bay Welsh Mountain Zoo is involved in conservation work through captive breeding and education.

We're currently involved in a project to help conserve the population of red squirrels. They are extremely rare, particularly in Wales. It's hard to say how many there are left in the wild, but there's a small group on Anglesey and also a small colony has been found recently in mid Wales, though I can't be more specific as red squirrels are so scarce as a Welsh breeding animal.

We've got a breeding group here of roughly about 12 squirrels. We breed them in a controlled way, ensuring that they're not too inbred to prevent any genetic problems. Surplus squirrels then go out to other zoos to be bred, or re-introduced into the wild. It is all very carefully done.

The zoo tries to have a range of animals. Some are native to Wales, such as pine martens, which are extremely rare breeding animals in Wales, red squirrels and otters.

But as we are a medium sized zoo, to attract people we must have a wider range of animals. Tigers, chimpanzees, all of which need to be conserved.

Everyone thinks of conservation work being carried out in the native countries but you have to back that up with captive breeding, in case something happens to these small populations. Some populations of tigers for example are down to about 300/400 in the wild. If those animals are lost due to hunting or deforestation, you have to have a programme of breeding in captivity to ensure their future.

Here, we have two Sumatran tigers. We have two names for all our animals - the official name, and the keepers' name, which are Daphnia and Flynn for our tigers. Each endangered species has a stud book, and someone in Europe tells us when to breed. We've been recommended not to breed tigers at the moment.

Our Humboldt penguins look cute and are great fun. The keepers' favourite is Dippy. He's our oldest penguin at 17 years old and has no fear of people. He will come and walk amongst people, play with their shoelaces and is never aggressive.

It's good to show people a living animal that they can see and smell. Experiencing animals in a zoo isn't like a TV documentary, because zoos give everything a scale.

I'm most interested in birds of prey. We've got a good collection of birds of prey here, including golden eagles, which up until 150 years ago did breed in Wales. We also look after foreign birds such as Andean condors, which are the second heaviest flying birds in the world, and the small African village weavers, which are only as big as a sparrow.

Our Macaws will just be starting to think about breeding, so there's a nesting barrel there for them. They're mainly lively in the morning, then they quieten down for a while until they wake up during the evening to feed for the night. They live to be at least 50 years old.

The best way to continue our work at the zoo is through education, and it has to be interesting and fun for the children. Zoos aren't just about helping animals and plants now, but helping them survive into the future. It's bad now, and it's not going to get any better unless we work at it.