Island Life Magazine Ltd February / March 2016 | Page 16

INTERVIEW

just unthinkable”.
Fortunately, partner Chris
could empathise, despite being
disappointed at not having Charlotte
to travel with.
“Chris has two poodles that he feels
the same about,” she says without
a trace of irony. “It’s something
you just realise when you go into a
relationship with an animal – you
sign part of your life away”.
There aren’t many people, though,
who will share Charlotte’s experience
of living side by side with a jungle
creature.
Indeed, some would even question
if captivity is the right way for such
animals to live.
“I perfectly understand that view”
says Charlotte , “but I have to live
with that dichotomy because
at the moment, there is no
alternative when it comes to species
management.
“What’s most important is the
individual exotic animals that
have no future except in a human
environment, and I feel comfortable
with that”.

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Call to the wild
Having said that, Charlotte
describes how it almost broke her
heart on her first night on a trip to
India, when she heard a tiger calling
in the wild.
“It was tough when I saw and heard
them functioning as part of their
natural system and it made me quite
depressed. The wild can be a very
cruel and complex place, but in an
ideal world it’s where they should be”.
However, in what is a far from ideal
world, she reckons that tigers and
other endangered species are, for
now, reliant on zoos to guarantee
against extinction.
Much like humans who live in
the artificial environment of a city,
she says that good zoos can offer
animals a life that’s still “wholesome
and valid”.
A generation on, Charlotte is, in
many ways, a very different kind of
zoo director from her father but, like
him, she shares a strong sense of
vocation. She lists ‘care, conservation
and education’ as her three top

images:
Top: Zena and Zia relaxing at the
zoo
Above: Charlotte’s father Jack
Corney taking a tiger for a walk on
the beach
Right: Charlotte taking care of Zena