City zoo game

AGED just 16, Art Parkinson has already had an exciting acting career and rubbed shoulders with some of the biggest names in showbiz, including Matthew McConaughey, Charlize Theron, Dwayne Johnson and Ralph Fiennes – not to mention fellow cast members of Game of Thrones, the global smash hit series in which he has had a central role since 2011. His latest acting adventure took him to Belfast and Canada, where he filmed some heartwarming and emotional scenes with an elephant, in Zoo, the movie inspired by the true story of a woman who brought a baby elephant home from Belfast Zoo during the Second World War in an effort to prevent it from being killed during the German bombing of the city. Art stars as 12-year-old Tom, in the family-friendly adventure, written and directed by Antrim man Colin McIvor. When his father gets called up to serve in the British army, Tom steps up to save a baby elephant as city authorities order the elimination of the zoo’s large carnivores, … [Read more...] about Game of Thrones actor Art Parkinson discusses working with elephants in Zoo and his Saturday job in a Derry cafe

HUMANS weren't the only casualties in the Belfast Blitz during the Second World War: In 1941, 33 animals at Bellevue Zoo were ordered to be killed lest they escape from their enclosures into the wilds of north Belfast during air raids. Happily, zookeeper Denise Austin decided to protect a baby African elephant called Sheila by taking her home each night to her back yard at Whitewell Road. The elephant would bed down in their garage for the night before accompanying Sheila back to the zoo the next morning: an arrangement which worked perfectly well for 18 months until Sheila chased an aggressive dog into a neighbour's garden, destroying a fence in the process and alerting the zoo authorities to her nocturnal adventures. These swiftly came to an end, though the miraculously still employed Denise then began to visit Sheila in her enclosure during the night, rubbing her ears to keep her calm as the bombs fell over the city. It's enough to bring a tear to your eye, and sure enough there's … [Read more...] about Film review: Zoo movie ‘highly recommended for kids and elephant aficionados’