Alan Toyne

Alan Toyne is an Anthropology graduate with a specialism in primate politics and has a fascination with the similarities that exist between human beings and our ape and monkey cousins. He traveled extensively in search of wild primates and became a zookeeper at Bristol Zoo in 2008.

Working with the troop of Western Lowland gorillas at Bristol Zoo for fourteen years, he built close working relationships with the animals and went on to hand rear and successfully reintroduce two baby Western Lowland Gorillas.

Alan’s first book is about this hand-rearing process and having a baby gorilla at home, life working in a modern zoo, and the undeniable similarities in parenting and social behaviour that we share as species of primates. 

Agent: James Spackman