During his years as director of Dublin Zoo, Peter Wilson has experienced huge changes and faced may exciting challenges. He has seen the zoo double in size, he has welcomed new animals - some just to visit, some to stay - and he has watched new babies thrive and grow into adults.

He has also has done some rearing of his own. His children, Susan and Andrew Wilson, were raised in the zoo.

While it might seem an unorthodox setting for parenting, Peter Wilson says that it's quite traditional. "The director and his family have always resided in the zoo, since 1830." However, he concedes that "it was a most unusual upbringing".

The Wilsons moved to Dublin Zoo in 1984 when Susan was 10 and Andrew was six. Peter remembers the day he was offered the job and had to go home to break the news to his wife Jane.

"I told Jane I'd been offered the job, then said: `But it means living in the zoo.' The only thing she asked was if it would have a garden for our two dogs. We wouldn't have gone if it didn't, because they're part of our family, but it did, so we went." Susan and Andrew were very excited about the idea of moving to the zoo, but Peter says Jane and himself knew that it would be "quite an upheaval" for them.

"Where we lived in Rathgar was close to their school and they had lots of little friends living nearby, while the zoo is rather isolated."

The Wilsons decided very early on that they would always drive Andrew and Susan wherever they wanted to go and allow them to keep up their outside interests.

"Jane and I joked that we were the Dublin Zoo taxi service, but it was very important that they could go to see their friends and that we also brought their friends here. It just wouldn't have been safe to allow them through the park on their own."

Apart from the logistical difficulties in getting to and from the zoo, Peter says that the children were often the envy of their friends. "Summer evenings in the zoo are magical. Often the children's friends would come over after the visitors were all gone and they would all bicycle around enjoying the animals while it was still bright."

Peter's best memories of the zoo were when the pandas came in 1986.

"Such important guests had their own security guards," he recalls. "We often went over as a family to see them in the evenings. Pandas are very active at dawn and dusk, and we would have unique private viewings of these wonderful animals." He also remembers the following year fondly, when the golden monkeys from Central America arrived.

"The monkeys came with their own keepers and vets and we would look after and entertain these people. It was wonderful for the children to meet people from such a different culture. It was a unique experience that added to living in the zoo."

Peter says that neither Susan nor Andrew were ever frightened by the unusual noises in the zoo at night and sometimes went with their father if he had to visit animals after dark. "Being a vet, it was inevitable that I would have to visit sick animals at night and the children learned a lot from watching me treat the animals."

Peter is retiring as director this year and his family will have moved from the zoo by the summer. Although Susan and Andrew are in their mid20s now and Susan has already moved out, Peter says they all still consider the zoo their home.

"We all enjoyed it immensely, but it's now time to pass it on to someone else."

Last year the zoo had 600,584 visitors and Peter says this year there will be even more. "There's lots of exciting challenges ahead." Although the new director has yet to be chosen, Peter thinks it unlikely that he or she will maintain the tradition of living in the zoo.

"It is becoming a more unusual practice for directors to live in zoos," he says. "And if they're to have any time off, it's probably better that they don't."