HALF a century after the first lions arrived at Longleat, today’s big cats can now choose whether they want their cosy beds or prefer a spot of stargazing thanks to a new fence arround their enclosure.

The new fence - part of a £1.5m upgrade to their paddock and enclosures - means that the 28 strong super pride can now choose whether they want to sleep in their cosy beds or outside.

Jon Merrington, Longleat’s head of safari, said: “Over the last two years, our pride has grown significantly in both number and stature, with 11 young lions now reaching full size and maturity.

“This has challenged our team of keepers to work on evolving the space available and the pride which naturally works as two groups with mums and youngsters in one group and adults in the other.

“They have moved the group of adults in to a newly fenced 3,200 sq. metre paddock which has open access to the lion house at night.

“This is in addition to the 50,000 square metres they spend their days in. The second group stay where they are and also now have constant access to their paddock at night,” he added.

The new initiative is part of a investment programme at the park involving new fencing for most of the carnivore section, including the lions, tigers, wolves and cheetahs.

In total well over 4km of fence line is due to be replaced, along with upgrades to housing and gates.

The total cost of the project is likely to be in excess of £1.5m.

Longleat keeper Amy Waller said: “We have been working on the new enclosure areas for the past year and we are delighted that the first phase is now complete and our visitors have been able to drive through it surrounded by our beautiful lions.

“The lions themselves love their new space and it will be fascinating to see how they react to their new freedom at night.

“We have installed motion activated cameras so we can monitor their behavior after dark and see what they get up to at night.

“In the wild, lions tend to hunt at dawn and dusk, so it will be really interesting to see how they adapt to their new round-the-clock access to the outdoors."

The next stage in the project sees the introduction of new platforms and enrichment as the team attempt to re-integrate the two groups, across the two enclosures, to become one ‘super-pride’ reminiscent of the original large pride of lions brought to Longleat in 1966.