HUDDLED on a branch sit six ring-tailed lemurs. Such lively creatures should be playfully bouncing around outdoors, but these are shut in a small, bare pen, looking out mournfully.

Next door, a tiny spider monkey paws at the window. In another pen, another lemur has a red-raw sore next to its eye.

Yesterday at the Interactive Animal Area of the South Lakes Safari Zoo in Dalton, Cumbria, only the ducks and peacocks were allowed to wander among the handful of tourists.

It is here, near the picturesque town of Ulverston, that 500 animals have died in the last four years, in- cluding giraffes, tigers and lion cubs.

Many of the 1,500 left have endured appalling conditions and treatment.

Yet while the zoo’s creatures suffer, owner David Gill lives in luxury nearby, in a million-pound farmstead set in 45 acres of stunning scenery within the Lake District National Park.

The impressive estate is just five acres smaller than his zoo.

The home’s top-of-the-range kitchen and chandeliers hanging from wooden beams are evidence of the success he has enjoyed with his ­business, which makes £3million a year and attracts 250,000 visitors.

But while he proudly displays ­pictures of animals around his home, Mr Gill, 55, is accused of being less interested in the real thing.

But then he has regularly faced distractions caused by his personal life, which is as colourful as the ­peacocks we found scratching around the nettles by a generator.

Alison, his first wife and mother to his first two children, left him in 1997 after 12 years of marriage when

Mr Gill had an affair with teenage zoo hand Shelley Goodwin.

She had left school at 16 and looked after the kangaroos. The unlikely pair married in July 2000 but divorced soon afterwards.

He then had a relationship with Caroline Jellicoe, with whom he has another two children.
In 2008 Mr Gill was at the centre of a court case after being stabbed in the neck by jilted husband

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Richard Creary, who had caught him in bed with his wife Alison.
Creary, a former rugby league player, stormed into Mr Gill’s home and found him half naked with ­

Alison. He shouted: “You’re shagging my wife — you’re going to die!”
The pair fought on the stairs before the Ferrari-driving zoo boss escaped in just his pyjama bottoms.

Creary admitted aggravated ­burglary with intent to cause actual bodily harm and was jailed for five years at Preston Crown Court.

Mr Gill is now ­married to his third wife, Frieda Rivera-Schreiber, the model daughter of a former Miss Peru — and ironically a vet.

Despite her skills in animal care, the zoo has a shocking tally of suffering, as revealed by Barrow Borough Council inspectors.

It includes Goliath the tortoise being electrocuted when he got stuck in charged fencing, a decomposed squirrel monkey found behind a ­radiator and a giraffe which died of suspected E.coli poisoning.

The bodies of snow leopards Miska and Natasja were discovered partially eaten in their enclosure in October 2015. A red ruffed lemur got into the tiger enclosure and was also eaten, and a giraffe died after slipping on a smooth concrete floor.

Animal welfare charity the Captive Animals’ Protection Society called the council’s findings “the worst we have ever come across in 60 years”.

It carried out its own inspection last summer and campaign officer Maddie Taylor says: “We urge the local authority to take action by closing this appalling zoo down.”

The charity’s inspection found an emaciated kangaroo, a meerkat with skin problems and Humboldt ­penguins deprived of water on the hottest day of last year.

Yesterday The Sun visited and found the ­penguins had plenty of water — but it was the colour of mud.

Travel website TripAdvisor is full of comments from disgruntled visitors who normally pay £16.50 per adult ticket — though yesterday the zoo had extended its free winter entry offer. Heather W posted:

“Most of the ­animals looked stressed out and ­miserable, with many who had clumps of hair missing and patches of skin that looked sore.”

Sarah Moorehouse wrote: “I can’t believe there are places like this still around. The animals look miserable and some look in really poor condition. Enclosures are really run down.”

And Amy McGovan said: “Avoid this place at all costs. It needs ­closing down.”

The council’s veterinary advisor Dr Matthew Brash, who inspected the zoo, reported: “It was particularly upsetting to see the lack of bedding for the baby rhino, which clearly demonstrated that there was nobody in charge on a day-to-day basis for the welfare of the animals.” The report explained that young rhinos can suffer hypothermia from lying on a cold concrete floor.

Dr Brash’s inspection found many of the zoo’s animals were given little protection against the cold Lake ­District climate. In 2015 three nyala — spiral-horned East African antelope — died within a week of their arrival and another two have since died, while last January four Inca terns, native to Peru, died — all due to cold.

Tortoises were found huddled together under heat lamps because their tank was not warm enough.

Animals in the Africa House, which are by nature used to warmer climes, were kept in the cold. The report said: “If the temperature dropped and remained low, the giraffes would use energy reserves to keep warm which they can’t maintain, which ultimately means they could die.”

It continued: “Mr Gill did not believe the animals need heating but a structure was now in place.”

The council’s report did make clear some improvements had been made.

The tiger fencing, for example, had been strengthened.

In 2013, a Sumatran tiger called Padang fatally mauled 24-year-old zookeeper Sarah McClay. The zoo was fined £450,000 and the tiger was put down in 2015.

It was not the first fine for lax standards. And despite Mr Gill ­owning a zoo licence since 1994, in 2001 an industrial tribunal ordered him to pay £30,000 compensation to former zookeeper Lara Kitson after he ordered her to clamber up a ­ladder to feed raw meat to the tigers while she was pregnant. She complained that scaling the ladder would put her baby at risk but claimed Mr Gill suggested she have an abortion.

In 1997, a three-ton white rhino went on a terrifying rampage through the zoo and had to be shot dead.

Mr Gill was fined £10,000 for failing to secure the enclosure.

He now claims he has taken a step back from managing the zoo and instead leases it to the Cumbria Zoo Company.

Last July, after a council licensing renewal meeting, he vowed he would no longer be involved in running it, yet three weeks later four new directors resigned and Mr and Mrs Gill were appointed sole directors.

The Council had rejected his application to renew his licence due to management and health and safety concerns, but ruled it could stay open while he reapplied.

But the latest council report said: “The chief concern is not the deaths, or even the causes but the fact that David Gill accepts these losses and does not see a problem with it.”

A spokesman for Mr Gill said: “The current arrangement sees the entire zoo site leased to Cumbria Zoo

Company Limited. Mr Gill remains the licence holder but otherwise has stepped away from all trading and management activities.”

Karen Brewer, chief executive of Cumbria Zoo Company Limited, said they were committed to treating all animals with respect, providing “environments that focus on the animals’ physical and behavioural needs”.

Councillors will decide whether to renew the licence next week.

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