Jimmy’s Farm and Wildlife Park is home to 100 different species and breeds of animals – so it’s fair to say its well-known TV presenter owner has his hands full.Recently named ‘Large Visitor Attraction of the Year’ by VisitEngland, England’s official national tourist board, Jimmy Doherty started the Suffolk-based venture with his wife Michaela back in 2003, initially as a rare-breed pig farm.However, over the past 20 years, the farm has expanded enormously, and now boasts a wildlife park, a restaurant, shop and children’s play area. ‘I’d love to say that we planned for it, but actually I think the necessity to re-home animals did the planning for us,’ Jimmy Doherty tells the Daily Mail. Over the years, Doherty has rescued a range of creatures, including polar bears, monkeys and tapirs – small herbivorous mammals that resemble large pigs. The wildlife park also boasts Europe’s largest polar bear reserve. However, becoming such a large attraction and saving so many animals has been a pricey endeavour.The TV star, who has featured on a range of programmes, reveals the expansions have cost ‘untold millions’. Jimmy Doherty, pictured, opened Jimmy’s Farm and Wildlife Park in Suffolk back in 2003He adds, ‘We reinvest all the time, and it’s hard to sort of calculate what we’ve invested.’Aside from building enclosures for new arrivals, the wildlife park is also ‘constantly upgrading’ existing spaces too. ‘You never quite finish, so it’s a constant upgrade,’ Doherty says. ‘But what is amazing, we’ve been here 25 years now and I look at some of the trees I planted and I remember planting some of the oak trees on the drive out, and they were literally like thin pencils, and now you can’t really put your hand around the trunk.”That’s one of the best things when you plant trees and you create habitats, and it’s quite scary with time passing,’ the TV star continues. He anticipates that ‘the next challenge around the corner is the biggest one,’ explaining how dealing with planning issues ‘is always difficult’.’Animals are easy, people are difficult, and red tape is always very difficult,’ the farmer adds. ‘But our local council have been quite good – they understand that we need to rescue these animals, and how we develop these amazing reserves that we build.’At the moment, the ‘next big challenge’ for Jimmy’s Farm and Wildlife Park is trying to rescue five South Korean moon bears, or Asiatic black bears, from bear bile farming; a controversial practice where bears are kept in cages and mutilated to extract bile from their gallbladder. Originally beginning Jimmy’s Farm and Wildlife Park as a rare-breed pig farm, Doherty has gone on to rescue a range of animals – and his next project involves saving five South Korean moon bears from the bear bile industry (pictured) All of the expansions over the years have cost ‘untold millions’, according to the TV starAlthough now banned in South Korea, the practice has left 200 bears trapped in cages, with no room in local sanctuaries. Doherty has launched the campaign, Bear Behind Bars, and aims to raise £500,000 to help bring five to the wildlife park.’These bears have been kept in these atrocious conditions in metal cages for 20 years, some of them. The farm that we arrived at, the animals didn’t have regular water or food, one was already paralysed, they live in terrible conditions,’ Doherty reveals. ‘We’ve managed to move them to a government facility for a short period of time, while they go through quarantine or health checks, but the big plan is to build them a lovely reserve here so we can care for them, allow them to become bears again, and try to heal their physical and mental scars.’When Doherty isn’t presenting TV shows or spreading awareness about animal conservation, he has a hands-on approach to his farmwork.His day-to-day role at the attraction ‘varies’. One day he might be ‘jumping down the skip to make sure the rubbish is compacted’, and another helping to plan a new area of the wildlife park. Doherty’s television career kicked off with the BBC series Jimmy’s Farm which aired in 2004. The show followed life on the farm and continued for four seasons. When Doherty isn’t presenting TV shows or spreading awareness about animal conservation, he explains that he likes to be hands-on with any necessary farmworkSince then, Doherty, originally from Essex, has gone on to feature in various other programmes including Food Unwrapped on Channel 4, Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast and Big Bee Rescue.Does he credit his TV fame for helping the farm and wildlife park become so big?’Yes and no,’ Doherty says. ‘I suppose notoriety [is a factor]; people see animals on TV and want to come and have a look,’ the farmer explains.’But we still have to jump through all the same hoops as everyone else does.’And after bagging VisitEngland’s coveted prize, the ‘Best Large Visitor Attraction of the Year’, there’s still plenty in store for Jimmy’s Farm and Wildlife Park.The team have just completed a 35-year plan for the future and are involved with various projects and charities. ‘At the same time, we are looking at new enclosures, new habitat creation, all sorts of stuff,’ Doherty says.