We find the three year old mark a suitable age…

The JCB has been used for lifting and moving huge rocks around the site to create what will be called The Lion Country.

Operations director at the park, Neville Williams, said the enclosure would be surrounded by banked walkways which allow visitors to look down into the cage. There will also be a bridge over the lions’ home.

The lions’ enclosure will be bounded by a four metre high fence and a ditch.

The lions were rescued from a run down zoo in Romania where they faced an uncertain future living in inadequate facilities. They were flown to the UK to start a new life at the park. Believed to be the largest big cat rescue ever, park directors initiated a campaign through the charity Wildlife Heritage Foundation to raise £150,000 to save the lions back in August after learning of their plight at Oradea Zoo.

The park’s contractor, North Eastern Plant, brought in a JCB JS460 tracked excavator, weighing in at 46 tonnes, to unload and position up to 10 large rocks weighing 12 to 20 tonnes.

North Eastern Plant boss Jim Turner said: “The JS460 is proving an essential piece of kit to enable us to safely and efficiently move the enormous pieces of stone into position and further develop the area for the lions.”

The driver must have fallen asleep and just decided to drive into a massive hole. Weirdly the digger hire stays in one place, but you can just about see the driver being rattled around his cabin a little bit. Well it serves him right for not looking after his digger properly!

Steam shovels played a major role in building various things including the Panama Canal which used over 100 steam shovels in its construction. For many years the steam shovel and the other types of shovels that followed them were the most popular way of excavating.

Soon after this these machines were further developed by the invention of hydraulic excavators and by the late 1800s excavators powered by electric motors were brought to market. Various new types of excavator followed including drag line, backhoe, bucket wheel, long reach, skid loader and suction excavators.