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.”

Kevin Barr, 21, and Garry Rooney, 18, stole the vehicles from Cruden Building Site in Drumchapel in December 2009.

They were caught by police drinking inside the diggers after destroying a church wall and several street lights.

At Glasgow Sheriff Court, sentence on Barr and Rooney was deferred and both were remanded in custody.

The pair, who are being held in Polmont Young Offenders Institution, also admitted driving dangerously and striking street lights, a fence, a wall and an electricity box and stealing boots and jackets from a portable cabin at the site.

We shouldn’t find this story amusing, but with the maximum speed of a digger around 4-5km per hour, we can’t imagine them exactly speeding around the streets of Glasgow!

Anyway, here’s Matt saying hello during his mid afternoon tea break. It’s a look that could catch on…maybe.

Talk to the diggers excavators team on 08000 82 80 83 for more help on booking.

You might not know we’re part of the Toptriangle group who supply everything from toilet hire to asbestos removal hire, as well as good old digger hire.

We’ve just sent our latest wallplanner out to our clients and we thought you might like to check it out.

If you take a closer look, you’ll see that it goes from Feb to Feb… any idea why?

(Answers on an email to info@toptriangle.com if you know!)

So, if you need skip hire, pump hire, fence hire, toilet hire, container hire and of course, digger hire…and the 101 other things you need for your site or event, ring 08000 82 80 85 and we’ll get you sorted!

JCB Diggers – world famous, with great design and expert mechanics. We stock most brands for our diggers and excavators, but our JCBs are the most popular. No surprise really, JCB means quality, so the likelihoof of breakdown and other problems are pretty non existent.

Call our JCB digger hire experts on 08000 21 43 33