ACTORS and their animal counterparts came face to face as the cast of Just So - The Musical took a trip to Cotswold Wildlife Park.

The group went along to the wildlife park in West Oxfordshire to get a better insight into the curious lives of their characters.

Rhinos, giraffes and penguins were high on the list for actors and actresses to delve into the weird and wonderful traits that the animals tend to have.

The cast hoped by learning their animal counterparts characteristics it would help them become their stage characters and full embrace the part they play in the show Rudyard Kipling's Just So - The Musical.

Actor Imogen Hasley was among the cast members to head along and could contain her excitement in touring the park.

She tweeted a picture of the day along with a message about meeting her giraffe counterpart 'called Wallis'.

Rosalind Ford was also among cast members, who will play the role of a zebra on stage, tweeting her positive posts about how good it was to meet her colleagues stage counterparts.

The group went along on Friday, January 4, and enjoyed a day touring the park which has a host of other animals including birds, mammals, primates and small mammals, and reptiles and amphibians.

Among those greeting the staff was the rhinos of which the park has five white rhinos, a species which was once one of the rarest of any rhino and on the verge of extinction in the early 1900s.

The actors and actresses among the group visiting the park included Michaela Stern playing a rhino, Imogen Hasley playing a giraffe, Rosalind Ford playing the zebra, Kiran Patel as the Kangaroo, Duncan Drury at The Eldest Magician, Dylan Wynford playing the Jaguar, Lewis Cornay playing an Elephant's child and Molly Lynch playing a kolokolo bird. The role of a leopard is also being played by Grant Urquhart who is also a waiter on Channel 4's First Dates.

The show Just So - The Musical is based on Rudyard Kipling's tales of how animals came to be; including how the giraffe got it's spots, how the rhino got it's baggy skin and how the zebra got it's stripes.

The show runs until Sunday, January 13, at the Barn Theatre in Cirencester and is directed by Kirk Jameson.

For details barntheatre.org.uk/justso