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Everyone knows that Holmby Hills’ famed Playboy Mansion hosts Bunnies … but did you know that it also houses bunnies — as well as monkeys, cockatoos, peacocks, African cranes, parrots, toucans, pelicans, doves and all sorts of other animals?
They all reside in the backyard “zoo” area — the Mansion is one of America’s few private residences with a zoo license — which Crystal Hefner, Hugh Hefner‘s stunning 28-year-old wife of 19 months, was gracious enough to show to The Hollywood Reporter last week. (See the video at the top of this post.)
“When I first came [to the Mansion] six years ago, I didn’t know that there were animals here,” she recalls. But her husband, whom she calls “Hef,” told her that he had always been a big animal lover and that “the first thing he did when he bought the property [in 1971 for $1.1 million] was add the animals and the zoo and just make it a great environment for them,” adding hilly areas and ponds to the otherwise flat land. “It’s like an oasis here,” she says. “We live in paradise.”
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Hefner gushes that the zoo, which is located just yards from the famous pool and “grotto” that have seen many a raucous party, is “filled with many cute and fun animals,” a considerable portion of which “were donated by people who couldn’t take care of them.”
While she and Hef enjoy spending time — and even taking selfies — with the zoo’s residents, she credits the team of men and women who comprise the Mansion’s Animals Department (“Ish, Jennifer, Leah, Crystal — another Crystal — and Keleigh“) for making their lives so happy. She emphasizes, “They are the moms and dads of all of these animals, and the animals really love them.”
Twitter: @ScottFeinberg
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