One Direction’s Liam Payne gets up close and personal with aardvarks and meerkats at London Zoo

He is one of the most recognisable faces in the world – so much so that teenage pop sensation Liam Payne from One Direction even charmed aardvarks Misha and Kiyo into submission.

Just a few days before 1D kick off their world tour, the singer popped into London Zoo in Regent’s Park for a bit of one-to-one with the zoo’s four-legged friends, from aardvarks to Madagascan ringtail lemurs and a mob of meerkats, before strolling around the rest of the zoo with two pals.

One passer-by said: “He seemed excited to be at the zoo but he wasn’t really drawing attention to himself. Some people recognised him and after a while he had a few girls following him around!”