Chester Zoo

Early history

The Mottershead family's market garden business was based in Shavington near Crewe. George Mottershead collected animals such as lizards and insects that arrived with exotic plants imported by the business. A visit to Belle Vue Zoo in Manchester as a boy in 1903 fuelled his developing interest in creating a zoo of his own.

Mottershead was wounded in the First World War and spent several years in a wheelchair. Despite this, his collection of animals grew and he began to search for a suitable home for his zoo. He chose Oakfield Manor in Upton by Chester, which was a country village then but now is a suburb of Chester. He bought Oakfield Manor for £3,500 in 1930. The house had 9 acres (3.6 ha) of gardens and provided easy access to the railways and to Manchester and Liverpool. There were local objections, but Mottershead prevailed, and Chester Zoo opened to the public on 10 June 1931. The first animals were displayed in pens in the courtyard.

Rapid expansion followed after the Second World War, despite the difficulty of sourcing materials. Mottershead had to be resourceful; the polar bear exhibit (1950) was built from recycled wartime road blocks and pillboxes. "Always building" was the zoo's slogan at the time. Mottershead received the OBE, an honorary degree of MSc, and served as President of the International Union of Zoo Directors. He died in 1978 aged 84.

Zoo design

Mottershead wanted to build a zoo without the traditional Victorian iron bars to cage the animals. He was influenced by the ideas of Carl Hagenbeck, who invented the modern zoo concept and by Heini Hediger, a pioneer of ethology.

At Chester, Mottershead took Hagenbeck's idea for moats and ditches as an alternative to cage bars, and extended their use throughout the zoo, often with species that Hagenbeck had not considered. For example, when chimpanzees were released into their new enclosure at Chester in 1956, a group of grassy islands, they were separated from visitors by no more than a 12-foot (3.7 m) strip of water. Nobody knew then if chimps could swim. It turned out that they could not, and today the chimp islands are a centrepiece of Chester Zoo.

In 1986 the zoo was enclosed with a fence, in line with the Zoo Licensing Act 1981.

21st century

Realm of the Red Ape, an Indonesian-forest-themed exhibit, featuring threatened Sumatran and Bornean orangutans, opened in May 2007.

In January 2009, Chester Zoo unveiled Natural Vision, a £225 million plan to transform itself into the largest conservation attraction in Europe. The first phase of the plan was to be a £90 million, 56-hectare (140-acre) enclosed African-rainforest-themed sanctuary containing a band of gorillas and a troop of chimpanzees, as well as okapi and a variety of tropical birds, amphibians, reptiles, fishes, and invertebrates, moving freely among lush vegetation. It included a water ride to take visitors through the exhibit. Natural Vision was to eventually include a 90-room hotel, a Conservation College, and a revamped main entrance that would link the zoo to a marina to be developed on zoo land, all to be completed by 2018. Plans went before the public for comment in June 2009.

The projected Heart of Africa bio-dome, along with plans for the hotel, were shelved in 2011 due to the loss of £40m potential funding when the North West Regional Development Agency was abolished.

In December 2012 planning permission was gained for a later phase of the Natural Vision masterplan. One of the largest zoo developments in Europe, Islands at Chester Zoo is a £40million redevelopment project to extend the zoo's footprint and recreate six island habitats of Southeast Asia.

Management structure

The North of England Zoological Society (NEZS) is the organisation that runs Chester Zoo and the conservation campaign, Act for Wildlife. It was formed in 1934 by the zoo's founder, George Mottershead.

The zoo is managed by an executive team led by Dr Mark Pilgrim, the director general. He is responsible for the zoological teams, science and education, and field conservation and research, as well as the whole zoo site. Jamie Christon is the managing director and responsible for development, finance, guest and business operations, marketing, human resources, and health and safety. Both report to the Board of Trustees for The North of England Zoological Society.

Layout and facilities

Mobility scooters and locker and buggy hire are available near the main entrance.

The zoo is bisected by a public bridleway, Flag Lane. For many years, a single bridge (now called Elephants' Bridge), drivable by zoo vehicles and powered wheelchairs, near the elephant exhibit was the only crossing place within the grounds. A second crossing, passable by pedestrians and mobility scooters, called Bats' Bridge, opened in April 2008 near the Twilight Zone, has improved the ability of visitors to circulate.

There are other ways to travel around the zoo:

Visitors must pay extra for using the monorail, but the boat trip in Islands is included in normal zoo admission.

Chester's catering facilities include Bembé Kitchen near the main entrance which opened in 2006. June's Pavilion is on the west of the zoo and Manado Street Kitchen is found on Sulawesi in the Islands exhibit. The Oakfield Restaurant, in a Victorian mansion house near the lion enclosure, and the Acorn Bar, are both used for private functions as well as catering to zoo visitors.

There are children's play areas, shops, kiosks and several picnic lawns around the zoo. A second pedestrian entrance is located in the southeast corner of the zoo behind Oakfield House.

For a long time the public entrance was at the east end off Caughall Road. In recent years the public entrance has moved to the north side with dedicated access off the A41 Chester By-Pass. Thus the zoo is entered in the 'newer' part west of Flag Lane, near the elephants, and the old car parks at the east end are being built over with service and educational buildings.

The zoo owns land outside the public area, and uses that land to grow food for its herbivorous animals.

Monorail

A monorail system was built and installed by Computerised People Mover International at a cost of $4 million and then opened by the Duchess of Kent in 1991. The system is 1 mile (1½ km) long and travels on an elevated guideway to give views of the park grounds – the track crosses Flag Lane twice on its one-way circular shape. The two halves of the park are connected by the system and there is one station in each part, one near the lion enclosure and one near the monkey building. Each train on the system can seat 24 passengers between its four cars and a full tour takes around fifteen minutes.

The system is a straddle beam monorail. The layout has a separate depot and control room and carries approximately 2,000 passengers per day. T&M Machine Tool Electronics made improvements totalling £300,000 to the monorail's drive system and electrics in 2009, including more than 25 miles (40 km) of new cabling. The monorail was re-launched by music producer Pete Waterman during a visit on 23 July 2009, when Waterman drove the first loop of the new system. The upgraded system uses pairs of 2.2-kilowatt (3 hp) AC motors for each carriage, with remote monitoring managed over a 5Ghz wireless link. One week later a power failure occurred, requiring the first eight visitors of the day to be escorted off the monorail using a hydraulic lift.

In May 2012, Queen Elizabeth II took a tour of Chester Zoo in a specially redecorated monorail set painted in a Union Flag theme for her Diamond Jubilee.

Species and animals

Chester Zoo holds a large and diverse collection. At the end of 2007, over half the species at the zoo appeared on the IUCN Red List and 155 were classified as threatened species. 134 species were kept as part of a managed captive breeding programme. The zoo manages the studbooks for Congo buffalo, jaguar, blue-eyed cockatoo, Madagascan tree boa, gemsbok (all ESB species), black rhinoceros, Ecuadorian amazon parrot, Mindanao writhe-billed hornbill and Rodrigues fruit bat (all EEP species). In addition, Chester holds 265 threatened plant species. At the end of 2015, Chester zoo became the first zoo outside of New Zealand to breed the tuatara.

Islands at Chester Zoo

The zoo opened Islands at Chester Zoo in July 2015, a project extending the footprint of the zoo by 15 acres and built to the south of the west half of the current site.

Islands showcases areas where the zoo is involved in conservation programmes, including Sumatra, the Philippines and Indonesia. Visitors are able to walk between the islands via a series of bridges and also view the animals via on a boat trip. The project also includes educational exhibits, play areas and a restaurant, the Manado Street Kitchen. The exhibit is opening in phases with phase one including a boat trip around the enclosures for visitors to view some of the zoo's key species from South East Asia, including Visayan warty pigs, southern cassowary, banteng and lowland anoa.

Phase two opened later in the summer and includes Sumatran tigers, Sunda gharials, and other reptiles, birds and invertebrates. That phase including Monsoon Forest is now complete and open with the installation of the Sumatran orang utans and the arrival of a breeding pair of Javan silvery gibbons in December 2015.

A third phase for Islands will open in Summer 2017. The third phase will include new exhibits for Malayan sun bear, Malayan tapir, binturong, and another songbird aviary.

Elephants of the Asian Forest

Chester was the first zoo in the UK to successfully breed Asian elephants in captivity. The most famous of these was Jubilee (1977–2003), so named as he was born in 1977, the year of the Queen's Silver Jubilee. The zoo has a breeding herd of eight elephants, composed of two males and six females – the breeding male Aung-Bo, ageing female Maya, Thi Hi Way, her daughters Sithami Hi Way and Nandita Hi Way and Sithami's son, Aayu Hi Way who was born in January 2017 and daughter Sundara Hi Way and her daughter Indali Hi Way who was born in December 2016. The elephant house also used to house African elephants, rhinos, hippos and tapirs. Motty, a hybrid African-Asian elephant calf was born in July 1978, but died in infancy.

A £2 million breeding facility modelled on an Assam (India) rainforest called Elephants of the Asian Forest opened in Easter 2006, as a major alteration of the zoo's previous elephant house. Inside the elephant house, other indigenous Asian species are exhibited, including wrinkled hornbills, azure-winged magpies, green peafowl, red-billed blue magpies, Sumatran prevost's squirrels, belanger's tree shrews, northern Luzon giant cloud rats, There is an aquarium for clown loach and tiger barb fish.

On 10 February 2011 Sheba, the matriarch of Chester Zoo’s Asian elephant herd, had to be put down because of digestive tract illness caused by inability to chew her food because her last molar teeth were worn to stumps.

Spirit of the Jaguar

Spirit of the Jaguar was opened in 2001 and is sponsored by Jaguar Cars and was designed by McCormick Architecture. The exhibit is split into four sections. The two inside are modelled on a rainforest and a dry savannah, and the two outside contain rivers and pools so that the jaguars can exercise their swimming skills. A new breeding pair of Jaguar, Napo (Spotted male) and Goshi (Black female) arrived from separate French zoos in Spring 2013. Spirit of the Jaguar is also home to a colony of leaf-cutter ants, sloths, and an aquarium featuring numerous rainforest fish such as Discus fish and shoals of tetra. The exhibit went through another makeover in late 2011, and now has a theme focusing on human/wildlife conflict. An outdoor enclosure for two-toed sloths is currently under-going construction.

Realm of the Red Ape

Realm of the Red Ape is a GBP3.5 million extension to the existing orangutan house, home to Bornean orangutans, and was the most expensive capital project in the zoo's history before the construction of Islands. The exhibit opened to the public on 26 May 2007 after a two-year construction period. It comprises a new two-story building linked to the existing orangutan house with three indoor and two outdoor enclosures, providing accommodation for a larger number of apes. The outdoor areas can be viewed from a first floor public gallery and feature mesh roofs supported by tree-like structures which act as climbing frames for the apes. A further enclosure houses a group of lar gibbons.

Animals and plants from Indonesia are exhibited inside Realm of the Red Ape in a rainforest-themed setting. Birds on display include blue-crowned hanging parrots, Timor sparrows, chestnut-backed thrushes, roul-roul partridges, superb fruit doves and black-naped fruit doves. Crocodile monitors, reticulated pythons, red-tailed racers, Bell's Angle-Head Lizards, Chinese water dragons, emerald tree monitors, white-lipped tree vipers and green tree pythons feature among the reptiles. Invertebrates include Rhinoceros beetles, giant walking sticks, jungle nymphs, praying mantises, Malaysian Katydids and leaf insects.

Located next to Realm of the Red Ape is an enclosure for oriental small-clawed otters and Babirusa. The zoos Sumatran Orang-utans were relocated from Realm of the Red Ape to a new exhibit in the Islands development during January 2016

The Chimpanzee Breeding Centre

This pavilion was opened in 1989 by Diana, Princess of Wales and Countess of Chester, and is home to 26 common chimpanzees. This is the largest colony of chimps in Europe, housed in the Roundhouse, a conical indoor enclosure linked to an outside moated island. The island is planted with many bushes and has large poles for the chimps to climb on. The inside area has a climbing frame that allows the chimps to stay close together on several levels of platform. There are seven interconnected off-show dens.

Tsavo Rhino Experience

The zoo's black rhinoceros exhibit, modelled on the Tsavo National Park in Kenya, was opened in 2003 at a cost of GBP2 million. The zoo has a successful rhinoceros breeding programme and currently keeps eight rhinos. Meerkats and crested porcupines are kept in a co-habitated enclosure nearby, and a nearby paddock is home to warthogs.

The Wetlands and Tsavo Bird Safari

Storks, cranes and a variety of waterfowl. The Wetlands is a large aviary alongside Tsavo and is home to a variety of Storks, Cranes and waterfowl. In 2009, a walk-through bird safari with African bird species opened. It currently houses von der decken's hornbills, lilac-breasted rollers, hammerkops, weaver birds and a variety of waterfowl, amongst other species. At the other side of the Bird Safari is a Large pen for wattled cranes and Black Crowned Cranes.

Fruit Bat Forest

Fruit Bat Forest is the largest free-flying bat cave in Europe. The cave holds two species of bat: Rodrigues fruit bats, and Seba's short-tailed bats. It is also home to a varied collection of other species including, common tenrecs and blind cave fish.

Monkey Islands

Monkey Islands was opened in 1997, replacing the old monkey house, and is currently home to four monkey species: Colombian black spider monkeys, mandrills, lion-tailed macaques and Buffy-headed capuchins. Campbell's guenons and porcupines were formerly housed with the mandrills, and Sulawesi crested macaques were kept here until they moved to 'Islands' in 2015. Visitors enter the monkey house and view the animals from a central corridor. Each species has a glass-fronted indoor enclosure with climbing apparatus and an outdoor enclosure, moated and heavily planted.

Miniature Monkeys

Miniature Monkeys, opened in May 2004, consists of two enclosures. The first is home to a pair of pied tamarins with pygmy marmosets, and the second is shared by three emperor tamarins and three golden-headed lion tamarins. Azara's agoutis, Geoffrey's marmosets, black-tailed marmosets, black lion tamarins, Red Titi and white-faced sakis have also been housed here in the past but have been moved out for various reasons.

Bears of the Cloud Forest

Bears of the Cloud Forest opened in 2004 and is home to a pair of spectacled bears and other South American animals. The purpose-built exhibit is designed to mimic the bear's natural habitat by providing trees and a rocky terrain. Nearby are paddocks housing capybaras and Brazilian tapirs.

Guanaco and Vicuna were previously housed with Rhea.

Secret World of the Okapi

Formerly the camel house, this enclosure adjoining the giraffe house was remodelled in 2006 to house okapi. Initially two males were kept: Dicky arrived from Marwell Wildlife in 2005 and Mbuti came from Bristol Zoo in the same year. In 2006 Dicky left for London Zoo to make way for a female named Stuma from Germany. In 2009 Mbuti and Dicky were swapped back, with Mbuti going to London Zoo and Dicky coming back to Chester. Other animals that can be seen here include Kirk's dik-diks, Gambian pouched rats, butterfly barbs, Gaboon vipers and short-eared elephant shrews. Mount Kulal spiny mice and Mesic four-striped grass mice have also been kept here in the past along with various other small species. The Okapi bred for the first time in 2012, producing a female calf named Tafari. The success was repeated in 2014 with the birth of a new male calf

Dragons in Danger

This exhibit is primarily a herpetarium for the zoo's Komodo dragons, Jantan and Ora who arrived from Prague Zoo in 2014, originating from the Lesser Sunda Islands. It was opened in 1998 and extended in 2003 to include an outdoor enclosure used by the dragons in the warmer summer months. The exhibit is built on the site of the zoo's former bird house. In 2007, several young baby Komodo dragons were put on display after one of the zoo's two females laid eggs which hatched although the female had not been mated; this is parthenogenesis, the first such case recorded in this species. The exhibit was revamped in 2009 to house Caribbean iguanas in one section of the building. It now currently houses spiny turtles in one side and the critically endangered Mountain Chicken Frogs with some Caribbean Hermit Crabs in the other.

Dragons in Danger also houses various Indonesian and Philippine rainforest birds, such as Palawan peacock-pheasants, pheasant pigeons, Montserrat Orioles and Visayan tarictic hornbills. Recently added was a pair of Philippine Mouse Deer which have successfully bred. Also housed here are Montserrat Tarantulas which Chester bred in 2016 for the first time in captivity. Species formerly kept in the exhibit include Socorro doves, Mindanao bleeding-hearts, Papuan lorikeets and Saint Lucia parrots.

Mongoose Mania

Located near the sun bears, this area used to be a petting farm, but was closed due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. The petting farm is now a picnic lawn and a former kune kune pig enclosure has been demolished in favour of a food stall.

Mongoose Mania, which houses dwarf mongooses features tunnels beneath the enclosure which allow children to crawl through, popping up their heads into plastic domes to give them a mongoose's eye view of the world.

Giant otters and penguins

In early 2010, the Californian sea lions left the collection. Over the late winter the pool was converted to house a new species to the zoo. The giant otters went on show for the first time on 26 March 2010. The zoo bred their first pups in 2013.

In the neighbouring enclosure, a large breeding group of over 50 Humboldt penguins have their own pool, and visitors can watch the birds from an underwater viewing window.

Tropical Realm

Chester's Tropical Realm is Britain's largest tropical house at over 26,000 cubic metres. Opened in 1964, most of the interior is an open-plan space extending to roof level and themed with pools and mature tropical plants, with pathways for visitors through the undergrowth. Here, more than 30 species of birds are free-flying, including Nicobar pigeons, various species of starlings and ground birds such as crested partridges.

Aviaries and vivaria are arranged around the sides of the building; those on the upper level were originally designed for birds of paradise and the hornbill aviaries were originally made for gorillas. The aviaries currently house birds such as great Indian hornbills, rhinoceros hornbills, two pairs of tarictic hornbill (one pure-bred and one hybrid), writhed-billed hornbills, red-crested turacos, Palawan peacock-pheasants, Congo peafowl, Bali starlings, blue-crowned pigeons, fairy-bluebirds, white-rumped shama, white-crested turacos, snowy-crowned robin chats, Mindanao bleeding-hearts Green Aracari and Luzon Scops Owls. At the entrance is an aviary for Sumatran laughingthrushes and grey-winged blackbird.

The Tropical Realm is also the centre of the reptile collection. The crocodile pools (which formerly housed West African dwarf crocodiles, American alligators and Philippine crocodiles) currently house spectacled caimans in one and white-winged wood ducks in the other. Near the entrance is an enclosure for tuataras. This lizard-like species from New Zealand is the last surviving sphenodont, a prehistoric group of reptiles, and Chester is the only British zoo to exhibit them. In February 2016, a tuatara hatched for the first time outside of New Zealand, leading Chester Zoo to be the only zoo to have bred them anywhere else. There were many varieties of snakes and lizards in the past (many had to depart as a result) ; rhinoceros ratsnakes, emerald tree boas and eyelash vipers now being the only remaining. The lizard collection is now made up of Serrated Casquehead Iguanas, Green-Crested Lizards, caiman lizards, and a Parson's chameleon.

Tortoises are represented by Galápagos and radiated tortoises with Vietnamese box turtles. Amphibians include Poison Dart Frogs, Golden Mantellas, a Rio Cauca caecilian, false tomato frogs and Morelet's Tree Frogs.

In the Winter of 2015/2016 the former Yellow Breasted Capuchin exhibit at the rear of Tropical Realm was converted to house a pair of Aye-Aye and a group of Malagasy Giant Jumping Rats.

Europe on the Edge

This is the zoo's largest aviary, and is one of the biggest in the UK. It was opened in 1993 on the site of the former polar bear enclosure. It houses a variety of European birds, including European black vultures and griffon vultures, and the rarer of the two European storks, the black stork. There are spoonbills, ibises and egrets as well as a selection of waterfowl. Smaller birds include rock doves, northern lapwings, red-legged partridges and the native but rare red-billed chough.

Condor Cliffs

This aviary was constructed to rehouse the zoo's breeding pair of Andean condors, who have since parent-reared a chick for the first time. It is now also home for the American black vulture from the Americas and several species of waterfowl. The aviary is dominated by a large sandstone waterfall, and a fake llama skeleton is used at feeding time. The enclosure is built on the site of the zoo's former brown bear enclosure.

Rare Parrot Breeding Centre

Parrots on display here include red-vented cockatoos, lesser sulphur-crested cockatoos, red-and-blue lories, yellow-backed chattering lories, Mount Apo lorikeets and blue-and-yellow macaws. The only ones on show are Ecuador Amazons. Most of the birds were moved to the Rare Parrot Breeding Centre from the old parrot house when it was demolished in 2005 to make way for Realm of the Red Ape.

Mythical Macaws

This exhibit consists of two aviaries housing rare and endangered South American parrots and macaws. These include hyacinth macaws, in the aviary outside the Tropical Realm and Blue-throated macaws are housed in the other.

Aquarium

The aquarium is a small and traditional building (one of the oldest at the zoo, built by George Mottershead's daughter and son-in-law in the 1950s) housing a varied collection of freshwater and marine fish, aquatic invertebrates and amphibians. It has had notable success breeding seahorses and achieved the first captive breeding of the freshwater motoro stingray.

Other notable fish include Epaulette Sharks, Mudskippers, tropical reef fish and various Lake Malawi cichlids. Invertebrates such as starfish, sea urchins and several species of coral and shrimps are housed with the fish.

Asian Plains and paddocks

In 2008, Asian Plains received its official opening. Based around a mixed-species paddock featuring Burmese brow-antlered deer, the exhibit has recently been extended to include new enclosures for greater one-horned rhinoceros and cheetah. The male rhino was joined by a female in 2008 to form a pair which the zoo hoped would breed. Sadly in November 2009 the male Indian rhino "Patna" was put down due to a longstanding leg injury. The zoo obtained a replacement male from Edinburgh Zoo in March 2010. Since they were closely related the previous female departed for a zoo in Spain shortly after, and the zoo are in the progress of creating a breeding situation – Baabu has now been exchanged for 'Beni' from Pilsen Zoo. The paddocks formerly housed barasingha, Ankole cattle blackbuck and sitatunga.

Other paddocks on the west side of the zoo support grazing herds of Grevy's zebras, sitatunga, Kirk's dik-diks, scimitar-horned oryx, eastern bongo, lesser kudu and roan antelope.

Przewalski's horses left the collection in 2009 to make way for the new African hunting dog enclosure. Other animals formerly housed here were Père David's deer, red-necked wallabies, ostriches and emus.

Mkomazi National Park Painted Dogs Conserve

In 2011, a new exhibit housing African painted dogs on the site of the former Przewalski's horse paddock was opened. In the style of an African Research Station with an African Village, the exhibit has a dry landscape with fake kopje stones. A pack of four African painted dogs are the main exhibit, however aardvarks and rock hyraxes are nearby.

Forest Zone and Butterfly Journey

The north east area of the zoo is where many forest-dwelling species are kept. As well as the chimpanzees, okapis, jaguars, condors and Tropical Realm, there are enclosures for Congo buffalo, red river hogs and Malayan tapir. Nearby is a large paddock and house for the zoo's Rothschild giraffe herd. The area between the rear of Tropical Realm and the Spirit of the Jaguar has enclosures for various species including a group of native sand lizards, and a mixed enclosure for red-billed curassows and Inca Jays.

An enclosure formerly housing maned wolves was demolished and replaced in 2008 by a heated butterfly house called Butterfly Journey, which is based around the life cycle of a butterfly, featuring free-flying butterflies and moths (The exotic species on show include blue morphos, giant owls, glasswings, swallowtails and Atlas moths), a cabinet of cocoons, and an area with caterpillars. Also featured in this exhibit is an area for a variety of different invertebrates and a mesh enclosure for some panther chameleons.

Animals formerly displayed in forest zone include maned wolves, babirusa, warthogs, Chilean pudú, Mallorcan midwife toads, golden-bellied capuchins, visayan warty pigs, ring-tailed coatis and bactrian camels.

Big cats

As well as jaguars, Chester Zoo keeps lions, tigers and cheetahs in its big cat collection. The lions are the Asiatic subspecies found only in the Gir Forest in India in the wild. The zoo's former resident male Asoka was joined by a female, Asha, from Rome in 2006. The pair have bred on three occasions, but so far their only offspring to survive has been a male cub, Tejas, born and hand-reared in 2007. His upbringing was featured prominently in the first series of Zoo Days. Tejas left Chester Zoo for Besancon early in 2008 as part of the European breeding programme for this subspecies. Asoka left the zoo in early 2010, he was moved to Rome Zoo as part of the European breeding programme. His replacement is 3-year-old Iblis, who arrived from Planckendael Zoo in Belgium. In late summer 2011, Asha retired to Santillana Zoo and was replaced by four-year females Kiburi and Kumari.

In 2007, a male Sumatran tiger called Kepala arrived from Dudley Zoo to join the two resident female Bengal tigers, who left in 2008. The same year, the zoo acquired a female tiger named Kirana, but unfortunately it was discovered that the pair were related. Kepala departed to Dublin Zoo and a new male named Fabi was brought in from Prague Zoo to form a breeding pair of Sumatrans, a critically endangered subspecies in the wild. Kirana and Fabi bred and have so far bred successfully on three occasions since 2011.

The zoo welcomed its first ever cheetah cubs in June 2011. The cheetahs are the vulnerable Sudanese subspecies - a second litter was born in 2013

Sun Bears

In early October 2015 the zoo welcomed a pair of Malayan Sun Bears from the Rare Species Conservation Centre in Kent. There is a female called Milli (8) and a male called Toni (11). They moved to the old Tiger enclosure after the tigers moved to Islands and are the first Sun Bears at the zoo since 1976. The Sun Bears will eventually move to a purpose built exhibit within the Islands development during the Summer of 2017

Asian Steppe

Bactrian camels and onagers in a large paddock in the centre of the zoo, formerly the zebra exhibit. A paddock which was only visible from the monorail but can now be seen from the Bats' Bridge holds a group of Philippine spotted deer.

Other exhibits

Bordering the paddocks is a waterway running north-south along which the water bus formerly travelled, past island groups of white-faced sakis, Alaotran bamboo lemurs and howler monkeys. A variety of callitrichids, including cotton-top tamarins, were formerly housed on the Bamboo lemur Island, whilst the howler monkey and white-faced saki exhibits were formerly home to black-and-white ruffed lemurs and red ruffed lemurs. A nearby island viewable from Bats Bridge has previously held lowland anoa and is now holding Babirusia In the southeast corner of the zoo are enclosures housing an assortment of animals including bush dogs, red pandas, Southern pudu, giant anteaters, Cabot's tragopans and the wetland bird nursery. The former Cassowary exhibit next to the Anteaters will be redeveloped during 2016 for a new species

Near the Rare Parrot Breeding Centre is an aviary currently housing spectacled owls and formerly home to macaws and keas the remainder of the zoo's owl collection are seen nearby. The owl aviaries were recently modified.

Flocks of Chilean and Caribbean flamingos live in shallow water alongside a large island housing a group of ring-tailed lemurs and red-fronted lemurs. New indoor accommodation for the flamingos was completed in 2007. In 2011 and 2012 there was a display of animatronic dinosaurs: Triceratops, Edmontosaurus and its eggs and hatchlings, Dilophosaurus (which squirts water from its mouth), Allosaurus, Rugops, Omeisaurus, Apatosaurus, Baryonyx, Dimetrodon, Tyrannosaurus rex. A second exhibition was made in 2012 with other anamatronic dinosaurs featuring: a Stegosaurus, a Dilophosaurus and young (which both spit water), a Megalosaurus, a Styracosaurus and hatchlings, a Brachiosaurus, a Quetzalcoatlus, an Edmontonia, a Pachycephalosaurus, two Coelophysis, a Parasaurolophus, a Deinonychus and a Tyrannosaurus rex and young.

Membership and adoption

The zoo has a scheme whereby people can adopt an animal of their choice, they are also given two complimentary tickets to allow them to visit the animals. They can also become members which allows them to visit Chester and a range of other zoos across England free of charge for a year. Every three months, members and adopters receive Z magazine, which provides updates and information about what is happening at the zoo.

Television

During summer 2007, television crews from Granada filmed at Chester for the documentary series Zoo Days, a behind the scenes look at the day-to-day running of the zoo, narrated by Jane Horrocks. British broadcast rights were sold to Five and the first 20-part series began airing on British terrestrial TV on 8 October 2007, transmitting on weekday evenings in a regular 6:30 pm slot. A second 20-part series of Zoo Days was swiftly commissioned and began airing on 3 March 2008. The third 20-part series was broadcast from Colchester Zoo, before returning to Chester for the fourth 20-part series on 10 November 2008.

In February 2009, "The History of Chester Zoo" was a contestant's chosen subject on Mastermind.

In 2014 the zoo was the subject of BBC One Drama Our Zoo, telling the story of the founding of Chester Zoo by the Mottershead family in the 1930s. During the six-part series, the show reached audiences in excess of five million viewers and was nominated for two National TV awards.

In spring 2016, Channel 4 began broadcasting a six-part series, The Secret Life of the Zoo, following the keepers and animals at Chester Zoo and narrated by Olivia Colman. A second series began broadcasting in November 2016.