Chester Zoo

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Tuesday 5th July 1994

Chester zoo, the largest in the UK, opened in 1934 on a 44 hectare site near Chester. It houses 5,000 animals and receives 900,000 visitors a year.

The zoo is run by the North of England Zoological Society.

The paid full-time staff numbers 200 which rises to 350 in summer. The Friends of Education Division Services (FEDS) provide volunteers to conduct zoo tours, man mobile displays and provide childrens puppet shows and story times.

The staff are clearly dedicated to the welfare of the animals as the enclosures are clean and the animals look healthy and show little stereotypic behaviour.

The gardens are extensive and beautiful, forming a distinctive feature of the zoo.

Several endangered species are being successfully bred including Orang Utan, Chimpanzee, Colombian Black Spider Monkey, Elephant, Black Rhinoceros, Rodrigues Fruit Bat, Madagascan Tree Boa, Rhinoceros Iguana, Andean Condor, Waldrapp Ibis, Red-crowned Crane, Rothschild's Mynah, Partula Snail, and Happy Fish from Lake Victoria in East Africa.

The highlight of the visit was the Tropical House which houses a wide variety of tropical animals and plants with many birds free inside the house and observable from the elevated walkway.

The collection includes

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