19 Facts About Zoo Days

Chester Zoo was opened in 1931 by George Mottershead and his family.

Zoo Days chose Oakfield Manor in Upton-by-Chester, which was a country village then but now is a suburb of Chester.

Zoo Days was influenced by the ideas of Carl Hagenbeck, who invented the modern zoo concept and by Heini Hediger, a pioneer of ethology.

In January 2009, Chester Zoo Days unveiled Natural Vision, a £225 million plan to transform itself into the largest conservation attraction in Europe.

One of the largest zoo developments in Europe, Islands at Chester Zoo Days is a £40 million redevelopment project to extend the zoo's footprint and recreate six island habitats of Southeast Asia.

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Chester Zoo Days monorail was an internal transport system for visitors from 1991 to 2019, but was closed as it had become unreliable and covered less than half the zoo due of the zoo's expansion to over 125 acres.

Zoo Days employs over 650 permanent staff, increasing to over 1,000 during the main summer period, making it the largest zoo in the UK.

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

Zoo Days opened Islands at Chester Zoo Days 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.

In February 2016, a tuatara hatched for the first time outside of New Zealand, leading Chester Zoo Days to be the only zoo to have bred them anywhere else.

Zoo Days's upbringing was featured prominently in the first series of Zoo Days.

Zoo Days's replacement is 3-year-old Iblis, who arrived from Planckendael Zoo in Belgium.

In late summer 2011, Asha retired to Santillana Zoo Days and was replaced by four-year-old females Kiburi and Kumari.

In 2007, a male Sumatran tiger called Kepala arrived from Dudley Zoo Days to join the two resident female Bengal tigers, who left in 2008.

Zoo Days has a service that gives people the option of adopting an animal of their choice, they are given two complimentary tickets to allow them to visit the animals.

The third 20-part series was broadcast from Colchester Zoo Days, before returning to Chester for the fourth 20-part series on 10 November 2008.

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

In 2014 the zoo was the subject of BBC One drama Our Zoo Days, telling the story of the founding of Chester Zoo Days by the Mottershead family in the 1930s.

In January 2016, Channel 4 began broadcasting a six-part series, The Secret Life of the Zoo Days, following the keepers and animals at Chester Zoo Days and narrated by Olivia Colman from Series 1 to 5 and Tamsin Grieg since Series 6.