Baby elephant Jamilah helps boost Chester Zoo visitor numbers

Mar 17 2011 by David Holmes, Chester Chronicle

CHESTER Zoo’s new baby elephant is credited with a jumbo-sized growth in visitor numbers at the beginning of the year.

The zoo had 104,856 visitors between January 1 and February 27, compared with 78,833 in the same period last year – a whopping 33% increase.

Managing director Barbara Smith said: “I think people have been coming to see our beautiful new baby elephant, Jamilah. She really is a star.”

Meanwhile, the charity has revealed it was the most visited zoo in the UK last year, with 1,154,285 people passing through the gates, making it the 17th most popular visitor tourist attraction in the country.

However, this figure is down on 2009 with possible causes being the economic climate, poor weather and travel disruption due to the Icelandic volcano.

Looking forward with optimism for the rest of 2011, Ms Smith added: “In April we are opening a major new exhibit, featuring a pack of rare and endangered African hunting dogs.

“That project has cost close to £600,000 and will be an extremely immersive, African-themed exhibit, featuring a cinema and huge viewing windows which will get you incredibly close to the animals.”

Ms Smith said various other enclosures had been re-worked to get guests nearer to the animals including the home of reticulated python ‘Bali’ – believed to be the biggest snake in Europe.

“Adding to the permanent exhibits, we’ve got some very exciting events lined-up over the course of the year – one of which will be the biggest ever held at Chester Zoo,” added the managing director, who is keeping details of the big event under wraps at the moment.

“And we’re also busy establishing even stronger local partnerships with the likes of Merseyrail to put on packages making it cheaper and easier to travel to the zoo via public transport.”