Chester Zoo is celebrating a momentous milestone – its 100,000th member.

This is an all-time high for the zoo’s membership scheme, which provides vital funding for the zoo’s conservation, science and education projects around the world.

In return, members receive fabulous benefits including unlimited entry, invitations to special talks and events, as well as added discounts in the zoo’s shops and cafes.

Memberships and adoptions manager Karolyn Curwell said: “We’re absolutely delighted at the success of our membership scheme.

“It reflects the huge efforts of every one of our staff members to provide the best possible experience for our visitors.

“With more than 21,000 animals to come and see at Chester Zoo, daily talks from our Zoo Rangers, fabulous play areas and a full programme of family-friendly, seasonal events, there is so much for our visitors to see and do while they are here.

“It’s wonderful that so many people are choosing to join our family of members, returning again and again to enjoy all the many delights this very special place has to offer.”

It’s a boy! Chester Zoo celebrates ‘astonishing’ birth of rare elephant calf
It’s a boy! Chester Zoo celebrates ‘astonishing’ birth of rare elephant calf

The zoo’s lucky 100,000th member was Kirsty Witham, 28, from Bebington, Wirral.

She has been awarded a special, honorary lifetime membership to the zoo, and she couldn’t be more pleased.

She will now enjoy free entry to the zoo – for life.

There is always something new for members and visitors to look forward to at the UK’s most popular zoo.

Ongoing developments are sensitively transforming the attraction as part of a long-term plan to create large-scale themed zones; continuing the ‘always building’ philosophy of its founder and visionary, George Mottershead.

Following on from the success of the zoo’s Islands zone, where visitors can explore the amazing tropical environments of six South East Asian islands, construction has begun on the next themed area – a Madagascan forest.

This will create an immersive, walk-through habitat that will allow visitors to get closer to the zoo’s lemurs than ever before.

It’s due to open towards the end of the year.

Meanwhile, a brand new state-of-the-art habitat has just opened on Islands.

Home to two species of marsupial from the Indonesian island of Papa New Guinea: the diminutive dusky pademelon, which is vulnerable to extinction, and the exquisite, but endangered, Goodfellow’s tree kangaroo.

The latter is a new species at the zoo, which is under threat from hunting and habitat loss.

Karolyn Curwell added: “The wonderful support of all our members, along with our 1.9 million visitors and the many individuals and organisations who donate to us so generously, contributes directly to protecting biodiversity worldwide, supporting more than 80 vital conservation projects we carry out with partners across the globe, protecting threatened species from extinction.”

Rare tree kangaroo ‘Sangria’ hops into new Chester Zoo home
Rare tree kangaroo ‘Sangria’ hops into new Chester Zoo home