A team of avid cyclists have taken on gruelling challenges to raise funds for Chester Zoo’s conservation campaign Act for Wildlife.

The team signed up to a raft of events covering more than 500 miles to help fill the coffers for the charity that raises awareness of the desperate conservation efforts needed to save endangered species around the world from extinction.

Chester Zoo has provided each team member with a training jersey, tips on fundraising and even organised a few practice sessions.

Cyclist Dave Edwards, of Browns CTP Ltd printers, has spent the last three years tackling numerous tasks in a bid to raise money for the charity.

So far, he has raised more than £4,000, completed 13 events and travelled over 300 miles in competition, all leading up to his biggest challenge yet - The Castle Howard Half Ironman - which he completed on Sunday, July 26.

Dave said: “I’ve been fundraising on behalf of Act for Wildlife for a few years now, so I feel like a part of the zoo family!

“I feel privileged to represent Chester Zoo in these events and I just love the challenge of it all and what I’ve managed to achieve.”

Four members of the team, giraffe keeper Paul Round, Pippa Hague of the Hillyer McKeown Group and Jon Walker and Matt Townsend from Ultimate Creative Communications, took on the Prudential Ride London, a 100-mile challenge on the same closed-roads that the Olympic athletes raced through during the 2012 London Olympics.

Keen cyclist Lynsey Whitley, from the zoo’s fundraising team, said: “It’s absolutely amazing to know that we have supporters from a range of different industries coming together to raise money for wildlife and we wanted to do something special to say thank you, so we organised a few practice sessions and provided all of our amazing fundraisers with their very own Act for Wildlife cycling gear!

“All have very different motivations for choosing Act for Wildlife but it’s great to see people raise money and awareness for animals in desperate need of conservation efforts.”

Act for Wildlife is a campaign led by Chester Zoo, working to raise Previously, the charity has worked with its partners in the Philippines to rescue and release more than 4,000 endangered turtles which had been captured for the illegal wildlife trade in July this year.

Last year, for an orangutan programme, it raised enough funds to plant 2,000 trees to help restore the Bornean rainforest for orangutans out in the wild.

For more details of how you can fundraise for Act for Wildlife or to get involved and start making a difference, please visit: http://www.actforwildlife.org.uk/