Chester Zoo donors send £3m to help with Covid-related financial 'scar'

About £3m has been donated from across the world to a zoo which feared Covid-related funding issues would curtail its work supporting endangered animals.

Chester Zoo's chief executive Dr Mark Pilgrim said he was "overwhelmed" after 130,000 donors from 90 countries sent funds to help deal with a "£5.5m scar" caused by the impact of the pandemic.

In June, the zoo said Covid-19 rules pushed it "to the edge of extinction".

Dr Pilgrim said it still had "some very challenging times ahead".

A spokesman said revenue from visitors made up 97% of its income, with the monthly cost of looking after its 35,000 animals reaching about £465,000, which when added to maintenance and research costs, meant it needed £1.6m a month.

In June, it launched a campaign for donations, just six months it announced it had welcomed a record 2 million visitors in 2019.

Among those who decided to help was Salford teaching assistant Brendan Rendall, who ran a half marathon every day in June, a marathon every day in July and from his home city to Chester Zoo in August while dressed as a number of animals, including a rhinoceros and a penguin, to raise funds.

He then ran 10km every day from 7 November until he contracted coronavirus, but said he hoped to resume his fundraising challenges in 2021.

"The zoo is very close to my heart," he said.

"I've been working with children with special education needs for the last 12 years and have taken them to the zoo many times.

"They've absolutely loved it, as have I."

He added that with "the year we're all experiencing so far, I just wanted to do something fun, make people laugh, smile and inspire them to donate."

Art director Emily Chrimes also got involved with fundraising, using the lockdown to create an animal-themed colouring book to support the zoo.

She said the zoo's struggle made her heart sink, because it "holds such wonderful memories for me".

"So I approached illustrators from across the world on Instagram to see if they'd be willing to help, along with [an] independent publisher, who very kindly took a chance on my book and helped bring it to life," she said.

Dr Pilgrim said the zoo had been "truly overwhelmed by the kindness that's being shown to us when times are hard for everyone, not just us".

He added that while the zoo had been able to reopen since the first lockdown, "there's still a long way to go before we're fully back on track".

"Our closure due to the pandemic has left a huge £5.5m scar in our finances, so there is no denying that there will be some very challenging times ahead."

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