Colchester Zoo's 60th birthday pledge 'never to become theme park'

Frank and Helena Farrar opened the zoo on what was a 25-acre plot in 1963

The owner of Colchester Zoo has vowed to maintain the attraction as a conservation project and not as a "theme park".

Speaking on the Essex zoo's 60th anniversary, Dr Dominique Tropeano also said he never worried for its future during the bleak days of the pandemic.

The zoo is due to transfer from operating as a commercial business, to a charitable trust, in 2025.

"I want to ensure the zoo will continue forever," said director Mr Tropeano.

"I want it to continue as a zoo. I don't want it to become a theme park; we want to continue the work we are doing now, this is work in conservation and work in education."

The site in Maldon Road was first opened on 2 June 1963 as Stanway Hall Zoo Park by former RAF pilot Frank Farrar and his Australian-born wife Helena.

An estimated 12,000 people visited on the first two days, and its first animals included a bactrian camel, a red kangaroo and a cheetah.

The Farrars' niece, Angela Tropeano, and her husband - who grew up with livestock on a farm in France - bought the zoo in 1983.

The Farrars' secretary, Joan Honisett, and her husband, Fred, pictured with a Colchester Zoo tiger cub in about 1969

The zoo said its sea lion underwater viewing tunnel was the longest of its kind when built in 2003

The team opened a 1.9 acre elephant enclosure in 1998 and a 24-metre (79ft) long underwater viewing tunnel in the sea lion enclosure in 2003 - two of its largest ever building projects.

The site made national headlines in November 2013, when three of its timber wolves were shot dead after escaping through their steel wire fence and beyond the perimeter fence.

The zoo said it continued to pay £25,000 per day in energy and maintenance bills during the Covid lockdowns, and posted a £667,000 drop in profits in 2020, but those operating profits picked up two years later.

The zoo is home to more than 160 species across 60 acres of parkland and lakes.

The zoo previously thanked visitors and benefactors during the pandemic who gave "us the strength to survive"

Colchester Zoo is home to more than 160 species

"[I] never worried for its future. Even during the Covid tough times [I thought] we will never lose, we won't be beaten; we had aims and we want to stick to them," said Mr Tropeano, speaking to BBC Essex.

"Whatever obstacle we face we have to jump over this obstacle and we will never give in - we will always be there."

The zoo celebrated the anniversary with a dedicated "zoobilee" week during half term, culminating in a timetable of workshops, magic shows and steel drum performances on the Saturday.

The zoo hosted a series of "zoobilee" anniversary celebrations on Saturday