Telford zoo shut for 18 months opens in new home

The zoo has desert, rainforest and nocturnal zones and a farmyard

A zoo has opened in a new home, after being shut to the general public throughout the pandemic.

Exotic Zoo, which has about 50 species in Telford, Shropshire, closed its old site in December 2019 and was aiming to relocate.

The zoo said as it made plans it hoped to maintain education work, but income "was gone" during the pandemic.

However, it has reopened at Telford Town Park, after 12 staff and 85 volunteers were "so dedicated".

The zoo's inhabitants were trained to move in the "least stressful way possible", it said

Telford and Wrekin Council offered it the new space and animals were moved in late February to the site, which is four times larger than the previous one in Priorslee.

The zoo, which had annual running costs before the pandemic of about £250,000, said it had been "in a really bad place" for building a new site.

But education work for "hard to reach and vulnerable groups", through private health care providers and council departments for example, has recently started again and the zoo opened to the general public on Saturday.

Emma Horton said it was "buzzing" on the first day open to the general public at the new site

Owner Scott Adams said it had been stressful, watching it go "so close" to the money running out, given the animals in its care and people's jobs, but all their positions had been retained.

He stated: "It's been so stressful, like a rollercoaster.

"Day to day looking after animals, feeding them, cleaning them, that doesn't change whether we're open to the public or not."

Mr Adams said creating a zoo "from scratch is no mean feat" and with funds being low, everybody had been learning new skills as workers got involved in building it.

Zoo manager Emma Horton said it felt "amazing" to be open again.

She added: "The animals are really excited to see the public as well, so yeah it's just exciting vibes.

"We're looking at different expansions that we can do, what more things we can offer."

Staff and volunteers had gone "above and beyond", the zoo said