Dartmoor Zoo in Devon can carry on running for a while longer thanks to public donations

A zoo in Devon can continue running for a bit longer thanks to donations made by the general public.

No one has been visiting Dartmoor zoo because they're closed, following the lockdown rules put in place to stop the spread of coronarvirus.

Because of this, the zoo wasn't selling any tickets and and was close to running out of money to keep going and to pay for the care of its animals. The zoo was worried it might have to close and send its animals for adoption elsewhere.

But the deputy chief executive at the zoo, Coral Jones, said £40,000 worth of donations have been made since they put out an appeal for help.

And over £20,000 was raised by 11-year-old Joshua White.

Meet Joshua

One of the people raising money for the zoo is eleven-year-old Joshua White.

He heard about the zoo's problems and is now climbing the equivalent of Mount Everest up his stairs at home to raise money.

Josh says: "I saw Dartmoor Zoo on the local news and they said that they were short of money due to having to close because of coronavirus and not being allowed visitors at the moment. They said they may have to look at rehoming the animals... I've always loved animals so I wanted to do something to help.

"My stairs have a flight of 13 steps and... I would have to climb them 3,400 times in order to reach the equivalent of Mount Everest. I am doing two sessions a day and it should take me approximately a week to complete the challenge."

'Amazing repsonse'

250 animals live at Dartmoor Zoo and it costs around £11,500 every week to look after them all.

The zoo only had enough money to run for a another week and a half - but it's now got enough money to run for four weeks thanks to an online appeal.

Ms Jones said there has been an "amazing response" from the public and that the support has been "incredible".