CHESTER Zoo is celebrating a momentous milestone - its 100,000th member!

The milestone is an all-time high for the zoo’s membership scheme, which provides vital funding to the zoo’s conservation, science and education projects around the world.

In return, members receive fabulous benefits including unlimited entry, invitations to special talks and events, as well as added discounts in the zoo’s shops and cafes.

Chester and District Standard: It's a boy!It's a boy!

It's a boy! The zoo is celebrating the recent birth of a baby elephant.

Memberships and adoptions manager, Karolyn Curwell, said: “We’re absolutely delighted at the success of our membership scheme. It reflects the huge efforts of every one of our staff members to provide the best possible experience for our visitors.

“With more than 21,000 animals to come and see at Chester Zoo, daily talks from our Zoo Rangers, fabulous play areas and a full programme of family-friendly, seasonal events, there is so much for our visitors to see and do while they are here. It’s wonderful that so many people are choosing to join our family of members, returning again and again to enjoy all the many delights this very special place has to offer.”

Chester and District Standard: The zoo's 100,000 member.The zoo's 100,000 member.

100,000th member Kirsty Witham with her family.

The zoo’s lucky 100,000th member was Kirsty Witham, 28, from Bebington, Wirral. She has been awarded a special, honorary lifetime membership to the zoo, and she couldn’t be more pleased. She will now enjoy free entry to the zoo – for life!

Kirsty said: “It was quite a shock to find out I was going to be made an honorary lifetime member, but such a nice surprise. I have very happy memories of coming to the zoo as a child and now my children love to visit here, too. There’s so much to do and there always seems to be something different to see.

“It made sense to take advantage of the family membership so we can enjoy coming here together more often. Since we’ve become members, a friend of ours has joined, and my sister is thinking of signing up for it. It seems like everyone wants to get the benefits of membership!”

There is always something new for members and visitors to look forward to at the UK’s most popular zoo. Ongoing developments are sensitively transforming the attraction as part of a long-term plan to create large-scale themed zones; continuing the ‘always building’ philosophy of its founder and visionary, George Mottershead.

Following the success of the zoo’s Islands zone, where visitors can explore the amazing tropical environments of six South East Asian islands, construction has begun on the next themed area - a Madagascan forest. This will create an immersive, walk-through habitat that will allow visitors to get closer to the zoo’s lemurs than ever before. It’s due to open towards the end of the year.

Meanwhile, a brand new state-of-the-art habitat has just opened on Islands. Home to two species of marsupial from the Indonesian island of Papa New Guinea: the diminutive dusky pademelon, which is vulnerable to extinction, and the exquisite, but endangered, Goodfellow’s tree kangaroo. The latter is a new species at the zoo, which is under threat from hunting and habitat loss.

Chester and District Standard: Rare tree kangaroo at Chester Zoo.Rare tree kangaroo at Chester Zoo.

Rare tree kangaroos recently hopped into the zoo.

Karolyn Curwell added: “The wonderful support of all our members, along with our 1.9 million visitors and the many individuals and organisations who donate to us so generously, contributes directly to protecting biodiversity worldwide, supporting more than 80 vital conservation projects we carry out with partners across the globe, protecting threatened species from extinction.”

Find out more about Chester Zoo’s membership scheme and the many benefits it provides at chesterzoo.org