Chester Zoo and its staff

20 January 2016

Chester Zoo opened on 10 June 1931 and has been a conservation and education charity (North of England Zoological Society) since 9 May 1934. The North of England Zoological Society (NEZS) is the organisation that runs Chester Zoo and its conservation campaign, Act for Wildlife. Chester Zoo is a highly respected centre for global conservation and research, and passionately campaigns for wildlife.

Its charitable work extends well beyond the zoo’s perimeter. At home and abroad, the zoo supports and conducts around 100 field projects for conservation and education, through programmes spanning six geographic regions (South Asia, South East Asia, Latin America, Mascarenes and Madagascar, Africa, UK and Europe).

The zoo attracts 1.7 million visitors a year and is home to over 20,000 animals, more than 500 different species.

Chester Zoo has been named the most visited paid-for attraction outside of London by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) for the last four years.

In July 2015 it was named the UK’s best zoo by users of the travel website, TripAdvisor.
Through its wildlife conservation campaign, Act for Wildlife, the zoo is helping to save highly threatened species around the world from extinction. Find out more at www.actforwildlife.org.uk

 

 

LONG SERVICE STAFF

One of our Nursery Team Lead Horticulturists, Keith Done, is retiring at the end of February. Keith has worked at the Zoo since 1969, and he thinks he is not only the current, but maybe also the ‘all-time’ longest serving member of staff at Chester Zoo. Keith has lots of memories about George Mottershead (founder of Chester Zoo), previous Head Gardeners, and the zoo’s horticultural past.

 

There are other long serving staff members who have been filmed:

Niall Ormerod – Lead Keeper, Primates – 44 years

Andrew Woolham – Team Manager, Parrots & Penguins – 31 years

Tim Rowlands – Curator of Mammals – 30 years

James Andrewes – Assistant Team Manager, Twilight – 21 years

Alan Littlehales – Lead Keeper, Elephant – 18 years

Anne Morris – Lead Keeper, Parrots & Penguins – 18 years

Chris Yarwood – Lead Keeper, Primates – 17 years-

Isolde McGeorge – specialist keeper, herpetology – 38 years