Urgently needs donations to get through third lockdown

Having battled through the first two national lockdowns to successfully safeguard their animals, Battersea Park Children’s Zoo is now asking residents to help secure its future.

Zoo Keeper, Jamie Baker, said: “We are determined to overcome our third forced closure as a result of lockdown, as yet again our income has come to a complete standstill and our important work is threatened, similar to many of the species that we work with at the zoo.”

The daily food costs for the Zoo’s animals is approximately £115. This includes all fresh vegetables, fruits, pellet feeds, meat and fish. The weekly cost of insects for the monkeys, meerkats, lemurs, coatis and birds is nearly £80.00, and £400 a month is needed for hay, straw and bedding materials. The Zoo is again turning to its crowdfunding page in a bid to continue its vital work. Just £75 would buy enough insects to feed all the monkeys and lemurs for one week, and £150 would feed all the animals and provide fresh bedding for one day. A crowdfunded sum of £500 would ensure a few days’ peace of mind during this uncertain time. In May last year the crowdfunding page raised £19,718 with 567 supporters in forty-one days.

Battersea Park Children’s Zoo has been an intrinsic part of the local community for nearly 70 years and is funded entirely by its visitors. Its education programme attracts schools from all over London and is usually fully booked each year, with over 8,500 children learning at the Zoo annually. Its creative education programme complies with the National Curriculum and teaches interactive workshops based on conservation, adaptations, the food chain and camouflage.

The Zoo is now home to fifty species of mammals, birds and reptiles including a number of critically endangered species such as the cotton-top tamarin, Bali starlings, Scottish wildcats and lemur. It also actively participates in vital European breeding programmes with other zoos to conserve species and educate visitors as to why many species are disappearing from the wild. At the Zoo, European hedgehogs and Eurasian harvest mice are bred regularly and released into the wild as part of reintroduction programmes across the UK.

Jamie Baker adds, “With the support of the public and our hardworking team, we are determined to overcome this huge obstacle and welcome visitors back through our gates in the future. We strive to always be a place in our community where children of all ages and abilities can play, learn and discover.”

To say thank you for the generous donations it receives, the Zoo is offering the chance to win a number of prizes to look forward to when it reopens. If you would like to donate, for every £10 received via the Crowdfunder , your name will be entered into a support fund prize draw where you’ll have the chance to win one of fifteen prizes including Keeper Experiences, Wallaby Encounters, Armadillo Experiences and zoo tickets.

February 4, 2021