Chester Zoo Tour | The UK’s Best Zoo?

Chester Zoo Tour | The UK’s Best Zoo?

Is this the best zoo in the UK? Well, today we’re 
here to find out. Chester Zoo opened in 1931, and since then it’s grown into one of the UK’s largest 
zoos. It holds over 500 species, 28,000 animals, let’s go” Chester is split into five colour 
zones, and we’re going to start here with the Asian elephants in the yellow zone. This is the 
first habitat that you’ll come to in the zoo, just on the left hand side of the entrance. And 
for a city zoo, it is a really impressive elephant habitat. Chester was the first zoo in the UK to 
successfully breed Asian elephants. They currently have five elephants, three that were born here and 
two that have just arrived from Whips. The habitat is pretty sizable and really nicely landscaped. 
It’s not the biggest I’ve ever seen, but it’s bigger than a lot of the elephant habitats 
in city zoos that I visited, and I imagine it’ll be getting even bigger soon to comply with 
the new zoo regulations in the UK. My favourite feature is this waterfall made of stacked rocks. 
really really impressive and a great feature both for enrichment for the elephants and to act as a 
centrepiece for the habitat for guests. The yellow zone focuses on elephants, monkeys, bats, and 
bears. And we’re going to move from the largest inhabitants in the zoo to one of the smallest, 
these gorgeous Swinhoe’s Squirrels. This little habitat is more of a cage really, but it works 
really well for the squirrels cuz it means they can use all six surfaces in here along with the 
trees and branches to run around. And continuing the Asian theme, we come to the zoo’s Indian 
rhinos. The Indian rhino, or greater one-horned rhinos, it’s also known, is one of my favourite 
animals. Their tank-like appearance and the armour plating style skin is just absolutely fascinating 
to me. They share this habitat with brow antler deer that you can see in the background there. 
And again, this is a really sizable habitat for the rhinos. They’ve got a lot of space to wander 
around. And I caught one having a bath in its pool here. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually seen a 
rhino in the water in a zoo. It was a real treat to see. Look at him waggling his ears there. Such 
a gorgeous animal. Let’s move on to the next part of the yellow zone, the monkey house. Despite the 
name, the majority of the space for the monkeys is outside. These are rollaway monkeys, which are 
not something you’ll see in many zoos in the UK. They are really cool. There is a big classic style 
monkey house with the indoor habitats for them, but it’s surrounded by these outdoor habitats, 
mostly moated, so there’s no visual separation between us and the monkeys. And you get to 
see whole family groups playing around in the reeds next to the water, jumping around in 
the trees. They got spider monkeys here as well, although they did not want to uh spend much time 
outside when I was there. Just caught one having a little swing. And then back off to the inside 
part of the habitat again. And this cute little juvenile doing exactly the same thing. And nearby 
is the land of the mini monkeys. You can see the gorgeous Pied Tamarin here. Again, large outdoor 
spaces and then smaller indoor spaces as well. Pied Tamarins are a real rarity. They are 
critically endangered in the wild, found only in a small area of the Brazilian Amazon. And it’s not 
just the Pied Tamarin. They’ve got the gorgeous emperor tamarin with their giant mustaches. 
And they share their habitat with this goeldi’s monkey. It’s great to see monkeys as small as 
this with as much space as they have. They’ve got massive outdoor areas as well. At this point, 
we come to the zoo’s small South American area. Chester Zoo isn’t laid out into huge geographical 
areas, although they have a master plan where they are moving towards achieving that. So, as well 
as some of the incredible themed areas we’re going to see today, there’s also smaller areas 
with loosely related animals like the Capybara and these Tamandua snoozing away in their habitat. 
But, we’re going to see something truly incredible now. The best nocturnal bat experience that 
I’ve ever seen. The fruit bat forest is the largest free-flying bat cave in Europe, and it is 
absolutely amazing in here. They’ve got Rodriguez fruit bats and SA’s short-tailed bats along with 
some other cute nighttime creatures in vivariums at the start and you can just stand here and 
there are bats flying past you all the time. It is absolutely amazing. One of my favourite ever zoo 
experiences. Time to head into the next zone in the zoo, the blue zone. This is home to the Komodo 
dragons, Himalaya and Madagascar exhibits. On the way there, we can see the cute ringtailed lemur 
and some of the amazing planting that this zoo is covered in. And the first exhibit we’re going to 
go to is called Dragons in Danger. This exhibit opened in 1998 for Komodo dragons. We’ve seen 
Komodo dragons a fair few times on this channel now. But what we haven’t seen is this juvenile 
Komodo dragons. Look at this one. They are really arboreal when they are young, which I didn’t 
realize. It spent the whole time I was watching it climbing around their trees. And just look how 
colourful they are when they’re juveniles. This was a real once in a-lifetime experience for me. 
Definitely one of the coolest things that I saw at Chester Zoo. Along with the Komodo dragons, 
the exhibit also holds various other reptiles, including these little tortoises. And we’re going 
to move on to the Latin American wetlands. This walkthrough Avery is one of the latest exhibits at 
Chester Zoo. It opened in 2021 and it contains a flock of 100 flamingos along with scarlet ibis, 
roseate spoon bills, and various ducks, geese, teals, and finches. These are Caribbean flamingos. 
One of the most colourful flamingos. And we’re going to move on to something now that’s a 
lot less colourful, but no less adorable, the penguins. These are humboldt penguins, a very 
popular penguin in zoos. They’ve got over 50 here in a breeding group. And as you can see, there 
is a lot of viewing opportunities. It’s not the best penguin habitat I’ve ever seen. Penguin Cove 
at Bird Paradise in Singapore and Penguin Beach at London Zoo take a lot of beating, but this is 
still a really good one. The underwater viewing is excellent here. Always so much fun watching them 
kind of flying around underwater, and definitely a really high-end penguin habitat. Next to that 
is another one of my favourite animals, the giant otter. This used to be a sea lion pool apparently, 
but I think it suits the giant otter much better. Let’s leave the aquatic animals for a minute and 
head into the Himalaya. Until Chester Zoo built the heart of Africa, and more on that later, the 
Himalaya was the latest area in the zoo. As well as hosting red pandas and these gorgeous Himalayan 
mon, it’s home to the zoo snow leopards. These only arrived last year as part of a global 
conservation program. And as I record this, they’ve just announced the birth of their first 
snow leopard cub. So now they have three of them. We are going to see one of the leopards here 
in one of their indoor areas. It’s a really rocky habitat with a cave for them as well. It’s 
designed in such a way as it looks like one big habitat, but it’s actually split into two, and the 
zoo can choose whether the leopards are together or separate. And seeing as they’ve had a baby 
within a year, it seems to be working really well. It’s time to move on. A quick glimpse of a brown 
lemur here because we’re moving into Madagascar. The first thing we’re going to see and the zoo 
could probably do with cleaning this window is the rare coquerel’s sifaka. One of the most unique 
of the lemurs. But the star of the show today is the fossa. This is the first fossa we’ve ever seen 
on the channel. And you’re in for a treat because they were really showy today. The only other zoo 
we’ve seen that had fossa was Singapore Zoo and they were a no-show that day. Although Prague Zoo 
have acquired them since our tour there. They are absolutely fascinating animals. the top predator 
of Madagascar. Although for a top predator, they are absurdly cute. This I believe is a female. 
She had cubs here a couple of years ago. And as well as wandering around hunting for food in 
her outdoor habitat, I also caught her using this bamboo enrichment feeder in her indoor habitat. 
The zoo has been breeding fossil here. And as well as this habitat, there’s also a walkthrough 
lemur enclosure for ring-tailed, redruffed, crowned, redbellied, and black lemurs. The zoo’s 
even got black and white rough lemurs elsewhere along with the brown lemur you saw earlier. If you 
like lemurs, uh Chester Zoo is the place for you. And that’s everything in the blue section. Before 
we move on to the green section, we’re heading to the zoo centrepiece, the Oakfield. It’s now a pub 
and restaurant, but this was the original house from which the creator of Chester Zoo, George 
Mottershead, started the entire zoo from what were essentially his pets at the time. And from one man 
and his family, this entire massive zoo has grown. Time now to head into the green zone. There is 
a lot to see here. From great apes to big cats, but we’re going to start with butterflies. 
Butterfly Journey is hands down the best butterfly experience that we’ve seen on this 
channel so far. I think it’s even better than the one at Singapore Zoo. It’s based around the 
life cycle of a butterfly. As you would expect, it features lots of beautiful butterflies like 
these blue morphos, giant owls, glass wings, swallow tails, and atlas moths. The planting is 
absolutely next level in here. It’s so tropical feeling. And as you’d expect, the house is very 
warm. And there’s a little pupae hatchery as well, where you can see butterflies in their pupae and 
hatching out as well. It’s really cool. Next to the butterflies is the Gear National Park and 
Sanctuary where the zoo keep their Asiatic lions. No longer technically known as a subspecies, 
the Asiatic lion is a small group of lions, the last remaining lions in Asia. And there’s 
quite a few of them in British zoos to keep a breeding population going. And next to them is a 
really cute little habitat for pygmy goats. And speaking of British zoos, something next which I 
think is really interesting, a habitat for British wildlife with sand lizards on the one side and 
European adders on the other. Sadly, they were both a no-show today, but I love the fact that 
they’ve got a British wildlife exhibit here. Next up is the tropical realm. This beautiful 
house dates all the way back to the 1960s. I think that is really really lush in here. I love 
this waterfall and it is full of birds and smaller reptiles. This is a bluecrowned pigeon. One of 
the most impressive of the pigeon species. This spectacular sunda wrinkled hornbill and something 
very special and certainly the first time that we’ve seen it on the channel. The tuatara. I 
believe Chester is the only zoo in the world outside of New Zealand to have bred these unique 
reptiles. And it’s amazing to see them here. Next, the tropical realm is Spirit of the Jaguar. This 
opened in 2001 and features two beautiful Jaguar, both with black and standard colouring. Their 
indoor area is really nicely landscaped. You can hear this one purring away, having a good old 
scratch, and as well as these beautiful cats. The building houses sloths and spectacle bears. This 
sloth habitat is really cool. The boxes that you can see on the wall join up to the outside of the 
building and then there’s a big long rope going into an outdoor habitat. So sometimes you can 
see the sloth climbing directly above the path that you’re on. Spectacle bears were not very 
showy today. So let’s move on to the realm of the red ape. This is home to the zoo’s bornean 
orangutans. They have both types here along with a whole host of amazing tropical animals. This is 
a blue spotted tree monitor living up to its name climbing around in that tree. It’s a really 
stunning lizard. And next to that, the blue crowned hanging parrots, which spent a lot less 
time hanging than I would have expected from their names. There’s also crocodile lizards. These 
are fascinating. They almost look like turtles when just their heads are poking up out of the 
water. There’s also some really impressive snakes in here. Reticulated pythons, this white-lipped 
island pit viper, and the amazing Bolan’s python. This python was definitely my favourite snake 
today. It lives in the mountains of New Guinea and its colouring is absolutely amazing. There’s also 
a group of lar gibbons here. One of my favourite primates. They all have both indoor and outdoor 
areas. I’m not a huge fan of the indoor areas. I think they’re a bit ugly, but they are really good 
in terms of the verticality for the gibbons. So, they got loads of ropes to swing on and the 
outsides are really pretty. As you can see here, the orangs have a similar setup, although they 
were much less playful today. This is the only shot of the bornean orang that I got. But next 
to them is something much more rarely seen. The Aye Aye. These unique members of the lemur family 
are nocturnal. So the habitat is very dark as you would expect. But they were super active. I 
think London Zoo is the only other zoo that I’ve seen them in, and I’ve never seen them as 
active as this. Let’s step back into the sunshine and start moving towards probably my favourite 
area at Chester Zoo, the islands. On the way, we have some more beautiful animals to see. 
these Congo buffalo, red-billed curassow, and blue throated macqaw. One of these is checking 
us out as we check them out. And our final stop in the green zone, the chimpanzee breeding centre. 
This was opened in 1989 by Princess Diana and is home to a large group of western chimpanzees. It’s 
an island style habitat, lots of islands connected by the climbing ropes that you can see in the top 
left. Our only separation from the chimps is a moat. And they roam all over the islands, climbing 
the trees, hunting through the bushes and foliage for food and just generally doing what chimps do. 
All right, time for the pink zone and the islands. This area is themed around the Indonesian and 
Malayan archipelago area of Asia and it features the best planting I’ve ever seen in a zoo in the 
UK, possibly in Europe. The whole time you’re here, you really feel like you are in the tropics. 
I’ve been lucky enough to go to Singapore, Bali, Cambodia, various places in Southeast Asia, and 
they do an amazing job of replicating it here in the north of England. Appropriate enough, the 
area is actually built out of islands in the middle of a river. There’s a river boat ride, 
and we will be taking that later. And on foot, you cross various bridges to see all the habitats 
like these Sumatran tigers and the gorgeous little Prevost’s Squirrel. I don’t know why more zoos 
don’t keep squirrels. They are so cute. There are so many different species and they don’t need a 
lot of space either. Next up, a Malayan tape here and an animal I have never seen in a zoo before. 
The dusky pademelon. I don’t even know if that’s how you pronounce it. Very similar to a wallaby, 
but not actually related to them. I caught a babirusa wandering off into the distance with 
its little feeding enrichment. And next to them, an animal I do know about, one of my favourites, 
the binturongs. After a no-show at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, these are the first binturongs 
we’ve seen on the channel. And the famously popcorn scented animals do not disappoint. 
Into the monsoon forest now, another tropical house featuring Sumatran orangutans and another 
rarity, the Sulawesi crested macaque. These unique primates spend most of their days on the ground 
foraging for food and socializing. And they spend their nights sleeping in trees. And next to them 
is another new species for us, the silvery gibbon. This one’s having all sorts of fun swinging around 
in their habitat. This endangered gibbon lives on the island of Java. And Chester Zoo is part of the 
breeding program for the species. The islands also has two walkthrough aviaries with all sorts of 
birds in them and yet more lush planting. These are crested wood partridges and it also holds 
pied imperial pigeons, purple nape lorries, sumatran laughing thrushes and javan green 
magpies. Now I promised you a boat trip and that is what we’re going to do now. We’re taking the 
jungle river cruise in order to see the islands from a completely different angle. We have a boat 
all to ourselves here and just look at this view. If somebody showed you this and said you were 
in the north of England just outside Liverpool, you would find it hard to believe. This was the 
first part of the islands area and the pink zone to open a Chester Zoo because everything is built 
around it. It’s designed that you get glimpses into various habitats as you go around. The boat 
itself is basically just rolling along a piece of string under the water. There’s no engine, so it 
is so serene and peaceful. The first animal that we’re going to glimpse on here are the Visayan 
warty pigs, which are a lot more attractive than their name suggests and very common in UK zoos 
at the moment. It also takes you past one of my favourite animals, the southern cassowary, 
although unfortunately we didn’t get a view of them today. I made multiple visits to their 
habitat, both this one in the boat and then a couple of times from the path next to it, but I 
just could not see them today, unfortunately. And as we travel on under bridges and past all this 
lush vegetation, we come to a habitat for Banteng. These are another species that live on Java. 
They’re essentially cows and they’re the kind of animal that I’d probably gloss over walking around 
the zoo. But as you glide past them on a boat with no one else around, it really makes you feel like 
you are in Indonesia. And it’s actually quite an experience. Next up is the back of the Sumatran 
tiger habitat that we saw earlier. Didn’t see them from this angle, but there’s something about 
sitting on your own in a little boat gliding past a fence with tigers behind it that really works. 
The final species that we’re going to see on the boats and in the islands is the lowland Noah. We 
saw what I’m assuming must have been a female of these at Singapore Zoo. As you can see, the males 
are much bigger. They’re off now, and so are we to the latest area at Chester Zoo, the heart of 
Africa. This is the newest zone at Chester Zoo, the orange zone, and it is entirely taken up with 
this amazing African exhibit. And we’re going to dive straight in with the meerkats. We have 
seen a lot of meerkat habitats on this channel, and Chester has got pretty much everything 
you could want. From viewing domes, you can go inside to get a really up close view of them to a 
pretty massive area by meerkat habitat standards, indoor and outdoor viewing. This is a great 
habitat. We got something much larger to see now, though, the eastern black rhino. These beautiful 
animals are critically endangered and Chester Zoo has a long history of working on breeding 
programs with this animal and they also do work in Africa with rangers in protected areas to 
reduce poaching. These habitats have been in the zoo for a long time. They’ve been rethemed 
to fit into the heart of Africa area, but when your rhino habitats are this good, there’s no need 
to tear them down and start again. On the inside, we got some more nice theming. When the rhinos are 
in here, you can get the closest view of all. They are absolutely magnificent animals. Let’s move on 
to the next part of the area. The heart of Africa has a pretty extensive bird collection from grey 
crown cranes and greater flamingos to walk through aviaries and this beautiful eagle owl and past 
all the aviaries as the centrepiece of this area. The savannah home to four different species. This 
savannah is enormous. It houses northern giraffes, gravy zebra, rowan antelope, and the common 
ostrich. There are so many different viewing spots for this. most of them raised so you can 
get some great views of the giraffe like this. You’re almost at the head height of the giraffe 
especially when they’re using their feeders like this one. Here’s the zebra. I didn’t have 
any luck with the roan antelope or the ostrich today. Not sure where they were. It’s time to 
leave the savannah and enter the next part of the heart of Africa. And the first animal 
here is the aardvark. Got a couple of them here snoozing away in their indoor habitat. 
Aardvarks are primarily nocturnal. So this is where you’d expect to see them. And next to them 
is another adorable animal, the yellow mongoose, the meerkat’s bigger cousin. I’ve seen these in a 
couple of zoos and they are always really active and a lot of fun to watch. And then inside a cafe 
is the indoor viewing for the Cape Porcupine and these gorgeous battered foxes. These rare animals 
have just arrived at the zoo. They have an indoor habitat here and then an outdoor habitat which 
leads directly onto the savannah, so you can see all the animals at once, which is really cool. 
Finally, the hidden savannah. a beautiful animal house with loads of smaller animals in it like 
these desert locusts. And the theming in here is top-notch. They are absolutely covering the jeep 
that you can see in the background. And you can actually get into the jeep so that you can have 
them swarming all over the windscreen while you’re in there. They are not the most attractive animal 
I’ve seen, but it’s really interesting seeing them like this in an actual swarm rather than just 
having a couple of them in a habitat. There’s a beautiful Ethiopian mountain adder only been 
known to science since 1977. An African bullfrog, the amazingly named Kieseling’s wonder gecko. 
Opposite the wonder gecko is a series of tiny little habitats all joined together to form a 
beautiful panorama featuring animals like this karoo round-eared sengi and this adorable barbary 
striped grass mouse. The way these habitats work together, there’s always something to 
see. Had an amazing view of this little mouse. Underneath the mouse habitat is a species 
that’s becoming more and more popular in zoos, the naked mole rat. These are so weird. They 
are weirdly cute though, and they bring us on to the final habitat that we’re going to see in 
the heart of Africa. An open top mixed habitat for various different reptiles like Stared agama 
and Chameleon. And that is everything at Chester Zoo. I think we can safely answer the question. 
In my opinion, this is the best zoo in the UK. Let me know what you think in the comments. And 
if you want to see a more in-depth look at the heart of Africa area, check out this video 
on the screen now. Thanks for watching. Bye.

With a reputation as the best zoo in the UK, we explore the MASSIVE Chester Zoo to find out if it is! #zoo #travel #animals

CHESTER ZOO TOUR
00:00 The Best Zoo in the UK?
00:19 Elephants of the Asian Forest
01:58 Monkey Islands
03:28 Fruit Bat Forest
04:13 Dragons In Danger
04:48 Flamingos & Penguins
05:51 The Himalayas
06:39 Madagascar
08:11 Butterfly Journey
09:22 Tropical Realm
09:53 Spirit of the Jaguar
10:28 Realm of the Red Ape
12:05 Congo Buffalo & Chimpanzees
12:46 The Islands
14:42 Jungle River Cruise
16:31 Heart of Africa
20:02 The Answer

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Credits
Komodo Dragon image by Mike Peel (https://www.mikepeel.net)
Orangutan image by Chester Zoo