Chester Zoo says it is ready to reopen to the public as soon as it can once lockdown restrictions are lifted.

Government guidelines suggest that the zoo could be up and running again by summer, providing it operates with reduced visitor numbers and social distancing measures.

The zoo has confirmed that it could be in ‘serious trouble’ if the coronavirus crisis continues into 2021.

In an interview with North Wales Live, Dr Mark Pilgrim, CEO of Chester Zoo, said the zoo is “damaged, but not broken” as the site deals with weeks of lockdown closure and plans to reopen to help them start to plug a growing financial black hole.

Despite there being no immediate cash crisis, as the zoo had recently taken on an extended loan facility for capital work, which is now being spent on running costs.

However, Dr Pilgrim did say that there would be difficult decisions in the future to cut costs.

Dr Pilgrim said: “It is a massive challenge. We closed on March 21 and have been closed since then.

“We would have expected to make £5m in that period so you can see it is a massive gap in revenue.

“We have placed 270 staff into furlough - out of about around 500 we have here. These are visitor facing staff but we can’t furlough zoo keepers, vets, maintenance, we can’t just mothball like many other charities and businesses.”

And Dr Pilgrim said the zoo is fortunate that the current crisis comes after a positive 10 years.

He added: “This comes on the back of a very successful decade and this has come from investing in the zoo, in our exhibits, to generate growth and to keep bringing the public in.

“We had just increased our loan facility to support our capital projects for the next few years - we are now living on that money to just keep us running. Projects are now on hold for two years.

Chester Zoo prepares to reopen after lockdown

“We had projected that this August we would owe £7m - now we expect that to be £17m.

“That loan means that we don’t have a short term crisis, we can feed our animals, we are not talking about putting animals down.

“But we don’t know how long this will go on for, if this goes on beyond the end of the year then we are in serious trouble.

“Any business with massive overheads and zero income will go bust at some point - we are fortunate at the moment but all debts have to be paid back.

“I am optimistic but we really will need to cut back on everything to survive.

“We are damaged but we are not broken.”

On getting back open, he said: “We want to get back open as soon as possible.

“We have an online booking system and can manage how many people we allow in each day, we are used to managing large crowds and already have a one way system in place.

“We have 130 acres here and zoos on the continent are already back open.

“We are ready to open with reduced numbers and could be back open within three or four days of an announcement.

“We want to be open by June 1 as we believe we are similar to garden centres but currently the Government is saying July 1.

“We need to get open so we can start taking in money again, another month would make a huge difference.

“We know it is also about confidence, so people will feel safe coming back.

We know there are some that will not want us to reopen that early. We have though taken all the measures we can to make the zoo ‘Covid safe’ for visitors, staff and our animals.”

Along with partners at the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Chester Zoo is lobbying for long-term government support.

And, while a £14m government zoo fund has been set up, it is aimed at small zoos at risk of having to put animals down,

Mr Pilgrim said: “That fund was not for zoos like us, we are not in the position of putting down animals - there are lots of schemes but nothing that fits us, we can’t take on more debt. We are not expecting a big government bailout but would like measures that could help us.”

The support of their members has been a huge positive factor.

He said: “We had expected a big drop off in membership (which stands at 220,000) but this has not happened - we are very grateful for that.

“That money has been a lifeline to us.

“We also have an appeal running which has been supported although I think people think everything is okay because we are not in immediate crisis but that is not to say we don’t have huge challenges.”