Dartmoor Zoo is celebrating its best ever year ever hitting 100,000 visitors for the first time.

Last year 106,000 visitors through the gates - a 40% increase over the previous year and bucking the trend of many attractions.

A big increase was down to the introduction of new visitors’ annual pass with income enabling the zoo to make improvements and continue to expand conservation, education, and research projects.

The charity is reliant upon donations and income from admissions to improve facilities, and the lives of animals, in the zoo or to worldwide conservation projects.

The zoo has rescued Churchill the Serval from appalling conditions within The Cat Survival Trust, alongside Hertfordshire Zoo and The Big Cat Sanctuary where a further 27 other cats were rescued.

Dartmoor Zoo then found him a mate named Sabra and a spacious outdoor enclosure.

The Zoo collaborated with children to create a new habitat called ‘Meerkat Manor’ where a breeding pair of Slender-Tailed Meerkats were introduced and had two pups last year.

Also, Freddo and Lena the rare Amur Leopards were introduced to create a breeding pair. Lena then gave birth to one of only 15 Amur Leopard cubs born globally.

Edwina and Ernie, one of only two Black-Tailed Marmoset breeding pairs in all of Europe, became parents.

One of the male cubs born to the Carpathian Lynx pair in 2024 was moved to Austria to reintroduce Lynx into the wilds in Eastern Germany.

Dartmoor Zoo CEO David Gibson said: “When the majority of attractions are finding it difficult to attract customers we are delighted to see our annual numbers soar.

“The support and income we receive throughout the year is crucially important in allowing us to deliver the vital conservation work we do, not just here in Devon but across the world through our conservation partners.