The first phase of the plan was to be a £90 million, 56-hectare (140-acre) enclosed African-rainforest-themed sanctuary containing a band of gorillas and a troop of chimpanzees, as well as okapi and a variety of tropical birds, amphibians, reptiles, fishes, and invertebrates, moving freely among lush vegetation.

[13] The projected Heart of Africa bio-dome, along with plans for the hotel, were shelved in 2011 due to the loss of £40m potential funding when the North West Regional Development Agency was abolished.

Thus the zoo is entered in the 'newer' part west of Flag Lane, near the elephants, and the old car parks at the east end are being built over with service, admin and educational buildings.

June's Pavilion (formerly the Jubilee Cafe and latterly the Ark Restaurant) is on the west of the zoo and Manado Street Kitchen is found on Sulawesi in the Islands exhibit.

The Oakfield is a restaurant in a Victorian mansion house near the lion enclosure, and along with the Acorn Bar, are both used for private functions as well as catering to zoo visitors.

[29] The exhibit is opening in phases[30] with phase one including a boat trip around the enclosures for visitors to view some of the zoo's key species from South East Asia, including Visayan warty pigs, southern cassowary, Javan banteng, lowland anoa and North Sulawesi babirusa; plus a walk-through bird aviary featuring the critically endangered Bali starling, as well as Java sparrows, pied imperial pigeons and purple-naped lories .

Phase two opened later in the summer[30] and includes Sumatran tigers, Sunda gharials, and other reptiles (such as tentacled snakes and brown tortoises), birds (Javan rhinoceros hornbills, and Indonesian songbirds) invertebrates and a variety of fish species.

That phase including Monsoon Forest is now complete and open with the installation of the Sumatran orangutans and the arrival of a breeding pair of Javan silvery gibbons in December 2015.

On 10 February 2011 Sheba, the matriarch of Chester Zoo’s Asian elephant herd, had to be put down because of a digestive tract illness caused by an inability to chew her food because her last molar teeth were worn to stumps.

A new breeding pair of Jaguars, Napo (Spotted male) and Goshi (Black female) arrived from separate French zoos in Spring 2013.

It comprises a new two-story building linked to the existing orangutan house with three indoor and two outdoor enclosures, providing accommodation for a larger number of apes.

The outdoor areas can be viewed from a first floor public gallery and feature mesh roofs supported by tree-like structures which act as climbing frames for the apes.

Invertebrates include Rhinoceros beetles, giant walking sticks, common crow butterflies jungle nymphs, praying mantises, Malaysian Katydids and leaf insects.

It currently houses von der decken's hornbills, lilac-breasted rollers, hammerkops, weaver birds and a variety of waterfowl, amongst other species.

Other animals that can be seen here include Red forest duikers, Gambian pouched rats, butterfly barbs, Gaboon vipers and short-eared elephant shrews.

It now currently houses spiny turtles in one side and critically endangered Mountain Chicken Frogs along with Caribbean Hermit Crabs in the other.

Dragons in Danger also houses various Indonesian and Philippine rainforest birds, such as Palawan peacock-pheasants, pheasant pigeons, Montserrat Orioles and Visayan tarictic hornbills.

For some time, this small area on the eastern part of the zoo used to be a children's petting farm until 2001 when it permanently closed due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

In the neighbouring enclosure, a large breeding group of over 50 Humboldt penguins have their own pool, and visitors can watch the birds from an underwater viewing window.

Opened in 1964, most of the interior is an open-plan space extending to roof level and themed with pools and mature tropical plants, with pathways for visitors through the undergrowth.

There were many varieties of snakes and lizards in the past (many had to depart as a result) ; rhinoceros ratsnakes, emerald tree boas and eyelash vipers now being the only remaining.

From late 2015 to early 2016, the former golden-bellied capuchin exhibit at the rear of Tropical Realm was converted to house a pair of aye-ayes and a group of Malagasy giant rats.

The 5,875m2 site is located in the centre of the zoo and was previously occupied by the Sumatran tiger exhibit and a large aviary for European birds (Europe on the Edge).

The aquarium is a small and traditional building (one of the oldest at the zoo, built by George Mottershead's daughter and son-in-law in the 1950s) housing a varied collection of freshwater and marine fish, aquatic invertebrates and amphibians.

Based around a mixed-species paddock featuring Burmese brown-antlered deer, the exhibit has recently been extended to include new enclosures for greater one-horned rhinoceroses and cheetahs.

Other paddocks on the west side of the zoo support grazing herds of Grevy's zebras, sitatunga, Kirk's dik-diks, scimitar-horned oryxes, eastern bongos, lesser kudus and roan antelopes.

Animals formerly displayed in Forest Zone include maned wolves, babirusa, warthogs, Chilean pudú, Mallorcan midwife toads, golden-bellied capuchins, visayan warty pigs, ring-tailed coatis and bactrian camels.

Bordering the paddocks is a waterway running north-south along which the water bus formerly travelled, past island groups of white-faced sakis, Alaotran bamboo lemurs and howler monkeys.

In the southeast corner of the zoo are enclosures housing an assortment of animals, including red pandas, Southern pudu, Cabot's tragopans and the wetland bird nursery.

Smaller birds included rock doves, northern lapwings, red-legged partridges and the native but rare red-billed chough.