Chester Zoo is celebrating after securing a second series of its hit Channel 4 documentary The Secret Life of the Zoo.

The show, which focuses on the relationship between animals and their keepers at Chester Zoo in the UK, proved a huge hit last year with a reported upswing in attendance of around 20 per cent.

“Visitor numbers for 2016 are up on last year, which is incredible,” said Jamie Christon, managing director of Chester Zoo, speaking to Attractions Management. “We put this down to the impact of The Secret Life of the Zoo, which gave millions of viewers a unique insight into the dedication and passion of our keepers, the lives of our animals and the work we do to conserve endangered species.”

Season one of the documentary series drew an average of 2.7 million viewers over a six-episode run. The show also proved popular on social media, trending on multiple networks each time it aired, estimated to be worth millions of pounds in terms of PR.

“The public response to the programme has been overwhelming. Visitors to the zoo have talked glowingly about brilliant insight it gave them into our work and lots of people have been coming to get close to the animals in person having been introduced to them on TV,” said Christon.

“It was lovely to see the reactions of our regular visitors, who expressed how proud they were to be part of the Chester Zoo family. The Secret Life of the Zoo was Channel 4’s most popular show when it aired in February, so that gives you a flavour of how well received it has been.”

The new series will once again be filmed by production company Blast, using the same micro-rigging filming techniques to capture animal behaviour close up and also taking viewers behind the scenes to show not only the animals, but the relationships they share with their keepers.

“The show has been incredibly valuable to us – as a conservation charity we are striving to save endangered species from extinction, so the more awareness we can generate for this cause the more impact we can have," said Christon.

"Series one of The Secret Life of the Zoo helped to engage viewers with big charismatic species such as our West African gorillas, but it also told the story of lesser known species such as the mountain chicken frog which is on the very brink of extinction in the wild. Meanwhile the boost to our visitor figures is equally important as it helps to bring in more income for the zoo which we can then spend on our conservation projects here in the UK and around the world."

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