Thousands swing by at zoo

EDINBURGH Zoo enjoyed its busiest day in more than 20 years on Bank Holiday Monday.

Visitor numbers at the zoo soared to 9248 – almost double last year's May holiday when just over 4000 people visited.

The zoo recently opened the ground-breaking Budongo Trail for their 11 chimpanzees, and the new attraction was the busiest point in the park on Monday.

Zoo bosses were also pointing to the warm holiday weather – Monday was the hottest day of the year so far – for the dramatic spike.

David Windmill, chief executive of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, said: "This is fantastic news for us.

"We have taken great efforts across the park to inform visitors about our involvement in endangered species breeding programmes and conservation and research projects.

"As a charity we rely on our visitors and without their continued support we wouldn't be able to create enclosures such as the Budongo Trail.

"We are already looking at several other developments."