UK's biggest zoo project brings African savannah to chilly Chester

"Although we are trying to replicate Uganda and Kenya, we are actually in Cheshire so the weather is slightly different," admits Chester zoo's boss, Jamie Christon, on a fresh and very grey Monday morning.

- Mark Brown

But ignore the chilliness and screw up your eyes and you could be transported to a sweeping African savannah where one day giraffes, zebras, antelopes and ostriches will all roam majestically.

Christon is speaking at the launch of the UK's biggest ever zoo development - a £28m facility called Heart of Africa. It covers 9 hectares (22.5 acres) and is home to 57 African species including vultures, rhinos, a colony of naked mole rats and 15,000 locusts.

More than 6,000 trees, shrubs and grasses have been planted with the idea of recreating a variety of grassland habitats. The potential star of the show is the 1.5-hectare rocky savannah where a number of species will roam together, just as they would in the wild.

The zoo is taking things slowly. Sam Harley, a giraffe keeper, admits her charges have been less enthusiastic than the zebras about sharing paddock space. But it's early days and understandable. "Most of our giraffes were born here so the only other animals they had ever seen were the Congo buffalo across the road," she said.