A new animal attraction in Fife is looking forward to welcoming its first four-legged residents.
Fife Zoo hopes zebras Marty and Jez will move in this summer, followed by more furry, feathered and scaly friends.
The two are to be rehomed from West Midlands Safari Park at the zoo being created near Collessie.
Owners Briony Taylor and Michael Knight have already met Jez and Marty, who shares his name with the zebra in the DreamWorks film Madagascar.
Briony said: “They are lovely and we have been doing some zebra training before they arrive.”
The couple, who have degrees in international wildlife biology, took over the former Fife Animal Park with Michael’s parents Reginald and Ann in 2015 and hoped to open the zoo last summer.
Although the café opened early in 2016 and the soft play centre, Sloth Play, in December, the zoo itself remains a work in progress.
But Briony said they would pull out all the stops to ensure the zebra enclosure and at least part of the zoo is open for the 2017 visitor season.
Marty and Jez are being moved from West Midlands as part of a European breeding programme, giving Fife Zoo a deadline for having their new home ready.
A crowdfunding appeal may be launched to ensure the pair can come, capitalising on the huge following the attraction has on social media which saw a preview photograph of Sloth Play viewed 35,000 times.
The zoo is also working with other breeding programmes to bring more animals to the kingdom but exact species are yet to be confirmed.
Briony said: “Our top priority is to have the zebra enclosure ready.
“Crowdfunding would be a good way forward, as we have a lot of support from people locally and from further afield.
“People want to be involved with the zoo, from 16-year-olds to 65-year-olds, people are always asking us if they can volunteer.
“People want to see animals here and we want to see animals here.
“We originally hoped to have the zoo open this year but it is such a big job and there have been the usual delays.
“It is a lengthy process and we won’t open until it’s right.”
While customers have flocked to the café and soft play, keeping the four directors and their seven staff rushed off their feet, Michael said creation of the zoo remained their focus.
“Our main goal is the zoo, it’s always the zoo. Everything else is just part of the bigger picture and is giving people a taste of what we are about before the main event.”
Teams of volunteers are helping to transform the area, which has included revamping its outdoor playpark and creating a series of biodiversity zones, including bug hotels and bird houses.
Work is still to be done on remodelling the wider park and enclosures left behind by Fife Animal Park to become homes for birds and animals such as monkeys and meerkats.
