The owners of Fife Zoo are remaining upbeat, despite falling far short of a crowdfunding target.
With only three days to go, they have only attracted £4,820 of the £100,000 they hoped for.
However, Briony Taylor and Michael Knight’s appeal has gained 118 supporters.
Briony said: “While it has not hit the target we have a savvy web designer who is able to transfer the crowdfunding on to our own website, so it will still continue.”
The couple bought shut-down Fife Animal Park at Collessie in 2015 with Michael’s parents, Reginald and Ann, and moved to Fife from Essex to start transforming it.
In the last 18 months they have got a café and soft play area up and running, and have introduced two zebras, Jez and Marty.
They are working around the clock to build a modern zoo and hope to raise £250,000 to bring their dreams to life.
Part of that was the appeal to the public to help build “the best little zoo in Scotland”.
Briony said the setback would not delay any work.
She said: “The funding was to help us, we have never put any date in stone.
“We have the funds to push forward to get the zoo off the ground. And there are other options we are looking into.
“We just hoped the crowdfunding would have given us that extra boost and make it a community asset.”
The couple are still working flat out behind the scenes at the zoo.
“Even though we were not near our target, this money is still nice.
“It will help us complete things we wanted to do. We are not too worried, we can keep it going on our website.”
She added: “The zoo will take its time.It will be ready once it is ready and perfect and not a minute before. We are progressing.”
Briony and Michael want to make it a home to many exotic and endangered species.
They have had to renovate everything on the site, from hospital kitchens and classrooms to purpose built housing and exhibits.
Everything so far has been funded by them, the Africafe and Sloth Play.
