Chester Zoo has apologised after a computer error led to a 90-minute “child predator tour” being advertised to visitors.
The tour was intended to take people closer to predators including lions and Sumatran tigers, but its name prompted shocked reactions online before it was changed.
Tickets had been offered at £25 for children and £30 for adults. The zoo is now selling them as “child tour” and “adult tour” tickets.
One person wrote online: “I hope this has been cleared by Cheshire Police – seems a bit dangerous.” Another asked: “Staggering – how did that get approved?”
Others described the wording as “sinister”, questioned how it had not been spotted and joked that it “really could have been worded better”. One person claimed the zoo “had to know what they were doing there”, while another called the mistake “hilarious”.
The tour’s description invited visitors to “discover the predators of the animal kingdom, and their prey” while travelling on an electric bus before the zoo opened.
It said guests would spend 90 minutes seeing animals away from the crowds, including Chester Zoo’s family of Sumatran tigers, with guides providing facts about “some of nature’s most effective hunters”.
A Chester Zoo spokesperson said the error occurred “due to our default naming convention in our system” and had been “quickly changed”.
Chester Zoo opened in 1931 and covers 51 hectares. It was named the Best Zoo in the UK in 2024.
