A LOCAL zoo has smashed its £10,000 campaign target but it’s only the beginning, says its manager.

Lakeland Wildlife Oasis in Milnthorpe has been asking for donations since the site closed last week due to coronavirus.

So far £8,388 of a £10,000 target has been raised on their ‘Go Fund Me’ page.

However combined with donations through Paypal and by cheque the total stands at just above £10,000.

“We’re absolutely blown away by the support we’ve had, we never realised just how much we were loved in the area," said Jack Williams, Lakeland Wildlife Oasis manager.

“It’s hard not to get emotional about it all.”

Despite the target being reached the zoo is still intent on raising more funds.

Mr Williams said: ”We just don’t know how long this will last, we came up with the £10,000 target because that’s roughly how much it costs to run the place for a month.

"But if we’re shut for the whole of April and May and maybe longer we’ll need more.

“Our plan is if we can open earlier and we haven’t spent the money, it will go to the conservation of one of our key species in the wild.”

The zoo has not only seen donations of money but also food.

Tesco in Carnforth and Morrisons in Kendal have donated crates of fruit and vegetables in order to feed the zoo’s furry inhabitants. Deliveries began arriving earlier this week.

Although the zoo is closed to visitors, staff have been busy creating content for the public to enjoy.

Going through the alphabet of animals, daily videos are being uploaded onto Wildlife Oasis’ Facebook page at 2pm.

The videos talk about an animal for 20 minutes.

The first featured an armadillo, the next a blue tongued skink called Barry!

The Oasis is keen to go further and create more educational content for their website, so that children currently home-schooling can learn more about wildlife.

“We’re just starting to get used to the new workload, as there’s only three of us working at the moment over seven days. But we’re getting there and we hope to create some educational material on animals that is fun and engaging for home-schooling by the end of April.

“We are very very thankful to all those who have donated, thank you.”

You can donate at https://www.gofundme.com/f/safeguardoasis or contact the zoo directly on mail@wildlifeoasis.co.uk.