A community group is offering to adopt five animals at Chester Zoo and they're asking residents to vote for their favourite animals.

The zoo nearly faced closure earlier this week after it struggled to cope financially during the coronavirus crisis.

However, the Prime Minister announced on Wednesday that zoos can safely reopen on June 15.

The Over Hulton Community Group decided that they would buy five gold adoption packs to aid the zoo in its financial recovery.

They follow in the footsteps of Supermarket Iceland who have already adopted the zoo's penguins.

Each pack costs £90 and the group will organise a trip to visit the animals in the future.

John Bullen from the community group organised the vote on Facebook, it's completely free to participate in.

He said: "We came up with the idea as soon as we saw the adoption appeal, we're asking people to vote for the animals they would like us to adopt.

"Camels were doing well at one point but it looks like the Two Toed Sloth is doing well.

"Personally I'd like to see the Aardvarks to win, that's the animal my wife and I have voted for.

"The vote is open until 5pm on Sunday. Since we announced the vote we've actually had two families and a business contact us saying they are going to sponsor three animals.

"In total that makes eight which is amazing, it's really nice to have a response like that.

"In the adoption packs we will get lots of goodies, we plan on running competitions for kids in the area to paint the animals and give away some of these as prizes.

"We will also organise a coach trip at some point so we can visit the animals.

"The idea has gone down really well, everybody has loved it and it's good to see so many people voting.

"But I have to say I'll be cheering on the aardvarks."

The vote will close at 5pm this evening. To take part visit The Over Hulton Community group on Facebook.