At the sight of new people, Tom, Tayo and Tico the giraffes are more curious than usual, coming straight over to peer down at new faces. Over in the cheetah enclosure, the welcome is more hostile, with one of the three brothers baring his teeth at sudden arrivals. The animals of the Wild Place Project, owned by Bristol Zoological Society, are used to up to 3,500 people a day pouring through the gates, but since lockdown they have become accustomed to the solitude. “They’re not as used to large numbers of people,” said Nigel Simpson, head of animal collections. “So when visitors start coming back, the animals will react to that and be inquisitive. They’ll perhaps be a little bit standoffish initially, but they will very quickly get back into how it has always been.” And that is about to happen very soon. After pressure from animal attractions buckling under mounting costs, the government announced on Wednesday that zoos and safari parks in England can reopen from 15 June. This was after it was previously announced that, despite non-essential shops reopening Monday, zoos would remain closed “indefinitely”. The announcement could not come soon enough for the Bristol Zoological Society, with the chief executive, Dr Justin Morris, warning earlier this week that its zoos may never recover from the financial impact of coronavirus if they were not able to reopen soon. “It has been really challenging,” said Morris. “We would normally have taken about £3m in visitor income in the last three months, which has not happened. We’ve been using our reserves, but those reserves have run out. “I feel like we’ve been on a bit of a rollercoaster wondering whether this was going to happen but when they finally announced we can reopen, I genuinely felt relieved.” The zoological society has 10,000 animals to feed and care for at a cost of £600,000 – £800,000 a month. Both Bristol Zoo Gardens and the Wild Place Project receive 75-80% of their income from visitor fees, so the lockdown has had a massive impact. Although around 35% of staff were furloughed, many needed to be kept on to look after the animals and keep the site safe and secure. Other zoos around the country echoed Morris’s concerns, with London and Whipsnade zoos warning they faced permanent closure, and Chester Zoo saying the shutdown was having a “devastating impact” on the company. But their counterparts in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland remain in limbo, with their respective governments yet to announce reopening dates for zoos. Even when zoos do reopen, it will not be back to normality just yet. At the Wild Place Project visitors will have to book tickets with a specific arrival slot online, to ensure people are spread out evenly across the day, and numbers will at first be capped at 25% of normal capacity. A one-way system has been installed across the park, with handwashing stations and signs to remind people to keep two metres away from each other and a team of ‘navigators’ employed to guide people and ensure crowds are not forming. Indoor enclosures will remain closed, and the cafe will be takeaway only. Extra steps have also been taken to protect certain animals who are potentially at risk of catching the virus themselves – those with the ACE2 enzyme which acts as an entry point for the coronavirus. “Animals like cheetahs – felines – are particularly prone to it and primates. Our keepers all wear protective masks and gloves when they’re working with those species, and we’ve created barriers two metres away from the enclosures so visitors can’t get too close to them. The risk is minimal, but we’ve put things in place,” said Simpson. While the the Wild Place Project is eager to reopen, and hopes to do so next week once the government has issued more detailed guidelines for the industry, it is aware it will be a long time before visitor income returns to pre-lockdown levels. “It’s definitely a good first step that we are reopening. But there is a long way to go until I could sit here confidently and say it’s all going to be okay,” said Morris. “The extent to which we will be living with social distancing measures or restrictions of some kind in 2021 is really now the most significant question. “But for now, I’m really pleased just to give people another opportunity to get out of the house and have a day out somewhere where they know they will be safe.”