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Chester zoo unveils £28m ‘Africa’ facility – complete with chilly giraffes

“Although we are trying to replicate Uganda and Kenya we are actually in Cheshire so the weather is slightly different,” admits Chester zoo boss, Jamie Christon, on a fresh and very grey Monday morning.But ignore the chilliness and screw your eyes and you could well be transported to a sweeping African savannah where, one day, there will be giraffes, zebras, antelopes and ostriches roaming majestically side by side.Christon is speaking at the launch of the UK’s biggest ever such zoo development – a £28m facility called Heart of Africa.It covers just over 9 hectares (22.5 acres) and is home to 57 African species including vultures, rhinos, a colony of naked mole rats and 15,000 locusts.More than 6,000 trees, shrubs, and grasses have been planted and the idea is to recreate a variety of grassland habitats. The possible star of the show is the 3.5-acre sandy, rocky savannah where a number of species will roam together, just as they would in the wild.The zoo is taking things slowly. Sam Ha…