Zoo seeks permission to keep its jumping rats cool

Planning permission has been requested for a new air conditioning unit to be installed in the jumping rats' enclosure at Jersey Zoo.

Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust is also seeking permission to put up new timber fencing around the building, which is part of the site at Les Augres Manor.

Jumping rats come from Madagascar where they are critically endangered.

They are known as the Malagasy Giant Jumping Rat, and it is thought there could be fewer than five thousand of the animals remaining in the wild.

Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust was first involved with the Malagasy Giant Jumping Rat early in the organisation's conservation efforts in Madagascar in the 1990s.

The application says the air conditioning unit would "provide the optimum internal environment within the existing building for the animal inhabitants".

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