One of Britain’s largest zoos has been mocked for labelling tickets as for an event as a “child predator tour”.
Chester Zoo found itself at the centre of an online storm after inadvertently listing tickets for a “child predator tour” on its website.
The Cheshire attraction had launched a new guided experience taking visitors around its big cat and predator enclosures, but the ticket naming left much to be desired.
Screenshots of the listing spread rapidly across social media platforms, with the decision quickly going viral and drawing widespread ridicule from users who could scarcely believe what they were reading.
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The zoo’s booking page had offered the guided experience at £30 for an “adult predator tour” ticket, with a combined entry and tour option available at £60.
Children’s tickets were priced at £25 for the tour alone, or £55 including zoo admission.
The experience itself promised visitors an early-morning, 90-minute journey aboard an electric bus through the zoo before the general public arrived.
Guests were invited to get up close with some of the attraction’s most celebrated residents, including its Sumatran tiger family and Komodo dragons, with expert guides on hand to share insights about the animal kingdom’s most formidable hunters.
The blunder prompted a wave of mockery across social media platforms. “Let’s all go to Chester Zoo for the child predator tour,” one user quipped on X, sharing a screenshot of the listing.
On Reddit, another imagined the marketing meeting: “‘So we’re all agreed it’ll be the Child Predator Tour?’ Marketing team: ‘Absolutely’.”
Others struggled to comprehend how the naming had slipped through. “I refuse to believe anyone has actually proofread and approved this,” wrote one commenter. “Staggering. How did that get approved?” asked another.
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One user joked there were likely “plenty of calls to the local constabulary”, while another simply noted: “This has given me such a chuckle this morning.”
Chester Zoo moved swiftly to alter the wording on its website once the error was brought to its attention.
A spokesman for the attraction maintained the names had not been devised by staff, instead attributing the blunder to a default naming system that had automatically generated the ticket labels.
The zoo acknowledged the tour had been “unfortunately named”.
The spokesman confirmed the listing was corrected as soon as the mistake became apparent.
Despite the embarrassment, the experience — a guided encounter with some of the animal kingdom’s apex predators — remains available to book under its revised title.
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