ON A MISSION to educate its visitors on the crisis the natural world is facing, popular Isle of Wight attraction, Amazon World Zoo Park, has launched a new charity. 

The new cause, the Amazon Rainforest Conservation Centre, has given the Newchurch attraction the aim of supporting the conservation of the reddish buff moth, an extremely rare and vulnerable insect found in one particular part of the Isle of Wight, as well as build on its dedication to support work carried out in the Amazon rainforest in South America.

For the past 32 years, Amazon World Zoo Park has been privately owned by Derek and Sandra Curtis, who have built the attraction into the large and varied animal collection it has today.

"We are incredibly proud to announce we are moving into a new era by launching our charity the Amazon Rainforest Conservation Centre," said Derek.

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Amazon World Zoo Park welcomes around 50,000 visitors each year, "therefore the park is an extremely important location for conservation and education," he adds.

The charity is part of an as-yet unrevealed five-year plan for the attraction, says Derek.

"The charity will now continue to grow and develop the zoo for future generations, by educating and engaging our visitors in the plight of the natural world.

"Amazon World Zoo Park has evolved to allow visitors to immerse themselves among rare and unusual species.

"Getting up close and personal to our animals makes learning about them more fascinating."

Currently home to 95 different species, including unusual animals like sloths, armadillos, anteater, red panda and slow loris, the park has been an Island attraction since 1993 and a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquaria and the European Association of Zoo and Aquaria.

(Image: Contributed)

The park works alongside zoological parks all around the world — protecting and breeding some of the rarest species like the Bali starling and cotton top tamarins, which are classified as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. 

"A quarter of our species are classified as near threatened, or worse. Our vision is to not only continue to improve the habitats of our existing species, through development of their enclosures, but to also do even more to secure the future of some amazing species and improve the experience for our visitors too," Derek said.