Twycross Zoo, which sits on the border of Leicestershire and Warwickshire in the UK, has announced a £55m (US$82m, €77.7m) investment programme aimed at boosting visitor numbers and improving animal welfare at the zoo.

Masterplanned by Weedon Architects based in Birmingham, UK, the attraction is the only zoo in the UK to house all four kinds of great apes, and is planning to bring in bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans all together in its new great ape centre, which will come up over the course of the next decade. As part of the plans, giraffes are set to return to the zoo this April, with a new enclosure featuring a high viewing platform.

According to Twycross Zoo’s chief executive, Dr Sharon Redrobe, £10m (US$15m, €14.1m) will be spent over the course of the next three years, with plans including a moated island complex to house Gibbon Forest opening in Q3 of 2015 along with a new water play area and café.

The planned chimpanzee facility, scheduled for 2016, will be the first phase of the Cognition Centre for great apes. In the centre, visitors will be able to watch the apes as the simians try to solve cognitive puzzles.

The developments have been designed with animal welfare in mind, creating a more natural environment, while also providing more entertaining and educational facilities for visitors.

“At the heart of this masterplan lies a passionate commitment to the fundamental importance of environmental education and practical wildlife conservation, which is shared by all our dedicated staff,” said Redrobe.

“Modern zoos are not simply regarded as places of public entertainment, but as important centres of conservation and animal behavioural research.

“The changes we have planned are truly visionary and will provide new opportunities for public engagement, allowing visitors to explore the wonders of animal behaviours up close and also to observe living science in action.”

The zoo – first opened in 1963 – currently draws around 500,000 visitors a year. It is hoped that once the 20-year masterplan is complete it will have doubled those numbers.