A BIG-HEARTED animal lover has raised hundreds of pounds for a zoo after selling calendars to for the lockdown-hit attraction.

Web developer Steven Hardy, 29, from Witham, created a Colchester Zoo calendar for 2022, to raise money for the venue.

As an avid animal photography-lover and zoo gold pass member, Steven regularly takes stunning snaps of the animals when he visits, which he used for the calendar.

Steven published his first zoo calendar in 2020, when there were fears the site could be forced to close permanently due to the pandemic.

After that proved a success, he decided to repeat the feat and make another calendar for this year, to raise more money.

READ MORE >> 'It's a big part of my life' - Zoo lover Steven created calendar to help funds

He said: “With the pandemic still lingering and the cost of running the zoo at about £26,000 a day, I decided that I would run another calendar.

“The reason for doing this is totally to raise money for Colchester Zoo and I really enjoyed doing it.”

This year, Steven raised £500 and sold more than 100 calendars.

He said: “It went really well. People were asking for it after last year’s success, and I had regular customers come back this time around.

“It was less than the year before, but obviously Covid did not help.

“But any money raised is a huge help."

Steven continues his regular photography visits to the zoo and hopes to do more to help them in the future.

He said: “I would definitely want to do the calendars again – the feedback this time around has been great.

“I just want to do anything I can do to help raise money for the zoo.”