Edinburgh Zoo’s new multi-million pound chimpanzee enclosure, the Budongo Trail, will open to the public in May 2008.

The £5.65m exhibit will feature the world’s largest climbing structure for chimpanzees and three state-of-the-art living ‘pods’ that imitate their natural habitat.

The Budongo Trail incorporates interactive exhibits using touch, sound and smell to educate visitors about chimpanzee conservation.

The 1,500sq m enclosure gives the chimpanzees the choice of three living pods of varying degrees of temperature, light and humidity that represent different aspects of the chimpanzees’ natural forest habitat, as well as the freedom to explore the world’s largest ape climbing frame. Visitors will be able to view the chimpanzees up close from both indoor and outdoor viewing areas.

David Windmill, chief executive of The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), which owns Edinburgh Zoo, in the Scottish capital, said: ”We are extremely proud of the Budongo Trail.

“We have been working towards this project for three years to create this exhibit.”

The Budongo Trail, which has been inspired by the RZSS funded chimpanzee research station in the Budongo Forest in Uganda, will also be used by behavioural researchers as a study base.

More than 600,000 people visit the zoo each year.