Crowds of people gathered at Dublin Zoo this morning as it reopened to limited numbers.
A maximum of 500 people are permitted at any one time and strict social distancing measures will ensure the safety of visitors and staff, the director of the animal enclosure said.
Excited families and friends gathered at the zoo in scorching sunshine to get the first visit since lockdown started.
Georgina Kendrick, Jackie Cunningham and children George and Teddy Kendrick were some of the delighted visitors first in line.
Kendrick, who has an annual pass regularly makes trips to the Zoo with her children.
She said: "We've really missed it during the lockdown - the kids have missed it and have been asking for it all the time, so we got really excited when we heard it has reopened.
"We are lucky we live in Clontarf so we are beside the park, but this is something a bit different.
"We have brought our wipes and have hand sanitiser and we will all keep our distance and it's open air and I also have a potty for George."
Nicola and Stephanie Mark were also some of the first visitors in the queue.
Stephanie said: "We haven't been out in so long and we have the annual pass."
"It's been affecting Sean because he loves school and he's not sleeping at night because he's not getting to go to school. We can't go anywhere and are stuck at home.
"It's open air and we have briefed the children that we are not allowed to get in anyone's personal space and we have sanitiser.
"Sean is terrified of getting it and it took him a while to convince him to leave the house."
The zoo will be enforcing a one-way system and visits are divided into two sessions per day, while the zoo will have less than 10% of its usual numbers.
Hand sanitisers will be available to visitors and there will be signage encouraging people to social distance and ensure hand hygiene and etiquette for coughing and sneezing.
The zoo said it will ensure cleaning regimes will be followed perfectly and all staff will be provided with and trained in the safe use of PPE.
To ensure strict social distancing is followed and to meet public health guidelines, indoor animal houses and enclosed habitat viewing areas, shops and playgrounds will remain closed.
For this reason visitors will not be able to see the wolves, hippos, waldrapp ibis, tigers and red pandas.
They can still view the majority of the animals though, including elephants, chimpanzees, western lowland gorillas, giraffes, rhinos, zebras, sea lions, penguins, lemurs, orangutans and lions.
