A 'Conservation' Zoo?

This post is deliberately started with an ancient picture of the former penguin enclosure at London's Regent Park Zoo. Nowadays, Matthew Gould (Director General of the Zoological Society of London) is at pains to repeatedly emphasise (perhaps he protests too much?) that it's now a 'conservation zoo' (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/03/poorer-families-london-zoo-children-conservationists). Gould has written about how the zoo used National Lottery Heritage Fund for repurposing the Snowdon Aviary to offer 100,000 heavily-discounted tickets to (London) community groups. The £3 tickets (a 10th of peak season entry) have enabled lots of poorer people (especially children) to visit London or Whipsnade zoos. Gould suggests that their reportedly very positive experiences might create the next generation of conservationists. The Zoological Society of London is involved in lots of external conservation activities across the world. They use some of the finances, created by zoo entrance fees, to fund some of these. Gould seems to worry, to an extent, whether the increased visitor numbers, generated by the £3 tickets, might put off some of the zoo's more traditional, richer clients. Zoos are often claim to be involved in 'conservation'. What they can do on this front, is rather limited. There is a danger of over-claiming. Perhaps cheap entry to a reputable zoo should be made possible, as an educational experience, across the country? Limiting it to a piece of creative accounting of National Lottery Heritage Fund money, by a relatively rich institution in Central London seems a bit unfair?