It's heating up at Marwell Zoo with the opening of their new Tropical House.

Ahead of its opening next week we were invited to take a sneak peak of the new exhibit which will be home to nine species of tropical birds, 2,5000 fish, pygmy marmosets, tortoises and an adorable sloth named Rica.

Primate keeper Kat Ralph, who will be looking after Rica said that she is settling really well and is incredibly excited to see people finally be able to see the exhibit.

The new £7.8million exhibit, the first of its kind, is more habitat than traditional zoo exhibit and sees all the animals living together, and has been constructed in a way to create an artificial rain forest of sorts, with different animals interacting with other like they would in the wild.

Bird keeper Liz Askew said: " It's been very exciting, to see all the birds settle in and to see them act, and interact with the environment like they would in the wild. we scatter their food so they have to forage and the water sources mean they pick where they drink just like they would in the wild. "

"The plan in the long term is to try and breed them but for now we are seeing how they get on and making sure they are settled."

Gordon Campbell ,Tropical House Advisor, who helped oversee the design of the exhibit said that he got the idea for the new enclosure and many of its features including the waterfall and wooden walkway while on holidays in Australia and Madeira.

" Over the last five years it's become a bit of an obsession," he said.

It became a running joke with the family that I would photograph railings and poles and random objects to take to the architects to be part of the tropical house."

A new one of a kind boiler, run on 'zoo poo' will heat the exhibit and if successful, more manure boilers will be installed across the park to replace its current oil powered boilers.

Duncan East, Head of Sustainability said that the parks 700 tonnes of animal waste – dung, soiled bedding and leftover hay will be converted into briquettes used to power the special bio boiler.

"In theory we will have far more fuel than we will ever need to use.

"It's all part of the parks aim to become completely carbon neutral by 2020."