A FOREST in Tanzania will be safe from hunters and loggers for another year thanks to runners in Ryedale.

Hundreds of entrants, many in fancy dress, turned out for the Flamingo Land 10k on Saturday, despite a few squally showers. The race raised about £6,000 for tropical forest conservation and research by CIRCLE, Flamingo Land's charitable collaboration with the University of York.

A spokesman for Flamingo Land said: "The money will contribute towards a dedicated field team in Tanzania. A little goes a long way and this amount is enough to fund forest ranger patrols for one year, which safeguard the forest from illegal hunting and tree-felling."

The project is called the the Udzungwa Forest Project (UFP), which carries out work in Tanzania to help protect wild animal populations and conserve tropical forests. In particular it is targeted at the Magombera forest, home to the endangered Udzungwa red colobus monkey and the Magombera chameleon, the latter discovered new to science by Dr Andrew Marshall, Flamingo Land's director of conservation, in 2005.

The spokesman said: "Flamingo Land thanks everyone who supported, sponsored and competed in this event, especially our main sponsor Swift holiday homes, Jewson for supplying the fencing, and all other sponsors."

Other sponsors included Miller Food Service and Bidvest Food Service.