Chester Zoo's placid giraffes are the picture of serenity.

The large mammals and a variety of other mammals at the zoo are taking part in a new science project.

Zoo keepers are collecting samples of the dung of elephants, okapi, lions and giraffes and bringing them to the lab where they will be used to harvest living animal cells.

It's part of a wider project called “Poo Zoo”, which is led by Professor Suzannah Williams from the University of Oxford, and is funded by the conservation non-profit Revive and Restore.

The process is known as biobanking and the idea is to store the living cells in the hope that future scientific breakthroughs may help prevent extinction.

Processing the faecal matter strips away anything from the animal's diet and bacteria.

The cleaned cells are sent to the biobank in Oxford the same day.

Living cells are important as they have the potential to be used to create stem cells, which can develop into many different types of cells or tissues, including sperm and egg cells, with possible implications for conservation breeding through in vitro fertilisation.

The team hopes to increase the genetic diversity of living viable cells in case they are needed in the future, but says we need to reduce biodiversity loss in the first place.

Scientists based at Chester Zoo also use dung to track the health of their animals.

Hormones in the faecal material can identify when female animals are in their breeding cycle.

The “Poo Zoo”, project means researchers can more easily collect genetic samples from living individuals.

The plan is one day to transfer this new technique to the field.

Researchers say this could help preserve cells from rare animals and help prevent extinction, but emphasize that it is imperative that humans need to prevent biodiversity loss in the first place.