A Banksy artwork at London Zoo has been removed for “safekeeping” and to allow the popular attraction to use its full entrance during its “busy summer period”.

The piece, which shows a gorilla lifting up a shutter and allowing a number of birds and a seal to escape, has been replaced with a replica.

A nearby sign reads “Banksy woz ere” and offers an apology to any disappointed fans of the street artist.

The painting on the entrance to the zoo was the ninth and final work in a series of images of animals created across the capital.

Rebecca Blanchard, media manager at London Zoo, told the PA news agency: “This was an incredible surprise and we are, quite frankly, thrilled that he’s chosen us to be what could be the grand finale of this series that’s been so talked about.”

When the work was first discovered, officials at the zoo used a Perspex cover to “protect it from the glare of the sun”.

London Zoo replied to comments on a social media post announcing the removal that it was “still working on exactly what we’re going to do with the artwork, but we’re keen to properly preserve this moment in our history”.

Two of the other pieces in the series, including the silhouettes of elephants in Chelsea’s Edith Grove, have been defaced and another was stolen just hours after it was put up.

A woman takes a photograph of the Banksy rhino
A woman takes a photograph of the Banksy rhino (Lucy North/PA)

Banksy’s works across London since August 5 included a rhino mounting a silver Nissan Micra car with a traffic cone on its bonnet in Charlton’s Westmoor Street, a police sentry box in Ludgate Hill transformed into a giant tank of piranhas, and a pelican stooping to scoop up a fish on the sign of Bonner’s Fish Bar in Walthamstow.

The rhino work was defaced by a man wearing a black balaclava just hours after it was publicly announced, while the silhouette of a wolf howling on a satellite dish was taken from a roof in Peckham.

The sixth piece, a stretching cat on an empty, distressed advertising hoarding, was removed in north-west London hours after it was unveiled on Saturday, August 10.

Crowds booed as the billboard in Cricklewood was dismantled by three men who said they were hired to take it down for safety reasons.

The billboard’s owner said the work would be reassembled at an art gallery.