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Grain Valley, MO —
The Kansas City Zoo has set an all-time high for attendance already in 2012, and more attractions are on the way.
“Please check us out,” Laura Berger, the zoo’s director of development, said at Tuesday’s Grain Valley Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon.
The zoo drew 213,000 visitors in 2011, and the all-time high was 214,000. The zoo last week surpassed both in recent days, aided in part by 13,000 visitors last Saturday, the last of this year’s four free-admission days for residents of Jackson and Clay counties.
By next August, Berger said, the zoo hopes to open its new penguin exhibit, with a building that includes three floor-to-ceiling aquariums and settings for both warm- and cold-water penguins. There’s also an emphasis on teaching about the oceans.
Visitors will be able to look at the penguins from above and below.
“So you will be able to have the opportunity to see the birds swimming around,” she said.
Coming up in future years: “Predator Canyon” (where the old great ape house stands) with jaguars, snow leopards and other big cats, and then an improved orangutan exhibit.
One of the inhabitants driving up attendance is Nikita, the polar bear who arrived at the zoo in 2010 and who is just inside the main gate, doing underwater reverse flips for crowds.
“He is what we consider to be the rock star of our zoo right now,” Berger said.
The free days for Jackson and Clay county residents stem from voter approval last fall of a one-eighth sales tax for zoo improvements.
“That is really the driving force of the zoo initiative that we’re so proud of,” she said.
In exchange, those residents get half-price admission and half-price zoo memberships, plus the free days. Also, the zoo offers field trips – transportation paid for – with programs designed to meet school curricula. About 14,000 students are signed up from now through the rest of the year, and Berger said she expects the program to really take off in the spring.
The Kansas City Zoo has set an all-time high for attendance already in 2012, and more attractions are on the way.
“Please check us out,” Laura Berger, the zoo’s director of development, said at Tuesday’s Grain Valley Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon.
The zoo drew 213,000 visitors in 2011, and the all-time high was 214,000. The zoo last week surpassed both in recent days, aided in part by 13,000 visitors last Saturday, the last of this year’s four free-admission days for residents of Jackson and Clay counties.
By next August, Berger said, the zoo hopes to open its new penguin exhibit, with a building that includes three floor-to-ceiling aquariums and settings for both warm- and cold-water penguins. There’s also an emphasis on teaching about the oceans.
Visitors will be able to look at the penguins from above and below.
“So you will be able to have the opportunity to see the birds swimming around,” she said.
Coming up in future years: “Predator Canyon” (where the old great ape house stands) with jaguars, snow leopards and other big cats, and then an improved orangutan exhibit.
One of the inhabitants driving up attendance is Nikita, the polar bear who arrived at the zoo in 2010 and who is just inside the main gate, doing underwater reverse flips for crowds.
“He is what we consider to be the rock star of our zoo right now,” Berger said.
The free days for Jackson and Clay county residents stem from voter approval last fall of a one-eighth sales tax for zoo improvements.
“That is really the driving force of the zoo initiative that we’re so proud of,” she said.
In exchange, those residents get half-price admission and half-price zoo memberships, plus the free days. Also, the zoo offers field trips – transportation paid for – with programs designed to meet school curricula. About 14,000 students are signed up from now through the rest of the year, and Berger said she expects the program to really take off in the spring.
