December 14, 2010
Tucson's Reid Park Zoo is getting ready to break ground on the largest expansion in its history.
The $9.6 million “Expedition Tanzania” expansion will bring the boundaries of the zoo farther south, adding seven acres to the facility. Three of the acres will be reserved for an elephant exhibit that eventually could hold up to seven elephants. The zoo currently has two elephants in an outdated enclosure.
The differences between the elephants' current home and their planned home are "night and day," says Jim Schnormeier, general curator of the Reid Park Zoo.
Photo: Robert Rappaport
Model of "Expedition Tanzania," a $9.6 million expansion to Reid Park Zoo slated to break ground Dec. 16.
"Right now, where the barrier is between the park and the zoo, is going to bump out toward 22nd Street and Randolph Way," says Vivian VanPeenen, Reid Park Zoo curator of education. "Between the rhinos and the polar bears will be a new pathway that cuts right through the existing barrier of the zoo and goes out into the open space."
That open space is a park right now, but the area has been designated for future zoo expansion for a number of years, says VanPeenen.
Photo: Robert Rappaport
Vivian VanPeenen and Jim Schnormeier of the Reid Park Zoo.
The Zoo has secured funding for the project from a number of sources. The City of Tucson is spending about $3.7 million, raised from old bond elections and an increase in zoo admission fees. Zoo prices will be adjusted upward once the expansion is complete, says VanPeenen.
The estimated completion date for the new exhibit is January 2012. Groundbreaking is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 16, at the corner of 22nd Street and Randolph Way.
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