After years of belt-tightening due in part to Milwaukee County budget constraints, the Milwaukee County Zoo is on the cusp of making good on three improvements that aim to enhance both visitor and animal experiences.
The project most likely to gain immediate attention from visitors is the $5.24 million renovation of the penguin enclosure that greets all visitors as soon as they enter the zoo grounds through the main entrance. The project is slated to begin construction this spring.
But what zoo and county officials gathered to celebrate on Tuesday morning is an allocation of $1.7 million in county funds for the planning and design of a reconfigured entrance to the 198-acre attraction.
“Every corner of our community throughout the state of Wisconsin has fond memories of strolling through our Milwaukee County Zoo, learning about the different animals, the different species, and opening their eyes to new wonders and the world,” Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said, standing in the zoo’s indoor entrance area. “And as your county executive, I truly believe that we must invest in this asset so we can provide the same opportunities to Milwaukee County children and families for many years to come.”
Referencing the state Legislature’s approval last year of measures to increase shared revenue to municipalities and allowing Milwaukee County to increase its sales tax, Crowley added: “We know Milwaukee County has a substantial backlog of deferred maintenance needs, and I’m proud to be working to address these projects as swiftly as we can. And I’m pleased that we continue to see the benefits of the revenue generating tools that we just recently secured.”
Fixing entry backups
Aimed at alleviating the traffic congestion and long vehicle-entry lines that are common place on busy days, the entrance reconfiguration plan would change the way the zoo handles ticketing – moving it away from the current process of taking tickets and payment from motorists when they first enter the zoo, to the zoo’s main entrance where visitors would present payment or passes on foot after they park and exit their cars.
“And as it stands with our traffic coming into the zoo, our team spends a great deal of time engaging our guests as they sit in line for an extended period of time to come and have an experience where they can enjoy themselves,” explained the zoo’s executive director, Amos Morris. “They meet frustration, irritation, sitting in line. And that’s just not what we want folks to experience when they make the decision to spend their dollars with us. We want them to have a smooth entrance into the zoo and not think about, ‘well, is today the right day? Maybe I’ll go to another zoo that’s maybe an hour closer because I’m going to spend two hours in this line.’ We don’t want them to entertain those thoughts.”
The planning and design process for the new entrance configuration could take up to 12 months, Morris said. Once that process is complete, the zoo officials will work with Crowley’s office to see when to bring the project up for possible construction funding, Morris said.
“We have other projects, and I don’t want to tear the whole zoo up at once. We still need to generate revenue,” Morris added. “Plus, you’ve got major construction on Blue Mound that the state is supposed to do in 2028.”
Penguins
As the planning process gets underway for the new entrance, visitors should expect to see work happening at the penguin exhibit this spring.
The project was initially expected to be $3,750,000 – most of which was covered by a $3.5 million grant from the state’s Tourism Capital Grant Program – but an unexpected increase in costs related to “critical design errors caught in the late-stage design phase” and increased labor costs, has increased the cost of the project by nearly $1.5 million. Zoo officials have asked the County Board to make up the gap in funding by allocating surplus sales tax dollars. Supervisors are slated to consider the funding request on Thursday.
The project, which has been in planning stages since at least late 2021, has two critical components, Morris said. The first is to replace an outdated filtration system, and to improve the visitor experience.
“Right now, there’s a lot of structures between you and the exhibit and it’s a very narrow waterway,” Morris said. “What we’re hoping to do is expand that waterway so that you’ll get more penguin behavior in front of you, and take that railing away, so you’re nose to nose with the glass.”
Rhinos
Visitors to this spring should also expect to see work occurring in the Adventure Africa habitats.
After more than a little wrangling at the County Board committee-level this past September the zoo received approval of a $22 million overhaul of its rhino habitat – phrase three of its Adventure Africa project. The $12.4 million slated to be expended on the project in 2024 will be split between the county and the Zoological Society of Milwaukee, with the county spending $6.96 million and the society paying $5.13 million. The society has committed contributing at $6 million dollars for the project, which will is expected to wrap up construction sometime next year. The County Board has approved bonding for its $16 million share of the expense.
Phase one and two of the Adventure Africa project consisted of creating a new elephant habitat that opened in May 2019, and a new hippo habitat that opened in June 2020.
While those new habitats were created for the elephants and hippos, the rhinos remained in the Zoo’s aging pachyderm mall, which no longer meets modern zoological standards.
Constructed in 1950, the heavily structured, barred facility has suffered from deferred maintenance over the years, examples of which include deteriorating skylights, pitted and spalling concrete, and rusting on metal bars and doors, Morris explained to county officials in September.
The poor condition of the habitat is part of the reason the zoo hasn’t had a rhinoceros in more than two years.
The last black rhino at the zoo – Jozi – was transferred to the Oregon Zoo in Portland in late 2021, as part of a breeding recommendation through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plan.
Black rhinoceros are endangered. In 2017, only 919 Eastern Black Rhinos remained in their native habitats – the highland forests & savannas of East Africa. They are extinct in Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan. Only 27 zoos in North America care for a total of 55 Eastern Black Rhinos.
But with the completion of the new habitat, the Milwaukee County Zoo should again become one of the zoos in the United States entrusted with the care of the large mammals.
Morris expects the project to be completed in 18 months, adding that the zoo has already begun to identify rhinoceros with the species coordinator that’s associated with the zoo’s association.
“They are timing births and transfer of animals, and they’re including us in that. So, I hope we will know what animals we will have probably about six months out,” he said.
The new enclosure will hold five rhinos, but Morris said the zoo hopes to get two or three of the mammals to start – one male and one female or one male and two females, so that each female could have offspring.
