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Lesidi "Sid," the African Black-footed Penguin, Emmy, the three-banded armadillo, Krueger, the Eursaian eagle owl, and Juniper, the Virginia opossum, enchanted and helped educate the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Rotary Club.
With Bill Braem, associate vice president, leadership and institutional giving, for the Dallas Zoo, Ryanne Hanley, manager of the Ambassador Animal Experiences, and Madison Card, ambassador Animal Special Encounters, the animals brought attention to the changes and updates the zoo is making. Hanley and Card's ambassador team take the zoo to about 375 appearances for 50,000 people annually, Braem said.
Opened in 1888, the 106-acre Dallas Zoo is the oldest and largest zoo in Texas, Braem said. More than one million guests, including 100,000 field trip visitors, visit the zoo, which also provides 100,000 free tickets annually and has four different dollar days per year in an effort to keep the zoo accessible to all.
This year, the Dallas Zoo opened a new exhibit - I Spy Butterflies - through October. 26, which includes tagging Monarch butterflies, which visitors can help do.
Braem said a new treehouse classroom is coming to the Aviary, which will also have private meeting space and private parties and serve about 450 people.
"It will be the coolest classroom in North Texas, if not Texas. How many of you had a treehouse when you went to school?" Braem asked.
He also said the zoo's fully licensed preschool, the nature-themed Wild Earth Discovery Center, will quadruple in size. The preschool has a "huge" wait list.
Another upcoming change to the zoo: an elevated walking path where the Wilds of Africa Safari monorail formerly ran. From the path, visitors will be able to see cheetahs and rhinoceroses in one enclosure. The zoo will also introduce an up-close enounter with the rhinos, Braem said.
Other additions include a new elephant barn that will allow the elephants to free roam inside and out and a south parking garage with 600 new parking spaces near Halperin Park, formerly known as Southern Gateway Park, which is being built over Interstate 35E between Ewing and Marsalis avenues, similar to Klyde Warren Park in downtown Dallas.
Before ceding the floor to the animals, Braem reminded rotarians that Safari Nights Concert Seriew at the Dallas Zoo starts May 3 with a Beatles tribute band.
