^Right: Riverside Drive. I'll try that next time. By the way, times were estimated only. Except for the parking-space-to-gate time. I actually shaved a few minutes off that one.

 

 

Animal magnetism at its peak

Zoo on track to shatter attendance record

MATT TULLIS & KEVIN KIDDER / COLUMBUS DISPATCH

December 15, 2006

 

COLUMBUS - Kids skated at the ice rink. Flames licked the sides of strategically placed steel drums.  And among the throngs of people, most were wearing coats and hats.  You almost couldn’t tell that the temperature was in the rare-for-December 50-degree range last night at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium’s annual Wildlights festival.  With the continuing warm weather, knots of people wandered the exhibits and paths viewing the holiday lights show.  They added to what could be a record year for the zoo, which is on pace to top 1.5 million annual visitors for the first time in its 75-year history, said Chief Financial Officer Manny Gonzalez.

 

Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/12/15/20061215-A1-01.html

All from the 11/30/06 Dispatch:

 

 

GRAPHIC: Proposed changes to Wyandot Lake

 

ZOO’S PLANS FOR VENUE

Out with the old, in with THE MEGAZOO

Expanded venue will be unique in animal kingdom

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Matt Tullis

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH 

 

No longer will swimsuit-clad visitors have to scurry on hot asphalt past game booths to get from Christopher’s Island to the Wave Pool.  Nor will those seeking nothing more than a rollercoaster ride wind up with a wet bottom because the occupant before them had just cruised the Lazy River.  When the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium reopens what used to be Wyandot Lake in the spring of 2008, the park will be distinctly different — with a dry side and a wet side, said the zoo’s chief operating officer, Manny Gonzalez.  Visitors also will pay no more than they do now to visit the zoo or the water park (the wet side).  Zoo admission will be $10 while admission to the water park, which will include zoo entry, likely will cost $29.99.  There will be no separate admission for the theme park (the dry side), but visitors will have to pay for rides there.

 

Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/11/30/20061130-A1-00.html

 

THE MEGAZOO!!!

Plans sound pretty good. I would like to visit when its complete. However, it would be nice if this MEGAZOO was within a 5 to 10 mile radius of downtown.

 

Big Zoos in North America (100 acres or larger):

 

San Diego Wild Animal Park-- 2500 acres

 

Toronto Zoo-- 710 acres

 

Minnesota Zoo-- 500 acres

 

Brookfield Zoo -- 215 acres

 

Miami Metro Zoo-- 200+ acres

 

Bronx Zoo-- 200+ acres

 

San Diego Zoo-- 165 acres

 

Cleveland Metropark Zoo-- 100+ acres

 

And others.....?

 

The new Columbus Zoo and Aquarium is supposed to be 250 acres. I hope quantity and quality are good bedfellows. From the list above, I think it just might be.

Plans sound pretty good. I would like to visit when its complete. However, it would be nice if this MEGAZOO was within a 5 to 10 mile radius of downtown.

 

Thank you!

 

Plans sound pretty good. I would like to visit when its complete. However, it would be nice if this MEGAZOO was within a 5 to 10 mile radius of downtown.

 

Thank you!

 

 

Quiet, Misfit.

^Quiet Bumble, before I extract your teeth and reform you.

The Bumble kicks ass, so back off you bootleg Aslan.

The Bumble 1) Sinks 2) Bounces 3) Decidedly does NOT kick ass.

THE BUMBLE IS GOD.

The Bumble has a ColDay complex.

This, coming from a FISH OUT OF WATER that thinks he's a lion with Burl Ives singing cocaine-laced folk tunes.

Your point?

Okay, what the hell does this have to do with the zoo?  :?

 

Someone say something about this plan (the one announced in the Columbus Dispatch article above). Do you like it and why? Do you hate it and why? Are you indifferent about it and why? Something about the MEGAZOO plan.

Zoo breaks attendance record

1.5 millionth visitor crosses turnstile, topping 1992 mark

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

 

Lavonna Allen took her granddaughters Melanie, 6, and Sabrina, 8, to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium to see Colo on the gorilla’s 50th birthday Friday.  Allen ended up getting the biggest birthday surprise, though.  When she walked through the front gate, she became the 1.5 millionth visitor to the zoo this year. It’s the first time in the zoo’s nearly 80-year history that it has topped that mark.  The previous attendance record had been 1,447,870, set in 1992 when the zoo had a giant panda exhibit on loan from China.

 

Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/12/27/20061227-C7-04.html

Okay, what the hell does this have to do with the zoo?  :?

 

Welcome to urbanohio.

Okay, what the hell does this have to do with the zoo?  :?

 

Welcome to urbanohio.

 

Thank you but I have been a member for at least 2 or 3 months.

 

Anyway, back to this MEGAZOO Plan. Ambitiuous. Jack Hanna should be happy. The citizens of the Italian explorer's namesake should be happy to have such a facility.

Okay, what the hell does this have to do with the zoo?  :?

 

Welcome to urbanohio.

 

Thank you but I have been a member for at least 2 or 3 months.

 

Anyway, back to this MEGAZOO Plan. Ambitiuous. Jack Hanna should be happy. The citizens of the Italian explorer's namesake should be happy to have such a facility.

 

Ahhh....new members with fangs!  I love UrbanOhio.....I'm vaklempt!  Talk amongst yourselves....

^I, too, have geschpilkus in my genektigazoink.

 

By "Welcome to urbanohio." I meant "We have silly, pointless digressions like this all the time."

 

But I'll buy the "fangs" call.

^I, too, have geschpilkus in my genektigazoink.

 

By "Welcome to urbanohio." I meant "We have silly, pointless digressions like this all the time."

 

But I'll buy the "fangs" call.

 

KOOW becareful, I don't want you to develop shpilkes in your geneckteckessoink! 

 

....and I'll leave you with this.  Rhode Island:  Neither a road nor an island...Discuss!

The Columbus Zoo is the Sea World of Zoos.  The Magic Kingdom of the Animal Kingdom.  The Jesus to God.

Bah!

....and I'll leave you with this.  Rhode Island:  Neither a road nor an island...Discuss!

 

C-Dawg should move there.

Now, I want to know.

 

If the zoo was never in Powell, where inside the Columbus city limits would you place it?

 

I would say Franklin Park or Lou Berliner Park.

The site of the former Northland mall. Or perhaps the current Polaris Fashion Place. Still a hike, but easily accessed from I-270 and I-71.

 

Another idea: That sprawling slab of Weinland Park cement at Cleveland Ave. and 5th.

The original Columbus Zoo was in Franklin Park, fyi.

Oh, and personally, the Zoo should be on the southside of the city.  More space, freeway access, and relatively close to downtown.

Oh, and personally, the Zoo should be on the southside of the city.  More space, freeway access, and relatively close to downtown.

 

But won't the spaceships spook the animals?

Another idea: That sprawling slab of Weinland Park cement at Cleveland Ave. and 5th.

 

cleveland and 5th is the milo grogan neighborhood, not weinland park...

or you could call it the chicken district like most people do

The original Columbus Zoo was in Franklin Park, fyi.

 

the first columbus zoo was in clintonville, the second one was in franklin park

Another idea: That sprawling slab of Weinland Park cement at Cleveland Ave. and 5th.

 

cleveland and 5th is the milo grogan neighborhood, not weinland park...

or you could call it the chicken district like most people do

 

Say: chickens are animals. And Penguins is practically chicken.

 

The New C-bus Zoo: OPEN FOR BUSINESS!

The original Columbus Zoo was in Franklin Park, fyi.

 

the first columbus zoo was in clintonville, the second one was in franklin park

 

Clintonville doesn't count.  It was a petting zoo :).

The original Columbus Zoo was in Franklin Park, fyi.

 

the first columbus zoo was in clintonville, the second one was in franklin park

 

Clintonville doesn't count.  It was a petting zoo :).

 

Whatever "Golden Lamb." :-)

http://www.clintonville.com/history/h_zoo.html

The original Columbus Zoo was in Franklin Park, fyi.

 

the first columbus zoo was in clintonville, the second one was in franklin park

 

Clintonville doesn't count. It was a petting zoo :).

 

Whatever "Golden Lamb." :-)

http://www.clintonville.com/history/h_zoo.html

 

From Magyar's Link:

...The Columbus Zoo closed on October 7, 1905, just four short months after its official opening. All that remains of the zoo is the Monkey House (now a private residence), Rustic Bridge Road (the kissing bridge) and Elk Drive.

 

102 years and they STILL can't get the smell out, either.

From the 12/27/06 Dispatch:

 

 

Zoo breaks attendance record

1.5 millionth visitor crosses turnstile, topping 1992 mark

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

 

Lavonna Allen took her granddaughters Melanie, 6, and Sabrina, 8, to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium to see Colo on the gorilla’s 50 th birthday Friday.  Allen ended up getting the biggest birthday surprise, though.  When she walked through the front gate, she became the 1.5 millionth visitor to the zoo this year.  It’s the first time in the zoo’s nearly 80-year history that it has topped that mark.

 

Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/12/27/20061227-C7-04.html

 

From the 12/30/06 Dispatch:

 

 

PHOTO: Aquila, a 14-year old male, will be loaned to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium from the Louisville Zoo.  LOUISVILLE ZOO

 

GRAPHIC: A room with a view

 

Polar attraction

Columbus Zoo among venues warming up to bears again

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Marla Matzer Rose

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Polar bears are white-hot. The Arctic bears are in vogue again, a decade after many zoos, including the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, decided it was too costly to keep the giant carnivores happy and healthy in firstrate habitats.  The Columbus Zoo is finding it tough to acquire the bears as it prepares to break ground on its $18 million Polar Frontier attraction. The exhibit opens in 2008, 14 years after polar bears last resided at the zoo.

 

 

http://www.dispatch.com/business-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/12/30/20061230-D1-06.html

 

From ThisWeek Olentangy, 1/18/07:

 

 

Busy year ahead for the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium

Thursday, January 18, 2007

By KELLEY YOUMAN TRUXALL

ThisWeek Staff Writer 

 

Last year was a record-setting one for the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, but a number of planned improvements mean 2007 won't be a time for the zoo to rest on its laurels.  The zoo ended 2006 with a record of more than 1.5-million visitors and set a single-day record when just under 23,000 people passed through the gates on Saturday, Dec. 16, for Wildlights. 

 

Work has started on the former Wyandot Lake site, which the zoo purchased in October from Six Flags. The water park will remain closed during the 2007 season for a $15-million makeover and is expected to open in May 2008 under a new name.  Demolition will start on portions of the 23-year-old park "within the next 60 days" Borin said, with major construction slated for spring.

 

 

Read more at http://www.thisweeknews.com/index.php?sec=powell&story=sites/thisweeknews/011807/Powell/News/011807-News-292876.html

 

Columbus Zoo rents 24-foot python

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

March 31, 2007

 

COLUMBUS - Before he could help Jack Hanna land a featured inhabitant for the new Asia Quest exhibit at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, a python breeder needed some specifics.  "Do you want a big snake," Bob Clark asked, "or a really big snake?"  "I want a really big snake," replied Hanna, the zoo's director emeritus.

 

What Hanna got, if only temporarily, was Clark's favorite: a 24-foot reticulated python, about as long as a moving van and thick as a telephone pole.  Her name is Fluffy.  But Clark, of Oklahoma City, raised the python from a hatchling and won't part with it for long. Hanna said he was only half joking when he raised his offer to $50,000 to buy Fluffy outright, but Clark refused.

 

Read more at http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070331/NEWS01/703310374/1056/COL02

From the 5/23/07 Dispatch:

 

 

Zoo floating water-park names

Public will vote on a replacement for 'Wyandot Lake'

Wednesday,  May 23, 2007 3:28 AM

By Matt Tullis, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

The water and amusement park, now owned by the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, is to reopen on May 17 next year after a $20 million makeover.  The public will get to vote on the names, starting Monday through June 17, on a Web site accessible from the zoo's site, www.colszoo.org.

 

More at http://www.dispatch.com/dispatch/content/local_news/stories/2007/05/23/PARKNAME.ART_ART_05-23-07_B1_H36Q1NA.html?type=rss&cat=21

 

Just wanted to comment on some of the comments from last year -

 

People were getting into the argument about who has more species etc... And the architecture of the zoo -

 

A point to be made is that a zoo with more space and less animals seems to be optimal; that is if anyone is thinking of the welfare of the animals housed there.  Many of the older zoos are constrained by space and yet want to attract more visitors by adding more attractions. This could easily lead to depressed living conditions for the animals.  Also, older zoos in general aren't necessarily known for their benign living conditions.  Standards have come up a lot, but I don't know that I would base a zoo's stature on how old it is or the proximity to an urban area.  In fact I find it hard to believe anyone would think that an optimal zoo would be anywhere other than in the middle of nowhere.  None of Ohio's zoos (or any major American Zoo that I know of) would fit that bill, except maybe the Wilds - never been there though.

 

The architecture argument is nice and all (yeah I like pretty looking buildings and structures too), but it still seems to miss the whole point of the zoo - the animals.  It seems that the architecture should center around not being noticed, rather blending in to the environment trying to be portrayed in the exhibit.

 

All that said, the Columbus Zoo is in a fantastic location, but still not even close to being rural.  It's in (I think) the fastest growing county in Ohio (Delaware), and in the fastest growing section of metropolitan Columbus.  Fortunately the zoo did buy the land around them so that they could (hopefully) make the environments more closely resemble the natural habitats of the animals housed.  And the river right next to it is great. I loved the boat rides as a kid.

 

That's all -

^Zoos are very touristy. Like theme parks, or museums even. Being in the central city is great (I'm sure the living conditions aren't substandard, can you cite a source to a study or someone credible that aging zoos are detrimental to animals?). I personally don't think any animal in captivity has "enough space".

I'm sorry, maybe I was unclear - I did not mean to say that zoos with a lot of history treat animals poorly. I thought I expressed that the qualities usually associated with older urban zoos are not necessarily conducive to treating the animals well - e.g. smaller area to work with, more pollution, and a lot of infrastructure that was used when zoos used to show the animals as if they were in jail cells.  I did state standards have come up a lot, and I'm not insinuating that older zoos continue to practice the 'jailed animal' viewing style - just that I wouldn't necessarily be basing a zoo's stature on its history considering the deplorable living conditions of the past.

 

This is all void though, because all I was suggesting was the layout for an optimal zoo. You seemed to have taken it as a direct front against anything urban.  I think we could all agree that if animal welfare was the pinnacle of a zoo's mission, then an urban environment most likely would not be the best suitor. And that was all I was suggesting.  Well that along with the number of species present ratio to space.  But I also never said an urban zoo couldn't be well suited for the animals it houses.  It absolutely could, and I believe there are quite a few out there; just it's much harder to make it ideal with the constraints of being in the middle of an urban center.

 

Of course zoos are based around attracting visitors, to obtain capital to further whatever their mission may be, and in being they have to have touristy type attractions.  I don't recall ever mentioning anything against it being touristy. Museum-like? I would hope not for the animals sake, as that would be somewhat of a regression to the days of viewing cells.

 

If you would like links to citations of older zoos (and the dominant style used in turn of the century and later zoos) usually not having the best facilities for the animals, then I suppose I will have to oblige:

Zoo History

 

After further debate, however, I wasn’t so sure. Anyone who has ever visited an old-fashioned zoo knows that many captive animals spend most of their time sleeping or doing nothing. When they’re not sleeping, they’re likely to be pacing back and forth, back and forth, along a single line. If they’re not doing that, they’re probably practicing unnatural behavior, such as vomiting and reswallowing their food (as captive gorillas often do), eating their feces, being abnormally aggressive, or grooming themselves far more than any wild animal would.

- Discovery Magazine

 

More than a dozen U.S. zoos have either closed or decided to phase out their elephant displays, an acknowledgement of the difficulty of meeting the vast physical and social needs of elephants in a zoo setting. Ruby's transfer is part of a larger national trend toward re-examining the ethics of keeping earth's largest land mammal under intense confinement in cramped urban zoos.

- http://www.helpelephants.com/feature_070523.html

 

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/11643826.htm

 

Posted on Sat, May. 14, 2005

 

Editorial | A Crowded Elephant House, Move the herd

 

Today's zoos have to evolve not only for their survival as amusement attractions but also to protect the animals.

 

Animals no longer live in cages; they wander through re-created habitats. Keepers scatter food and offer playthings to stimulate animals' intellect. Conservation and education efforts aim to help people link the captive to the wild.

 

Scientists get smarter daily about exhibiting and preserving wild species. Yet these better ideas sometimes require hard choices, especially for historical, urban zoos with limited space and finances, as at the Philadelphia Zoo.

 

Hope that will do for now -

Thanks. Sorry if it seemed like I was taking offense.

Columbus Zoo pays $35,000 to keep big snake

 

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A 24-foot python at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, billed as the largest snake in captivity, is staying put.  The zoo paid $35,000 to the snake's breeder in Oklahoma to keep the snake on permanent display.  While on loan last year, the python helped draw 1.53 million visitors, just under the zoo's attendance record of 1.56 million set in 2006, said zoo Associate Director Pete Fingerhut.

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?action=post;topic=7953.90;num_replies=103

I plan on hitting up the zoo a lot this year. My wife and son and I got a family season pass for Christmas and are looking forward to making plenty of trips to check out all the new stuff going on up there. The only other Ohio Zoo I've been to is the Cincy one, which I thought was nice, but I'll always find a place in my heart for the Columbus Zoo. Been going there since I was 4 years old, and imagine anyone in any city will have that sort of attachment to their zoos.

Ohio is blessed to have such fantastic zoos. 

Zoombezi Bay slides toward its May opening at Columbus Zoo

Friday, February 22, 2008

Business First of Columbus

By Brent Wilder For Business First

 

With ongoing construction projects totaling $45 million, the zoo's May opening of the Zoombezi Bay water park is only part of the future enhancement of the visitor experience at the complex following the 2006 buyout of Wyandot Lake.  The Columbus Zoo & Aquarium is looking forward to a projected increase in attendance to 1.9 million in 2008, up from 1.5 million in 2007.

 

More at http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2008/02/25/focus5.html

Friday, March 13, 2009

Zoo officials considering hotel on expanding campus

Business First of Columbus - by Adrian Burns

 

The Columbus Zoo & Aquarium is considering adding a hotel as its expansion raises hopes among administrators that more visitors will come for multiday visits.  Officials are hiring a firm to study the prospects for a zoo hotel and expect to have a report back by mid-year, said Jerry Borin, the former Columbus Zoo executive director who is working part-time on the hotel project.  The report also is expected to shed light on the potential size and features of a lodge at the zoo, said Jeff Swanagan, who took over as executive director in July. 

 

Such findings would help decide whether to include the hotel in the master plan for the zoo’s 586-acre campus, which Swanagan has been developing since taking over.  The idea of a zoo hotel had been kicked around for years, but recent improvements at the complex in southern Delaware County motivated officials to step up the consideration because the zoo is gaining popularity as a regional attraction.

 

Read more at http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2009/03/16/story1.html?b=1237176000^1793530

 

Thursday, March 12, 2009, 1:40pm EDT  |  Modified: Thursday, March 12, 2009, 2:05pm

Zoo lands unexpected $5M windfall, largest gift ever

Business First of Columbus - by Adrian Burns

 

In his second month on the job last summer, Columbus Zoo & Aquarium Executive Director Jeff Swanagan got a call from a lawyer.  “An attorney called me and said, ‘I want to come see you,’ ” Swanagan said. “I thought, ‘Boy, we’re in trouble. What had we done?’”  When the lawyer arrived, however, he brought stunning news – someone had left the zoo more than $5 million.

 

“When he told me I said, ‘Could you stop for a moment while I take this in,’ ” Swanagan said. “I actually shed a tear because it was pretty emotional on some levels with it being so much money and me being new.”  “This is the largest planned gift ever at the zoo,” Swanagan said.  The money will go to the zoo’s endowment, raising it to $13 million and allowing officials, if the market improves, to reap a larger return for eduction and outreach programs, operations and conservation initiatives, Swanagan said.

 

Read more at http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2009/03/09/daily36.html