Changes enhance Zoo experience this year!

THERE IS ALWAYS something new at the Milwaukee County Zoo, consistently recognized as one of the top zoological parks in the country.

New animals, new facilities and new educational opportunities greet visitors this year.

Located on its present 200-acre site at 10001 W. Bluemound Rd. since 1958, the zoo's reputation continues to grow as it becomes increasingly involved in the propagation and conservation of endangered species.

“The Zoo serves a dual mission in educating and entertaining our visitors,” explains zoo director Charles Wikenhauser. "We hope zoo-goers will have fun and spend quality family time, while learning about the world's endangered species."

With the support of Milwaukee County, an extremely active Zoological Society and many of the city's major corporations and philanthropists, the zoo maintains an ongoing capital improvement program. Two significant improvements were completed in 2005 and are sure to delight visitors during peak visitor months this year:

• “Big Cat Country,” formerly the feline building, reopened in 2005, dramatically upgrading and expanding realistic and natural habitats. When combined with the zoo's trademark natural habitats outside, the complex vastly improves the opportunities of visitors to observe these majestic mammals in all seasons.

• The Northwestern Mutual Family Farm completed a major renovation, allowing youngsters to become better acquainted with both domestic animals and wildlife of Wisconsin.

Nose to nose with “big cats”
Officially titled the "Florence Mila Borchert Big Cat Country," the new building features the African lion, cheetah, Amur tiger, snow leopard, jaguar and hyena. Exhibit areas for all have been expanded and upgraded to include more realistic and natural habitats. Special exhibit glass lets visitors to come nose to nose with the magnificent big cats from distant parts of the world.

Because of the expanded exhibit spaces, additional cats have moved in and breeding programs have resumed. “Ideally, the zoo would like to be able to breed one species per year,” said Wikenhauser.

Other highlights of the new "Big Cat Country" include the opportunity to view the kitchen area where food is prepared and newborn cubs are weighed and a video screen, which allows cubs to be watched in their dens.

Many changes at Family Farm
A center of family activities since it was opened in the 1970s, the Family Farm last year expanded the Raptory Theater, added a new Stackner Animal Encounter Building and completed other improvements.

The popular Birds of Prey Show delights young and old in the Raptory Theater, where the stage has been enlarged and seating has been expanded from 300 to 520. The shows, which run from Memorial Day to Labor Day, feature free flights of hawks, eagles and owls. The theater also includes an animal-holding facility and a rustic, North Woods motif.

The new Stackner Animal Encounter Building includes bleachers, an animal-presentation area, a chick hatchery and animal enclosures with yards where domestic animals can be outdoors in the spring, summer and fall. The building is the place for children to learn about and pet domestic animals, as well as Wisconsin's wild species --turtles, porcupines, snakes, opossums and groundhogs.

New playground areas in the Family Farm feature farm-oriented children's play structures, along with occasionally needed rest areas for parents and grandparents.

“Dinosaurs” return May 27
Returning to the zoo May 27 is a popular outdoor display of animated dinosaurs in lifelike settings behind the small mammals building.

"Expedition: Dinosaur" will be open this year from May 27 through Sept. 4, through the sponsorship of Chase banks. More than 20 life-sized, moving and rumbling dinosaurs will be on display, giving visitors an idea of animal life more than 65 million years ago.

New this year are the Spinosaurus, one of the most formidable predators to ever live; the Gigantosaurus, with eight-inch -long serrated teeth shaped like arrowheads, and the Saurolophus, with its duck-like bill and five-ins boney spike extending up from its forehead.

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