Donations to Fund New Snow Leopard Exhibit

–
CREST HAVEN – Humans and snow leopards share something, when the family grows it’s time to look for bigger digs. That is exactly what The Zoo Society of Cape May County plans to do with donated funds, expand the big cats’ exhibit in what was termed the largest project in the County Park Zoo in 20 years.
At the July 23 freeholder caucus meeting, William MacQueen, society executive director, and Jon Stefansson, principal, of CLR Design of Philadelphia briefed the board on the $445,000 plan that is targeted for completion in April 2014.
MacQueen stressed at the outset that the entire project will be funded by donations to the zoo. No tax money will be used to fund the venture to give Himani and Vijay, the prolific parents of seven cubs in the last four years, an entirely new living area.
Because the snow leopards are an endangered species, the zoo decided to focus its efforts on breeding them and distributing the offspring to other zoos.
“People love cats,” said MacQueen. “They are one of the big attractions. The cute (snow leopard) cubs brought attention to the zoo on the CBS Evening News and tons of coverage.”
MacQueen noted those snow leopard cubs were “good news” for fund-raising efforts. One such gift was “over $1 million” from a county resident’s estate, designated strictly for capital improvements.
With that assured, MacQueen said the society could advance even more plans than were originally proposed to upgrade the zoo exhibits.
The snow leopard exhibit will be the first part of the upgrades, he said.
MacQueen introduced Stefansson as a “second-home owner here who has a special interest in helping us as a regional zoo.” The CLR firm designed the African Savannah at the zoo featuring giraffes and zebras.
Stefansson told the board he has two children, 6 and 9 years of age, who enjoy the zoo, and that he realizes the importance of the zoo to the community. His firm did not do the master plan about 10 years ago, but he said it was “not realistic because it was too big.”
After talking with MacQueen, Stefansson said it was decided to salvage as much as possible of existing facilities, limiting to a range from $50,000 to $250,000. Then the $1-million bequest became known. “Now we can think to do better and bigger projects than in the past.”
Evaluating the “strengths of the zoo,” Stefansson realized it was the big cats, lion, cheetah, and tiger exhibits that attract many viewers.
He envisioned placing the snow leopards in an area near the tiger and cheetah exhibits. He also said an improvement is needed for viewing popular exhibits. One of the upgrades would be a viewing area with thick glass that would allow unhindered observing of the snow leopards. He also showed a sample of wider gap stainless steel fence that would allow easier viewing, as opposed to present smaller mesh fence.
A goal, Stefansson said is to “minimize the barrier between you and the animals.”
Among features of a new snow leopard exhibit would be ledges and trees for the cats in a 1,700-2,000 square-foot exhibit. Also included would be a means to separate the male from the female and cubs, since “the male does not get along well with the babies after a certain age. We have to be able to separate them.”
“These are not cookie-cutter projects,” he continued. “You are housing dangerous animals” and this is one of the prime exhibits visitors will want to see.
Parks Director Michael Laffey told the board that the project was funded by the Zoo Society, which had raised funds separate from any taxpayer funds.
“They’ve hired a great firm to help us,” he said.
Diane Wieland, county tourism director, is also treasurer of the Zoo Society. She was present at the meeting assured the board, “I sign the checks, and I will make sure the county is protected and that the funds are in place.”
MacQueen said Northeast Precast concrete, on Route 55 in Cumberland County, was “very interested in working on this project.” If that supplier is chosen, MacQueen said the structure could be loaded onto a flat-bed truck and placed with a crane in a day.
Wieland cited the snow leopard cubs press event held two weeks ago as a “huge success.” It brought many visitors to the zoo which enhanced donations.
“This is a project that will be here long after we are gone,” said MacQueen. “It has a 50-year life span.”