May 24, 2014
- Holly Fournier
- The Detroit News
An African penguin. (Todd McInturf / The Detroit News)
It’s a good time to be a penguin near the Michigan-Ohio border.
The
Toledo Zoo’s resident African penguins will spend Memorial Day weekend
settling into their new home after Friday’s grand opening of Penguin
Beach, the zoo’s new $3.5 million habitat for the birds.
Meanwhile,
officials at the Detroit Zoo in Royal Oak are preparing to break ground
June 17 for their own new penguinarium, called the Polk Penguin
Conservation Center. The exhibit is projected to cost roughly $29
million, according to zoo officials, and about $24 million already has
been raised. It is slated to open in late 2015. “This
is not simply another zebra exhibit or bison exhibit,” said Ron Kagan,
executive director of the zoo. “This is a standalone, huge facility that
will significantly add to the zoo experience.”
Jeff Sailer, executive director of the Toledo Zoo, said the facility has twin motivations for giving its penguins a new home. “This
was something we were happy to be able to add to the zoo to give a new
experience to the public,” he said. “But it was equal parts about
providing a new and better habitat for our birds.”
The exhibits up the ante in a friendly, cross-border rivalry between the zoos, which are just over 75 miles apart. Both
have spent millions of dollars over the past several years upgrading
facilities and adding amenities aimed at boosting attendance, which
topped 2.1 million between the two zoos last year.
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