CEO Lisa New told The Dallas Morning News<\/a> in an exclusive interview previewing the expansion. \u201cIt\u2019s needed to grow and stay relevant and continue to be one of the top zoos in our country. And we want you to come along for the journey.\u201d<\/p>\nA look inside African Shorelines<\/p>\n
At the end of the tunnel connecting ZooNorth to the Wilds of Africa, visitors will step into African Shorelines, an immersive coastal habitat designed to bring them closer than ever to wildlife.<\/p>\n
According to Stephanie\u00a0Allard, the zoo\u2019s chief mission officer, the space will feature more than three dozen penguins and a 10-foot diving pool, giving the flightless seabirds room to play and porpoise.<\/p>\n
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A pedestrian walkway will extend into the habitat,\u00a0Allard said, giving visitors the feeling of sharing the aquatic ecosystem.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re sharing experience with the animals,\u201d\u00a0Allard said. \u201cWe\u2019re just ready to see it through a new set of eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Dallas Zoo’s African Shorelines exhibit will\u00a0feature free-flying lesser flamingos and other African birds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Courtesy of The Dallas Zoo<\/p>\n
Nearby, a new free-flight aviary will house the zoo\u2019s brightly colored flamingos and other African bird species, offering a glimpse of the birds\u2019 natural movement and behavior.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The area will include a cafe and an event space, where visitors can observe the birds through a large glass viewing wall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Future phases\u00a0<\/p>\n
By rolling out the expansion in phases, zoo officials hope to minimize disruptions for guests while allowing new exhibits to debut as construction continues.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, the earth movers and the construction equipment are as exciting as a dinosaur exhibit,\u201d New quipped. \u201cWe hope to have some fun with that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Future additions include Wild Grasslands, expected to open in 2029, featuring what the zoo says will be the only habitat in the United States where rhinos \u2014 last seen at the Dallas Zoo in 2012 \u2014 and cheetahs\u00a0share the same enclosure. The area will also include habitats for African hoofstock, a rhino encounter yard and a mixed-species aviary.<\/p>\n
The following year, the zoo plans to open Okapi Forest, a shaded exhibit featuring okapi and\u00a0colobus monkeys. Elevated pathways will allow monkeys to travel above visitors, while guests will be able to observe and feed okapi from designated viewing areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The exhibit will also include a\u00a0treehouse classroom and a nature-inspired children\u2019s play area modeled after the rocky kopjes of Africa\u2019s Serengeti.
The future, zoo officials say, reflects both rising attendance and growing ambitions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With annual attendance nearly doubling over the past decade to about 1 million guests,<\/a> Wild Horizons is designed to keep that momentum growing \u2014 adding new habitats and experiences that give visitors more reasons to return while transforming the walk through the zoo into part of the adventure.<\/p>\n\u201cIt’s not about getting from point A to point B,\u201d New said. \u201cIt’s all the things that happen on the path.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A rendering shows the African Shorelines habitat, where visitors will be able to view African penguins above and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,87998,89138,92896],"class_list":["post-385013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-dallas","tag-tp-dallas-county","tag-tp-dallas-zoo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}