Jack Hanna kicks off Naples Zoo giraffe project

Jack Hanna kicks off Naples Zoo giraffe project New million dollar project shows how zoo has grown By Renee Stoll Story Created: Feb 8, 2010 at 11:00 PM EST Story Updated: Feb 8, 2010 at 11:00 PM EST NAPLES, FL. – It’s not every day wildlife expert Jack Hanna comes to Naples. In fact, it’s been more than 20 years since he visited the Naples zoo, and the zoo’s seen some changes. “Not everybody can have a new habitat each year, but they’re doing that here. They’re growing in leaps and bounds as you see,” Hanna boasts of the zoo. He’s in town to help the zoo grow even more. Hanna is kick starting the first fundraiser for the zoo’s newest endeavor, a giraffe habitat. “It’s going to be the biggest, most expensive thing we’ve done. My goal is to raise a million dollars to do it,” zoo director David Tetzlaff says. But, just a few years ago a project of this magnitude would not have been possible. “The effort that really saved the zoo was historic,” Tetzlaff explains. In fact, it was only about six years ago when the zoo was almost sold. “We never owned the land under us. The taxpayers stepped forward and said ‘yeah we’ll buy that land, and we like the zoo, we want to keep it.’” At the same time, Tetzlaff says the zoo became a non-profit and ever since then, hasn’t looked back. The Naples Zoo has added a new exhibit nearly every year since that point, and boasts record breaking attendance. It even has some animals Hanna hasn’t seen before. “I’ve never seen, what was the name of that animal? A fossa. I mean I heard of it, but I never saw one until today,” a stunned Hanna exclaims. The zoo hopes to open the giraffe exhibit in 2011. Next article Putting the Toyota recall fix to the test