Zoo Boise to open renovated small-animal exhibits Oct. 23; education center due next spring

Zoo Boise will open a renovated small-animal section Oct. 23, with a public ribbon-cutting slated to begin about 9 a.m. and the grounds opening to visitors at 10 a.m., Zoo Boise Director Gene Decox said at the Boise Parks and Recreation Commission’s October meeting.

“The animals will be able to dig and climb,” Decox said while presenting photos and construction updates on the new spaces. “It will look great for next week.”

The small-animal kingdom project reconfigures a 1999 building and surrounding outdoor space. Decox said the meerkat enclosure now includes a roughly 400-square-foot indoor space divided into two rooms and about 700 square feet of outdoor natural substrate. Cotton-top tamarins will move into a roughly 300-square-foot indoor space with 15-foot-high climbing area and a more than 500-square-foot outdoor area. A renovated building will house sand cats and a day room for small felines.

Zoo staff described other new exhibits that will open with the renovation: a prehensile-tail porcupine currently on site, a sloth expected to arrive within weeks, and a male Grand Cayman blue iguana that Zoo Boise will initially exhibit with plans to expand toward possible participation in a breeding program. Decox said the larger conservation and education center — a two-story, roughly 8,000–9,000-square-foot facility with four classrooms and a separate entrance for evening events — is scheduled to open next spring.

Decox told commissioners the zoo has prioritized accessibility and visitor amenities in the work, adding restrooms and rerouted walkways in the renovated area and upgraded utilities in the small-cat building. He also described improvements that meet professional standards for animal care: “The original meerkat exhibit ... fell well below required Association of Zoos and Aquariums guidelines,” he said, and the new spaces address those shortcomings.

Decox described several specific conservation and fundraising efforts tied to the zoo. He said Zoo Boise takes $1 from admission into a city-managed conservation fund that has, since 2007, directed nearly $1.9 million to conservation projects. Decox said the Friends of Zoo Boise and Zoo Boise distribute roughly $400,000 in grants this year, including approximately $200,000 to Gorongosa National Park projects and smaller awards — he estimated $10,000–$20,000 — to local Foothills and open-space work.

“It is part of the city of Boise,” Council Member Willets added, stressing municipal ownership and operation of the facility and thanking Decox and his staff for fundraising and program delivery.

Commissioners and other meeting attendees praised the education center as a long-sought capacity upgrade for school and community programming. Decox said the center will include meeting and boardroom space sized to host city and outside groups, plus housing for education and ambassador animals.

Zoo staff invited commissioners and partners to the opening festivities and said graphics and finishing landscaping would be completed in the days before public opening. Decox said some ambassador animals will follow in the weeks after the opening as transport and quarantine schedules are completed.

Details reported at the meeting: the small-animal kingdom will open Oct. 23 with a 9 a.m. program and 10 a.m. public access; the conservation and education center is expected next spring; the zoo’s conservation fund has directed nearly $1.9 million since 2007; and the zoo will disperse roughly $400,000 in conservation grants this year, including an estimated $200,000 to Gorongosa-focused projects.