Mesco Park Zoo reports record attendance, outlines staffing needs and capital projects after Wild Summer Lights

Mesco Park Zoo and Botanic Garden officials reported strong attendance and revenue tied to this fall’s Wild Summer Lights event and outlined staffing vacancies, upcoming capital work and animal transfers during the advisory board’s October meeting.

Eric Beck, executive director of the zoo, told the Mesco Park Zoo and Botanic Garden Advisory Board that between August and September the zoo saw record months driven largely by Wild Summer Lights and that “we’re already past last year’s total attendance for the year.” Beck said the zoo expects to exceed 200,000 visitors in 2025.

The event alone sold nearly 50,000 tickets, Beck said: “So we actually allowed people to ride the tram for free, so if they had mobility issues,” and later, “it exceeded our expectations … I think we were looking at kind of that 30 to 40,000 tickets sold window, and we crushed that in almost 50,000.” Beck identified gross revenue items for September at about $130,000, and attributed strong gift-shop sales to the event…