Zoo Boise receives $500,000 grant

The Friends of Zoo Boise has received a $500,000 grant from The ALSAM Foundation, located in Salt Lake City, to help build the African Plains exhibit at the zoo.

The zoo needs $2.8 million to build the exhibit, and has already raised $1.4 million. When the zoo has collected another $700,000, the ALSAM Foundation will release the $500,000 matching grant and the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust will match another $200,000, to complete the zoo’s $2.8 million goal.

The African Plains exhibit will cover more than 3.5 acres and feature giraffes, lions, zebras, lemurs, rock hyrax and weaver birds. Visitors will view the animals from an African Village that will contain a schoolroom, ranger station, open-air market and an African house. In addition to the animals, visitors will learn about the culture, customs and traditions of a place half way around the world.

The exhibit is designed to show visitors the symbiotic relationship between animals and humans, in one of the last places on Earth where they live together, Monica Hopkins, communications director, said.

Zoo Boise is the only zoo between Portland and Pocatello, Hopkins said. The zoo receives about 271,000 annual visitors, which is nearly 100,000 more than the number of people who attended home football games at Boise State University, she said.

The zoo hopes to raise the remaining $700,000 by Spring 2007, with construction beginning in late summer. The exhibit could open in the summer of 2008.

Individuals and corporations that would like to donate can do so by visiting the zoo’s campaign website, www.zooboise.org, or by calling Steve Burns at Zoo Boise at 384-4125.