The Virginia Zoo is embarking on a major expansion that will include new animals, buildings and digital access.
Zoo officials announced Wednesday they’re nearing the end of a $16.2 million capital campaign – their largest in a decade – to fund the five-part expansion.
“Our new project really brings the zoo to the forefront of engaging our visitors in conservation education, meeting animals, learning about them, realizing their importance, creating the environmental stewards of the future,” said executive director Greg Bockheim.
The biggest piece is an EdVenture & Exploration Campus focused on wildlife education. It will be built on four acres of empty green space near the zoo entrance that formerly housed bison.
The goal is to allow visitors to directly interact with creatures like porcupines, snakes and birds, Bockheim said.
Zoo workers typically bring these “animal ambassadors” to school classes or birthday parties, but house them behind the scenes.
On the new campus, “this is going to be where they live, and now visitors will be able to walk right into the facility to meet those animals and the people that take care of those animals,” Bockheim said. “It’s a full access area where those animals will be out front and center.”
Animals will also be able to travel between exhibits on overhead paths, Bockheim said. They’re hoping to get some lemurs, fossas and tree kangaroos.
One-horned rhinos will also come to Norfolk from a different zoo in a couple years, separate from the existing white rhinos part of the Africa-Okavango Delta exhibit.
The Virginia Zoo is building a new Rhino Valley on five acres of unused space to house the one-horned rhinos, a vulnerable species native to India and Nepal.
As part of the expansion, the zoo aims to boost its overall digital presence. That includes improving zoo-wide Wi-Fi, and installing live animal camera feeds that can be viewed online.
Officials are also scaling up efforts to compost things like food, animal waste and bedding. Some composted material will go to local shoreline and community garden projects. Visitors will also be able to buy the so-called “Zoo Poo” fertilizer at the gift shop, Bockheim said.
One of the expansion projects already opened earlier this year: a “turtle oasis” built at the former sea lion pool.
The zoo has raised over $15 million for its campaign but is still seeking the remaining $350,000.
