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The Zoo’s weekly TV series, The Zoo FileZ, is named a winner in the 1999 Communicator Awards for video production. The Communicator Awards, based in Arlington, Texas, is a national organization that recognizes outstanding work in the communications field. The Zoo FileZ is presented with an “Award of Distinction” in the category of self-promotion videos. The competition included 3,275 entries from 49 states and seven foreign countries.
For the third time in four years, the “Zoo Crew,” a 4-H club sponsored by the N.C. Zoo, wins the Randolph County “Outstanding 4-H Club of the Year” award.
N.C. Zoo voted as one of the U.S.'s 'family-friendly' attractions. The zoo came in fifth in the Southeast Region in the zoos and aquariums category - included with attractions in the much-larger cities of Orlando, Baltimore, Chattanooga, New Orleans and Washington, D.C. Article
Lions return to public exhibit at the Zoo after a two-year absence for major renovaitons to their exhibit and holding facilities.
The Zoo opens a completely renovated African entrance and celebrates the occasion with an African festival extending over the ensuing seven weekends. The new entrance and plaza includes a 440-foot wooden bridge connecting the entrance to the African parking area, along with new admission booths and plaza. The plaza area, designed to replicate a Ugandan village marketplace, is renamed the Wachovia Akiba Market in honor of Wachovia Bank, the major corporate contributor to the renovation fund.
After being closed for more than two years for $2 million in renovations, the Zoo’s outdoor chimpanzee exhibit reopens to the public. The habitat is renamed the Kitera Forest BB&T Chimpanzee Reserve in honor of BB&T bank, the major private donor for the project.
The African Pavilion reopens to the public after more than seven months and $125,000 in renovations. In addition to six new animal species, the renovations include improved exhibit interpretives, revised traffic flow in the building and improved ventilation.
N.C. Zoo’s Valerie H. Schindler Wildlife Rehabilitation Center at the N.C. Zoo opens. The much-needed rehabilitation center is staffed exclusively by trained volunteers and provides care for injured native wildlife. The center becomes a reality through gifts from corporations and individual donors and is named for the wife of retired Durham chemist Dr. Anton Schindler, the primary donor.
The American Zoo and Aquarium Association asks Zoo Director David Jones and the N.C. Zoo Society to spearhead a national effort to raise funds for the Kabul Zoo, destroyed by the war in Afghanistan. The effort garners international recognition for the N.C. Zoo and eventually raises more than $400,000 for the Kabul Zoo and another $100,000 to help domestic animals.
Three North Carolina teachers along with three members of the Zoo staff depart on a two-week visit to Uganda as part of a new educational exhange program developed by the Zoo called “UNITE”—Uganda and North Carolina International Teaching for the Environment.
The Zoo unveils a new visitor attraction—the SimEx Reactor. The Reactor is a mobile ride simulation theater. The initial film, “Wilderness Adventure,” is featured during the theater’s first eight months of operation.
In what is believed to be the first attempt to introduce captive-born red wolf pups to a wild mother, two wolves born at the N.C. Zoo are placed with a female wolf raising her own young in eastern North Carolina. The experiment proves successful, with both zoo-born pups being accepted and raised by the wild pack.
The Zoo’s “Garden Friends” playground, a unique play area for children with swings, slides, monkey bars and a rope ladder fashioned into the shapes of insects and garden plants opens to the public.
The N.C. Zoo’s “Mountain Bog” exhibit, located adjacent to the Streamside habitat, is selected to receive the Association of Zoological Horticulture’s Conservation Award for 2002.
Zoo Director Dr. David Jones is presented with the American Zoo & Aquarium Association’s (AZA) “Outstanding Service Award,” for his efforts in heading a national effort by zoos to raise funds for Aghanistan’s Kabul Zoo. The award is presented at the AZA’s 78th Annual Conference in Fort Worth, Texas.
Two polar bears rescued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from a Mexican circus traveling in Puerto Rico arrive at the N.C. Zoo. The animals were among six polar bears that were seized after the circus was accused of violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act for failure to meet the husbandry needs of the bears. All the bears were placed in U.S. zoos.
The Zoo and Zoo Society launch an innovative new educational Web site called Field Trip Earth. Funded in part through a $258,000 grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, Field Trip Earth enables teachers and students in K-12 to study wildlife conservation projects ranging from elephants, to red wolves, to sea turtles to black bears, and exchange information with biologists and other scientists working in the field.
Based on the successful effort to raise funds for the Kabul Zoo, the American Zoo & Aquarium Association asks Dr. David Jones and the N.C. Zoo Society to head a similar effort to save the Baghdad Zoo ravaged by the war in Iraq. The projects raises $77,000.
Zoo Director Dr. David Jones launches to rebuild the historic Pisgah Covered Bridge in Randolph County after it is destroyed by a flood. The project raises some $80,000 and results in a complete restoration of the historic structure and its reopening in May 2004.
The Zoo’s Australian Walkabout exhibit is opened to the public. The $500,000 exhibit features more than two dozen new species for the zoo, from kangaroos to emus, to bearded dragons, in a temporary exhibit created from the former Hardee’s Touch and Learn Center. The temporary Australian exhibit is slated to remain open through the fall of 2006.
A female African lion gives birth to two female cubs, the first lions to be born at the Zoo in 21 years.
To download a PDF of the Zoo history click here.
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N.C. Zoo is a member institution of AZA and an agency of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, William G. Ross Jr. Secretary; Michael F. Easley, Governor. A part of the North Carolina Government portal.
The Zoo is closed Christmas day and during severe weather. Call our information line at: 1-800-488-0444.
