By BJ Austin, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-874049.mp3
Dallas, TX –
The Dallas Zoo is launching the "Savanna Society" to raise more than a million dollars by April to complete the new, 11 acre African Savanna exhibit. KERA's BJ Austin says the fundraising campaign should get off to a quick start if recent donations are an indication.
Since the Dallas Zoo was transferred to private management October first, the Zoo has received two and a quarter million dollars in pledges. And that's just the start, according to Michael Meadows, president of the Dallas Zoological Society.
Meadows: We will be working on raising additional dollars through the Savanna Society to help us put the finishing touches on the Savanna Exhibit. And when that exhibit opens it is absolutely, I think, going to change the way Dallas and the world views the Dallas Zoo.
The exhibit will feature a large number of animals who roam parts of the 11 acres. Elephants and giraffes will call it home. And Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert says there's more "big" news.
Leppert: We going to have the lions back. The lions are going to be an important part of that. And this savanna, literally when it opens, is going to be the finest facility of this kind anywhere in the nation.
The savanna exhibit is scheduled to open in April or May, with the funds for the finishing touches.