Jack Hanna?s dream of bringing an African safari to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium is about to be realized.
On Wednesday, the zoo?s board approved building a $30.4 million exhibit that will give visitors a close-up look at giraffes, rhinoceroses, zebras, cheetahs, lions and other animals roaming a man-made savannah.
?You?ll think you?re going into a national park in an African country,? Tim May, the chairman of the zoo?s board of trustees, said yesterday. ?It?s going to blow people away.?
The 43-acre Safari Africa is to open in the summer of 2014 on what are now farm fields on the northeastern side of zoo property. It?ll be north of the polar bear exhibit and will be accessible through the northeast corner of the North America exhibit.
The design, said zoo Director Dale Schmidt, will give the animals plenty of room to roam yet draw them to locations where visitors can watch ? and in some cases participate in ? their daily activities.
One viewing area will be in front of a watering hole that groups of animals will use at different times of the day. Another viewing area will overlook the rhinos, and visitors will be able to touch and feed them at certain times. A third space will have a giraffe-feeding area.
Lions, cheetahs, meerkats and monkeys will have separate exhibits along walkways.
?The premise is that you get to go on this once-in-a-lifetime safari with (zoo director emeritus) Jack Hanna to one of his favorite places, Africa,? Schmidt said.
Topography and landscaping will hide fences ?so that when you look out over that plain, you won?t think you?re anywhere but an African savannah,? he said. A trolley or other vehicle will provide transportation to the area from inside the front gate for those who need it.
The site also will include a zip line and an elaborate special-events tent. It will be open about seven months of the year, closing during the winter.
Schmidt said the zoo will pay for the new exhibit with the estimated $18 million a year it collects from a Franklin County property-tax levy, plus $7 million to $10 million it expects to raise in donations.
The zoo first announced plans for an African savannah exhibit in the 1990s, to be completed by 2000 along the eastern part of the zoo and its golf course.
But other zoo projects and a massive relocation of Powell Road around the zoo got in the way. And the zoo?s golf course became a bigger revenue stream, so the decision was made to keep it open and build the African exhibit elsewhere.
By 2003, when the zoo was asking voters to renew its property-tax levy, the savannah?s completion was expected by 2010 and the polar bear exhibit, which opened in 2010, wasn?t due to open until this year.
The projects were rearranged, and planning for the African exhibit began in earnest a year ago.
Some of the animals for the exhibit, such as the lions, rhinos and cheetahs, already are at the zoo. Others will be obtained from other zoos. Several giraffes already have been moved from other facilities and are being housed at The Wilds until the new exhibit opens, Schmidt said.
He said the safari might be expanded on 67 additional acres in future years to include elephants.
kgray@dispatch.com
@reporterkathy
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