FAQs about the Night Exhibit
Night Exhibit Closure: Frequently Asked Questions
Q. When will the Night Exhibit close?
A. The Night Exhibit (formerly known as Nocturnal House) will remain open to our zoo members and visitors until March 1. Winter hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily.
Q. Will the Day Exhibit also close?
A. No. The heated Day Exhibit, which is adjacent to the Night Exhibit, will remain open. Here, visitors can enjoy a gallery of smaller-scale exhibits with amphibians and reptiles.
Q. Where will the animals currently living in the Night Exhibit go? Will any stay at the zoo?
A. Providing quality care to the animals is our priority. The good news is that we are able to keep several of the animals by moving them to other exhibits at Woodland Park Zoo and visitors still will be able to enjoy some of their favorites. The sloths will move to the zoo’s award-winning Tropical Rain Forest exhibit. The Rodrigues fruit bats, tamanduas and springhaas will move to the Adaptations Building and an armadillo will be used for education programs. These animals were selected to stay primarily because they are not completely “nocturnal,” but rather active during daylight hours as well.
The pygmy lorises and a slow loris will live in off-view areas to allow us to continue our efforts with the Association of Zoos & Aquariums' (AZA) Species Survival Plan for threatened and endangered species. The remaining animals will be moved to other zoos accredited by AZA.
Q. Why do you have to close an exhibit? Why couldn’t you just reduce staff or make cuts in other areas?
A. Closing the exhibit is one of several options we are taking to responsibly reduce expenses in this economic downturn. The zoo has been working hard to reduce spending over the last two years. In 2009, the zoo made several across-the-board cuts in administration, staffing and operations as the economic crisis became apparent. These included eliminating some programs such as our Wildlife Adventures travel program, cutting department budgets, a hiring freeze and eliminating some staff positions. As the financial horizon continued downward and revenues and donations trailed off, it was evident that even more cuts needed to be made, so staff sacrificed retirement benefits and many took unpaid furloughs.
For 2010, with forecasts for flat revenue and increased expenses, we needed to find long-term solutions rather than one-year adjustments. We needed to reduce our annual expenses by $800,000 to $1 million. Unfortunately, we were faced with making tough decisions. Closing the Night Exhibit and reducing staff by a dozen full-time equivalent staff positions across all departments were identified for elimination.
Q. Why choose the Night Exhibit over other exhibits?
A. We examined all of our options based on a set of developed criteria that included staffing needs, energy use, conservation impact, and a variety of other categories to determine what area would have to close. Several different options were thoughtfully considered, but the Night Exhibit was identified as the best money-saving option from a set of unpleasant choices. Annually, this energy-inefficient building costs nearly $300,000 to operate and staffing, with costs constantly rising.
No one at the zoo is happy about closing an exhibit. We know that all of our visitors feel a strong emotional connection to the exhibits and animals at the zoo, and each visitor has their own favorite that they carry in their heart. But closing this older building, which is expensive to operate both from the standpoint of energy use and other costs, will allow us to re-examine its function and investigate how to operate it sustainably over the long run.
Q. Will the Night Exhibit ever re-open?
A. We will not re-open the building under its existing operating conditions. Over the next few years we will conduct a thorough assessment and analysis of the building and its operations, and make recommendations for the long term.
Q. If we donate to save the Night Exhibit, will that keep it open?
A. While we appreciate the suggestion to raise funds to keep the exhibit open, this would offer a short-term solution only and would not sustain the annual costs of operation and staffing over the long run, particularly as the costs of operation and staffing continue to inflate and the building continues to operate inefficiently.
We cannot accept gifts to keep the Night Exhibit open, but we would be very pleased to accept donations to help make modifications to existing areas for the Night Exhibit animals that will remain at the zoo and to support their long-term care, and toward evaluation of the building to determine operations over the long run. Moving forward, we need to balance our expenses with our revenues, and any increase in charitable giving will help us better achieve that balance.
Donations to the “Nocturnal Animal Fund” can be made online at www.zoo.org/nocturnalanimalfund or mailed to: Woodland Park Zoo, 601 N. 59th St., Seattle, WA 98103.
Q. Why did the zoo build a new penguin exhibit and a new west entry when there was an economic crisis?
A. Funds for the penguin exhibit and the currently under-construction new west entry and meerkat exhibit were raised before the economic crisis primarily through private donations. As such, they are restricted to those particular projects. We cannot dip into those accounts to pay for other things. Those individuals, companies, and foundations that donate funds for specific projects must trust that the funds they generously contribute will be used for the programs, exhibits or projects that they are intended.
Q. Why can’t the zoo just get more money from the city or county to keep it open?
A. As we’re all aware, city and county governments are in challenging economic situations of their own. Significant program, service and staff layoffs have already occurred in both the city and county. The zoo is run as a non-profit organization, though the property is owned by the City of Seattle. Both the City of Seattle general fund and the King County Parks Levy provide operating funds for the zoo.
Q. How soon can we see the Night Exhibit animals that are staying at the zoo?
A. Modifications are required to the Adaptations Building exhibits to accommodate and meet the needs of the animals that will live there. The north end of this building is currently closed for construction of an exhibit that brings meerkats back to the zoo and for the modifications. The Adaptations Building will re-open on May 1 when we debut the meerkats to the public, reintroduce our Night Exhibit animals to the public and open our new west entry.
Revised and updated from 1/5/2010