Summary of Zoo Operations

In 2005, Woodland Park Zoo posted attendance in excess of one million visitors for the sixth consecutive year. Attendance at the zoo started strong with mild weather early in the year. July and August were also particularly good for the zoo, but unusually wet weather late in the year kept overall attendance to 96.6% of projections, or 1,043,804 total. However, the good news was that paid attendance was up for the year. Paid attendance, including general admissions coupon entries, discount program admissions, school groups and ticketed events finished the year at nearly 107% of budget. At nearly 622,000, paid attendance finished at its highest level since 2001, the first year after Asian elephant Hansa’s birth at the zoo.

Willawong Station, a free-flight bird aviary featuring Australian budgies and parrots, was the primary new attraction at the zoo in 2005. The exhibit opened May 28 with the opportunity to hand-feed more than 150 colorful birds. Zoo visitors experiencing the new exhibit reported very positive reactions. However, paid visits to the exhibit ($1 per seedstick) were lower than hoped, generally due to its out-of-the-way location in the zoo. New wayfinding strategies were planned for 2006 to alleviate this problem.

Special events attendance figures were mixed. Bunny Bounce, held the Saturday of Easter weekend, experienced low attendance due to heavy rains. In contrast, Mom and Me at the Zoo, held the Saturday before Mother’s Day, attracted over 11,000 guests. But Washington Mutual ZooTunes, the zoo’s summer concert series, had perhaps its most successful season ever. Eight of nine concerts sold out, resulting in 98% of all available tickets sold for the series. Pumpkin Prowl, the zoo’s annual fall event, was put on hiatus in 2005 in preparation for Zoomazium, a new indoor venue that will be available for the event in 2006.

Financial Accounting
Attached is the 2005 audited financial statement for Woodland Park Zoo in PDF format.

Use of Levy Proceeds

The Pro Parks Levy provided just over $2.75 million to Woodland Park Zoo in 2005. These funds support education and outreach initiatives at the zoo, along with animal care and health, maintenance and repair of zoo grounds, exhibits and interpretive displays, and fundamental zoo operations such as safety, security and admissions management. Underserved or low-income Seattle school children also benefit from levy funding with access to a number of zoo activities and programs that make the zoo an important resource to the Seattle School District. Levy funds supported the following program and operating expenses in 2005:

Admissions and Transportation Subsidies:
School-to-Zoo: This program, fully funded by levy monies, is open to any Seattle school with 30% or more students qualified for free- and reduced lunch programs. Schools receive free zoo admission for every class and reimbursements for their bus transportation. In addition, the School-to-Zoo staff developed programs for students in kindergarten through 4th grade aligned with Seattle Public Schools science materials. As a result of extended outreach to Seattle teachers, and a broadening of the eligibility criteria, School-to-Zoo reached 8,654 students in 2005.

Education Programs:
Forest Explorers: Forest Explorers, partially funded by the Pro Parks Levy, is the zoo’s award-winning program for 2nd graders in King County. This program became a fee-based program in fall 2004 but, thanks to levy funding, was available at significantly reduced rates to Seattle schools and free for those Seattle schools with 30% or more students in the free- and reduced-rate lunch program. The program features a comparison of temperate and tropical rain forests through zoo exhibits. In 2005, Forest Explorers reached 1,785 Seattle school children.

SOAR: The Save Our Amazing Raptors (SOAR) outreach program touches K-12 students through classroom presentations by keeper staff with live birds of prey. In 2005, through partial funding by levy proceeds, SOAR programs were presented to 2,128 Seattle students.

Wild Wise: This outreach program was developed for 4th through 7th graders throughout the state. The award-winning program, partially funded through the Pro Parks Levy, includes a high impact multimedia presentation and hands-on, field-based, wildlife observation and documentation. In addition to taking field notes on what they observe, students sketch wildlife and map their locations. In 2005, the Wild Wise staff presented the program to 4,060 Seattle students.

Zoo Corps: With the assistance of levy funding, Zoo Corps staff run this teen service-learning program that combines hands-on learning about animal stewardship with volunteer assistance to zoo visitors and activities. Zoo Corps recruits an ethnically and economically diverse group of teenagers ages 14-18, and promotes science and environmental education through training and real work opportunities. Zoo Corps volunteers receive required service learning credits for high school graduation. In 2005, 120 teens were involved with Zoo Corps, with 42 of them coming from Seattle.

Teacher Training: Woodland Park Zoo provides accredited teacher training through workshops, lectures, hands-on activities, tours and other materials to help teachers gather information about plants, animals, the environment and cultures for classroom instruction. These trainings, assisted by Pro Parks Levy funds, reached 286 teachers in 2005; 46 of them were Seattle schoolteachers.

Public Programs: Pro Parks funds partially support numerous education programs for visiting families, including Jaguar Quest, African Village Theater and Habitat Ramblers, as well as partially funding staff for the Contact Area in the Family Farm and the education animal keeper. In total, in 2005, one or more of these free programs at the zoo touched over 320,000 visitors.

Volunteers: In 2005, Woodland Park Zoo staffed 14 separate volunteer programs, involving over 770 volunteers and 16 service groups, and representing over 80,300 volunteer hours contributed to the zoo. Pro Parks Levy funds partially supported the zoo staff that runs the volunteer programs.

Web Site Support/Fiber Optic Network:

• Salary expense for 50% of an Information Systems Network Engineer.
• Salary expense for 100% of Web Coordinator.
• All costs related to web server host, backup system and firewall.
• Domain name certificates and renewals.
• Internet access, anti-virus software and firewall protection for zoo staff

Security/Emergency Response:

• Maintained 24/7 security and certified emergency medical response during public hours
• Continued zoo wide CPR/First Aid training

Admission/Cashiers:

• Upgraded our scheduling software to coordinate admissions, events, maintenance set-up and school group registration

Positions Supported by Levy Funding

Repairs, Maintenance and Major Maintenance

Significant zoo repair and maintenance projects funded by levy maintenance project funds in 2005 included the following:

Water Conservation Projects: The zoo installed waterless urinals throughout the zoo including Aramark food service facility. This was also part of an overall water conservation effort at the zoo that saved over $40,000 in water costs for the year.

“ Willawong Station” Exhibit: Willawong Station was the zoo’s featured new attraction for the 2005 season, a free flight aviary for Australian parrots and budgies that allowed visitors to hand feed the birds with seed sticks. Interpretive elements evoking an Australian habitat were part of the conversion of a building in the zoo’s Australasia bioclimatic zone, once a giraffe barn in past years. Work included design and construction of all exhibit and interpretive elements including new animal holding and Australasia kitchen renovations.

Facilities Shops Upgrade: The zoo began renovation of the Central Shops area to accommodate increased facility maintenance responsibilities. This renovation was set to continue into 2006.
Bug World Restoration: The “Masters of the Web” spider exhibit, featured at the zoo in 2004, was restored to its original Bug World format for 2005. Some popular “Masters of the Web” exhibit elements were retained, however.

Green Displays: Safety and other modifications were made to the small exhibits in the Day Exhibit, with planned continuation of these modifications in 2006.

Interpretive Exhibit Projects: Digital conversion of sign artwork was undertaken in 2005 to provide for more efficient upgrading of sign graphics in the future. Night Exhibit entry graphics planning and design started in 2005 with final construction and installation of the graphics planned for mid to late 2006.

Asphalt Repair: General maintenance of pathways required periodic asphalt repair projects in 2005.

Capital Investments

In addition to the major maintenance activities noted above, Woodland Park Zoo raised restricted and unrestricted funds from private donors to begin two large capital projects, Zoomazium and the Historic Carousel. The zoo also worked with the City of Seattle to begin the planning process for the new parking garage identified in the zoo’s Long-Range Physical Development Plan. This project will be financed as a partnership between the City and the zoo.

Zoomazium (formerly known as Family Science Learning Center)
Construction on Zoomazium began in spring of 2005 and continued throughout the balance of the year, staying on schedule to make the planned opening in May 2006.The new building provides whole-bodied exploration and nature play, powerful interactive elements, physical objects, and video and audio surprises primarily aimed at kids ages 8 years old and under. It will also be submitted for LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, boasting features such as a green roof, and window treatments that inhibit bird strikes.

Historic Carousel
Private fundraising for the zoo’s Historic Carousel continued throughout 2005. Construction documents for the building were completed, with construction starting early in 2006 near the zoo’s North Meadow and opening of Phase I (Pavilion only) planned for late July 2006. Phase II (birthday rooms, pavilion doors and additional features) is tentatively scheduled for 2007.

Parking Garage
A design-bid-build process was selected in summer of 2005 for the zoo’s planned parking garage, scheduled to be open in mid-2008. By late September, the design team of KPFF Engineers and Hewitt Architects was selected to lead the design process. An extensive public involvement process was planned late in the year to include two workshops and three open houses, with the first public workshop scheduled for January 2006. A number of advisory groups were also formed, including a Citizens Oversight Committee, Technical Oversight Committee and Staff Advisory Committee to provide valuable specialized input. In addition, the zoo’s Neighborhood Liaison Committee continued to provide input from representatives of various neighborhood groups from around the zoo.

In April 2005, the zoo conducted two open houses on Residential Parking Zones. As part of the zoo’s agreement with the City to construct the parking garage, the zoo had agreed to facilitate neighborhood discussions on RPZs. However, RPZs are a neighborhood decision in collaboration with the City. Participants in the open houses revealed no strong preferences for RPZs at the time, so the zoo discontinued efforts to facilitate the discussion. However, the zoo remains ready to help the community with this process if asked at a later date.

Evaluation of Zoo Guest Experience

In August 2005, zoo visitors were again asked to complete exit questionnaires at the end of their zoo visit, as part of an ongoing effort to collect useful data on zoo visitors’ perceptions of their experience at Woodland Park Zoo.

The overall profile of zoo visitors has remained very consistent over the past few years, with roughly 70% of the casual visitor audience (not including organized groups) in summer made up of families with very young children– that is, infants, toddlers, preschoolers and early elementary-aged children. Over three-quarters come from Western Washington, primarily from Seattle and surrounding suburbs.

Noteworthy differences in the summer ’05 visitor profile were a somewhat lower percentage of zoo members, and a significant drop in the “very frequent visitor” category (i.e., those who visit at least 12 times per year). There also appears to be an increase in visitation by certain ethnic groups – namely, people who describe themselves as Asian/Pacific Islander, and those in the “other” category. This parallels a continuing increase in diversity in Seattle, particularly in urban areas and surrounding suburbs.

Overall satisfaction for the zoo experience remained high, with only 5% of visitors describing their zoo visit as falling below expectations. In response to a new question, added in 2005, 90% of visitors agreed with the statement, “Our trip to the zoo was worth the time and money.” Animals and exhibits listed as high points of the visit included many “perennial favorites,” such as gorillas, elephants, brown bears and others, as well as two new additions to the list of favorites this year: Willawong Station and the zoo’s tiger cubs.

Aspects of the zoo visit that visitors identified as “low points” continued to focus on lack of visibility for certain animals, most frequently jaguars and penguins.

2005 Annual Report Financials (PDF)