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Layout of the new rhino facility at the Milwaukee County Zoo.
The Milwaukee Zoological Society has raised an additional $1 million for a long-planned undertaking to develop a new rhino habitat at the Milwaukee County Zoo.
Zoo Director Amos Morris told supervisors on the board’s finance committee Thursday that the additional funding will supplement about $750,000 in taxpayer funding for the roughly $23 million project and will fund another $250,000 to add classrooms on the facility.
“We’ve been fortunate to be able to increase our giving from the beginning of the contract,” said Jody Gibson, the organization’s president and CEO.
The zoo broke ground on construction of a new rhino enclosure in April. The zoo says the new facility will replace the existing, aging rhino enclosure built in the 1950s and will provide zoo visitors with a wildlife park-like experience. Once construction is complete, the zoo plans to house the critically endangered eastern black rhino. As of 2017, there are an estimated fewer than 1,000 black rhinos in the wild.
The Zoological Society is a nonprofit organization established to support the zoo through fundraising and educational programs. Its funding comes in part from annual society membership. The organization’s roots date back to the early 20th century and to the former Washington Park Zoo, the predecessor to the County Zoo, located at 10001 W. Bluemound Rd.
The total funding the association has provided for rhino projects now exceeds $7 million. Typically, the association and the county split funding for major projects 50/50. However, inflation in recent years has caused project costs to skyrocket and exceed the association’s funding. Prior to the inflationary increases, the organization funded 50% of the total project costs.
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Then-Supervisor and current City Councilman Peter Bergelis, upset that the county would have to foot the bill for the project, enshrined the 50/50 split practice for zoo infrastructure projects into law through an amendment to the fiscal year 2024 budget.
Gibson said Thursday that the society’s new fundraising efforts for the rhino project could benefit the zoo’s operations in the long run.
” [classroom] “Not only can it be used to further the zoo’s mission, but it can also generate additional rental income as it can be used as rental space for the zoo,” she said.
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