Tanganyika Wildlife Park kicks off expansion drive

Tanganyika Wildlife Park near Goddard is more than just marching penguins and pacing giraffes these days.

The park that opened in 2008 near Maple and 183rd Street West has expanded to include more than 80 species, many quite rare, in nearly 40 exhibits. Last year more than 100,000 visitors passed through its gates.

Now the for-profit park, which specializes in providing a closer experience with its animals, is embarking on its first-ever fundraising campaign. The park is trying to raise $1.5 million for Phase 1 of a three-phase, $4 million upgrade to park exhibits and space. In all, the expansion would create space for 20 new exhibits.

The first phase would go to enclose the park’s African penguins and albino American alligator. The penguins are currently being housed indoors because of the possibility of bird flu spread by wild birds and malaria spread by mosquitoes.

The new building would enclose the penguins’ outdoor space and give people a walk-through exhibit, said Matt Fouts, assistant director of the park. It also would include a stingray touch tank, a new otter exhibit and a children’s splash park.

A second phase would include a roughly 10,000-square-foot education building with more space for raising and exhibiting animals, plus a classroom and tornado shelter. With a new education building, the park could host larger summer camps, more animal ambassadors and even animal shows, Fouts said.

A third phase would be a large expansion of the splash park.

Other plans call for an elevated goat path over the walkways and a slide for humans through the otter tank.

The expansion is a big deal for Tanganyika, Fouts said. So far the park has cost about $7 million.

“So you can see that $4 million is huge,” he said.

The park is for-profit, but donors would give to the Species Survival Fund, a not-for-profit fund, that helps support the park, Fouts said. He said any donation would go through the fund and would have to pay for the children’s zoo expansion.

This story was originally published July 3, 2015 at 8:41 PM with the headline "Tanganyika Wildlife Park kicks off expansion drive."