Zoo turns 50, shares plans for train, lantern festival, stingray touch experience, more
This time next year, visitors to the Sedgwick County Zoo will be able to hop on a train, take a 1.3-mile ride around the zoo’s perimeter and see the elephants, elk and wolves at an angle they never have before.
The new train, which should be ready by Memorial Day weekend 2022, is just one of several big announcements the zoo is making on Thursday as it details its plans to celebrate its 50th birthday. Among the other big events the zoo has planned over the coming year: a display of giant glowing animal-shaped lanterns that will be set up in the starting in October, the opening of a big new leopard exhibit, and the addition of a new stingray and shark “touch tank” that will be set up at the zoo for five years.
Thursday also marks the opening of the zoo’s new entrance, 4,000 square-foot gift shop and two-story administration building — paid for out of the zoo’s $15.1 million 50th birthday capital campaign, which also paid for the leopard exhibit expansion. The new entry complex also features new ticket booths and an 80-foot expanse that gives the front of the zoo a park-like atmosphere.
The Sedgwick County Zoo, now an award-winning zoo with 115 developed acres that’s home to 3,000 animals, first opened on Aug. 25, 1971, and at the time, it was made up only of the American and Asian farms. The zoo steadily grew over the years, adding an entry building and charging admission starting in 1972.
Its 50th birthday celebration will be a year-long event, and plans are underway for a birthday bash this summer.
Here are more details on the big new additions planned to celebrate over the coming year:
Martha C. Buford Safari Express
Opening: Memorial day 2022
This new train, which is currently being built by Chance Rides in Wichita, is an electric CP Huntington train that will feature two locomotives, each with four cars that can carry 80 people. It’ll run on a 1.3-mile track around the outside of the zoo, and will have two loading and unloading stations — one near the front of the zoo by the giraffes and one by the Downing Gorilla Forest.
The train, which uses lithium ion batteries and is powered by wind and solar energy rather than by fuel, will require a separate ticket, and although the zoo hasn’t yet settled on the cost, it’ll likely be around $3, said Steven Onken, the zoo’s director of development. People will be able to ride the train to get from one part of the zoo to another or they can choose to ride the whole route to get a new view of the exhibits.
The train is being added thanks to a gift from the family of longtime zoo patron Martha C. Buford, who died last year. Buford, who once served on the zoo board for 20 years, was always concerned about the zoo’s finances, Onken said. Her family thought the gift in her name would be appropriate, he said, though they didn’t want to disclose the amount they donated.
“She loved the zoo. She loved the community. She was very business oriented,” Onken said. “And now this will be a gift she’s provided us that keeps on giving throughout the year.”
It’ll be painted in the zoo’s signature colors with its logos added, and it will replace the aging golf-cart tram which has been used for years to transport people around the zoo.
Slawson Family Asian Big Cat Trek
Opening: Oct. 1
This new exhibit is an expansion of the zoo’s current Tiger Trek, and it will result in an expanded habitat for the zoo’s leopards — among the last animals still living in cage-like spaces.
The new habitat will have room for tigers and leopards and will allow the zoo not only to give its Amur leopards a bigger home but also give it the ability to add snow leopards to its population. The exhibit, which will combine all Asian cats into one area, will be double the size of the previous Tiger Trek space, and it will become one of the largest exhibit areas at the zoo.
“We’re doing for leopards what we did for elephants,” Onken said. “We’re giving them the space that they need while keeping in mind the standards now for animal welfare that we know now that we didn’t know in the ’70s. This will allow for proper breeding space for both of these animals.”
Wild Lights Asian Lantern Festival
Opening: Oct. 1
The same day the cat exhibit reopens, the zoo will open this temporary traveling show, which will fill the zoo with larger-than-life, Chinese lantern sculptures that visitors will be able to see glowing at night.
The exhibit is hard to describe, said Jennica King, the zoo’s director of strategic communications, but it’s likely to be a pretty overwhelming experience for visitors. The creators of the show, who have set it up at zoos all over the world, will fill the grounds with dozens of massive, colorful lantern sculptures in the shapes of animals, trees, flowers and more.
Some of the sculptures are animated — a crocodile’s massive mouth opens and closes. Others are interactive: A giant wall of flowers changes colors when visitors step on a special pad.
The exhibit will be set up and open Wednesdays through Sunday evenings from Oct. 1 through Dec. 4. Tickets will cost $17 for adults, $15 for members and children. It’ll be free for ages 2 and under.
Stingray Cove
Opening April 2022
This exhibit, which will be at the zoo for five years, will be the zoo’s first “aquatic touch experience.” It’ll be set up under a pavilion in the zoo, which will add a little riverbed where stingrays and small sharks can swim around.
Visitors will be able to gently touch the animals under the supervision of a staff member. They can also buy cups of food and feed the animals.
Stingray Cove will also require an extra ticket.
Return of Zoobilee
Sept. 11
Like nearly everything else, Zoobilee — the zoo’s biggest annual fundraiser — was canceled in 2020. But it will return in a couple of months and feature food samples, adult beverages, live music and a live auction. Fun fact: Zoobilee day is the only day of the year that the zoo ever closes during non-COVID times.
Zoobilee will last from 6 p.m. to midnight on Sept. 11, and tickets will be are available Aug. 1 at scz.org/Zoobilee. They’ll be $140 a person until Sept. 1, then $165.
Return of Wild Encounters
Starting June 4
The zoo also had to put its interactive animal experiences with penguins, tortoises and more on hold during COVID-19. But starting on June 4, the zoo will relaunch its animal feeding opportunities and will add one: visitors will now be able to feed elephants.
This story was originally published May 27, 2021 at 5:01 AM.
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