Groundbreaking ceremonies for the new arctic exhibit at the Buffalo Zoo Wednesday morning were anything but polar.
Inside, a celebration was under way as public officials, board members and zoo staff gathered to mark a milestone for the third oldest zoo in the country: successful completion of a $14 million fundraising campaign to build a new exhibit called Arctic Edge.
The new arctic center will feature interactive displays on the effects of global warming and ways to help prevent it.
But Buffalo deserved every degree of the warmer temperatures that brought families to the zoo in droves Wednesday. Lines were forming at by 10 a.m. the entrance, with mothers and fathers pushing strollers and leading toddlers by the mittened hands.
Kristen Armstrong of Allentown brought her children Milo, 5, and Bennett, 16 months, to visit the animals.
“It’s not negative 2. It’s not snowing, and it’s sunny,” the young mother replied when asked what brought the family to the zoo.
Zoo president Donna Fernandes wore a smile brighter than the sun.
“County Executive Poloncarz and the members of the county legislature were among the very earliest supporters of Arctic Edge,” she Fernandes.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz acknowledged the county’s contribution of “the first $3 million.” He also praised members of the community for their involvement, but he stressed the real fundraising leaders were Luna and Kali, the polar cubs who became the campaign’s poster bears.
Kali, who will remain in Buffalo until at least spring 2015, was orphaned at 2 months of age in northwest Alaska after his mother was killed by a hunter who said he didn’t realize she was nursing.
Luna was born at the zoo in November 2012, one of three polar bear cubs born in a zoo that year.
Throughout 2013, the “bear fund” was built:
-- The City of Buffalo came forward with $550,000 in zoo funding and then topped it this year with $650,000.
-- State Sen. Mark Grisanti in July announced a $400,000 donation from Albany. The chairman of the State Senate’s Environmental Conservation Committee said he obtained the money for capital improvements set aside for municipalities.
-- In October, Assemblyman Sean Ryan matched it with state money.
-- In November, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced the state will provide the final $750,000 in funding from the NY Works program.
“As the most visited tourist destination in Erie County, the Buffalo Zoo is a major asset in our efforts to boost tourism in upstate New York," the governor said in a statement. The 1.5-acre exhibit will include arctic wolves, Canadian lynx, American bald eagles - and polar bears. It will cover the area previously occupied by the former polar bear pits, which were originally built in the 1890s and renovated in the 1930s.
The zoo worked with a team of architects from Foit-Albert Associates of Buffalo, and Pat Jankowski Architects & Landscape Architects of Seattle to design the exhibit.
Karie Jackson pushed a stroller carrying five-month-old Octavius, who almost disappeared in his bright orange snowsuit. Big sister Amira at two-and-a-half-years walked with her mother.
“This happened last year, too,” Jackson said. “The first nice day and we have to get out of the house.”
Even the crocuses made an appearance in the sun with temperatures that topped 45 degrees. Their yellow buds broke through the earth to greet visitors at the Parkside Avenue entrance.
The southerly flow of warmer air mixed with partly sunny skies should last until Thursday afternoon, said Aaron Reynolds, meteorologist for the National Weather Service. For Thursday into Friday expect up to one inch of precipitation when rain and maybe some thunderstorms cross the region. Temperatures will fall through Friday and Saturday, when a high in the mid-30s is forecast, said Reynolds. By Sunday temperatures will be in the mid-20s with a 30 percent chance of snow.
email jkwiatkowski@buffnews.com
Inside, a celebration was under way as public officials, board members and zoo staff gathered to mark a milestone for the third oldest zoo in the country: successful completion of a $14 million fundraising campaign to build a new exhibit called Arctic Edge.
The new arctic center will feature interactive displays on the effects of global warming and ways to help prevent it.
But Buffalo deserved every degree of the warmer temperatures that brought families to the zoo in droves Wednesday. Lines were forming at by 10 a.m. the entrance, with mothers and fathers pushing strollers and leading toddlers by the mittened hands.
Kristen Armstrong of Allentown brought her children Milo, 5, and Bennett, 16 months, to visit the animals.
“It’s not negative 2. It’s not snowing, and it’s sunny,” the young mother replied when asked what brought the family to the zoo.
Zoo president Donna Fernandes wore a smile brighter than the sun.
“County Executive Poloncarz and the members of the county legislature were among the very earliest supporters of Arctic Edge,” she Fernandes.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz acknowledged the county’s contribution of “the first $3 million.” He also praised members of the community for their involvement, but he stressed the real fundraising leaders were Luna and Kali, the polar cubs who became the campaign’s poster bears.
Kali, who will remain in Buffalo until at least spring 2015, was orphaned at 2 months of age in northwest Alaska after his mother was killed by a hunter who said he didn’t realize she was nursing.
Luna was born at the zoo in November 2012, one of three polar bear cubs born in a zoo that year.
Throughout 2013, the “bear fund” was built:
-- The City of Buffalo came forward with $550,000 in zoo funding and then topped it this year with $650,000.
-- State Sen. Mark Grisanti in July announced a $400,000 donation from Albany. The chairman of the State Senate’s Environmental Conservation Committee said he obtained the money for capital improvements set aside for municipalities.
-- In October, Assemblyman Sean Ryan matched it with state money.
-- In November, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced the state will provide the final $750,000 in funding from the NY Works program.
“As the most visited tourist destination in Erie County, the Buffalo Zoo is a major asset in our efforts to boost tourism in upstate New York," the governor said in a statement. The 1.5-acre exhibit will include arctic wolves, Canadian lynx, American bald eagles - and polar bears. It will cover the area previously occupied by the former polar bear pits, which were originally built in the 1890s and renovated in the 1930s.
The zoo worked with a team of architects from Foit-Albert Associates of Buffalo, and Pat Jankowski Architects & Landscape Architects of Seattle to design the exhibit.
Karie Jackson pushed a stroller carrying five-month-old Octavius, who almost disappeared in his bright orange snowsuit. Big sister Amira at two-and-a-half-years walked with her mother.
“This happened last year, too,” Jackson said. “The first nice day and we have to get out of the house.”
Even the crocuses made an appearance in the sun with temperatures that topped 45 degrees. Their yellow buds broke through the earth to greet visitors at the Parkside Avenue entrance.
The southerly flow of warmer air mixed with partly sunny skies should last until Thursday afternoon, said Aaron Reynolds, meteorologist for the National Weather Service. For Thursday into Friday expect up to one inch of precipitation when rain and maybe some thunderstorms cross the region. Temperatures will fall through Friday and Saturday, when a high in the mid-30s is forecast, said Reynolds. By Sunday temperatures will be in the mid-20s with a 30 percent chance of snow.
email jkwiatkowski@buffnews.com