Zoo-Wise, It's An Economic Jungle Out There -- Spokane Animal Park Seeks Rebound From Dismal Year

SPOKANE - Officials of Walk in the Wild zoo are hoping the change in the weather brings a change in fortunes.

The zoo is trying to rebound from a dismal 1992, when attendance dropped 37 percent and income fell 20 percent below predictions. Walk in the Wild was plagued by animal deaths and thefts, a necessarily restrictive budget and some of the heaviest snowfall on record.

LEAN PAYDAYS

Small wonder that the zoo nearly failed to make payroll twice, even after the work force was cut from 12 people to 10.

The 30 members of the Inland Empire Zoological Society who attended the group's annual meeting this month found there was only one copy of the past year's minutes.

"We're sparing every cost we can," president Tom Kingen explained.

Ticket sales dropped from 109,000 in 1991 to 69,000 last year. Much of that was due to a change in policy under which the zoo added no animals until it had suitable quarters for them. While former director Jack Hebner's policy of adding animals was good for summer attendance, it forced the zoo to borrow to feed the animals in the wintertime.

NEW POLICY

After Jim Bousquet was hired to replace Hebner last May, he refused to accept animals until their exhibits were ready. Tropical monkeys were returned to their owner and two badgers were released in the wild.

"I think we all realize that without some kind of changing exhibit, attendance will stagnate," Kingen said.

Zoo officials said earlier this year that Walk in the Wild was $90,000 in debt. Kingen declined to disclose how much of that remained, but said, "Our creditors have been pretty good to us."

Some work was done in 1992. A larger and more secure pen for elk and moose was completed. The entire zoo was enclosed in a chain-link fence and a night guard was hired after three monkeys and a snake were stolen last summer.

JURASSIC AMBITIONS

A robotic dinosaur exhibit was expected to draw about 50,000 visitors over the winter, but the first storm of one of the snowiest winters on record hit a week after the exhibit opened. It closed the zoo for three days amid Christmas vacation.

The exhibit closed last Sunday. As of March 1, ticket sales for the dinosaurs were 17,300.

In January, responding to a letter warning of imminent layoffs, zoo supporters donated about $5,000 - enough to cover one payday. Only an unexpectedly well-attended weekend saved the mid-March payday a week ago.

Kingen is hoping for better this year.

A robotic exhibit of woolly mammoths and other Ice Age creatures opens April 1. Muddy paths are being paved. Plans are being made for an $8,000 children's learning center to replace the temporary displays now contained in two donated mobile homes. Still pending is reconstruction of the birds-of-prey exhibit to comply with state standards.

A COOL $15 MILLION

Over the long haul, a consultant's report in 1991 said, $15 million will be needed to make Walk in the Wild into a first-class zoo.

That kind of money would require public ownership and a bond issue. Although voters rejected multimillion-dollar proposals in 1978 and 1980, zoo officials soon will propose an arrangement for county ownership with private management.

"The county doesn't want to get into zoo management," Kingen says. "They don't want to own animals, and I don't blame them."