Zoo gearing up for big birthday bash

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The stage is set for a grand celebration at the Rio Grande Zoo to mark its 85th birthday on Sunday.

There will be games, music, promotions and of course cake.

BioPark staff told KRQE News 13 everyone will be included in the bash.

“We’re going to have presents in the exhibits with the animals,” said BioPark Education Curator Kathryn Venzor.

The zoo has come a long way since its early days.

The doors opened at Albuquerque’s first real zoo in 1927, but back then the facilities and the animals were far less exotic.

“The first residents that we had in the zoo in 1927 when we first opened we had two bears, porcupine, two mountain lions, a snake,” Venzor said.

Today there are more than 200 species that call the zoo home.

The title of oldest resident belongs to an Aldabra Tortoise he arrived at the zoo as an adult male back in 1967.

The 600 pound tortoise is more than 100 years old.

Anna Mulkey is one of the volunteers who has been at the zoo the longest, 32 years and counting.

“I’m not going to retire until I can’t move again or can’t move anymore,” Mulkey said.

It is that kind of dedication by not only volunteers but donors, staff and animal caretakers that have made the zoo into the top tourist attraction in the state.

“The BioPark, we actually broke our record with visitors in 2011,” said Venzor.  "We had over 1.3 million visitors."

While a lot of things have changed since 1927, mostly for the better, the vision and goal of the Rio Grande Zoo has not wavered.

“We are always looking at ways to enrich the lives of the animals here but also to help our visitors better experience the animals that we have on exhibit so they can learn more about them,” Venzor said.
The next big exhibit planned for the zoo is a penguin exhibit but that is still a few years away, she added.

In the more immediate future people will be able to once again visit the reptile house which will reopen after renovations just in time for the celebration this weekend.

Another coming attraction will be the amphibian exhibit which will open in August.

The big bash is Sunday, but the zoo will be running lots of promotions and contests until Labor Day including free admission for anyone born in 1927.

For more information check out: http://www.cabq.gov/biopark/zoo/