Decaying zoo needs millions

Officials at the Asheboro attraction are asking the state for money for needed repairs and improvements

ASHEBORO -- Beneath one of its most popular tourist attractions, the state of North Carolina keeps a dungeon.

In the tunnels under the African Pavilion at the N.C. Zoo, water streams down interior walls and through electrical boxes. Cables that open and close metal cages rust and snap. In the winter, heat lamps are needed to keep the tortoises warm in their night quarters. In the summer, fans hum -- unless the electricity goes out.

Twenty-four years after it was built, the African Pavilion -- one of the zoo's original gems -- has become a symbol of the decay creeping throughout the park. Officials say the zoo needs $10 million to repair and expand the polar bear exhibit, update the children's center and pay for design work on a cluster of buildings that would replace the African Pavilion. If the state provides $6 million, the park's private fundraising arm, the N.C. Zoological Society, has promised the other $4 million.

In the next few years, the zoo will need an estimated $30 million to build the pavilion's replacement and millions more for infrastructure repairs and upgrades.

Whether that money comes through or not, the African Pavilion will be emptied of animals by the end of 2009, for their safety and that of their keepers. Half the pavilion's collection already has been moved to other zoos or has died and not been replaced.

"You can't buy a house and imagine that 30 years later it's going to be like it was," said David Jones, the zoo's director. "But it's not very attractive to spend money for maintenance on what you already have."

When the Senate approved its budget last week, it included $2.7 million for the polar bears.

When the House-Senate panel negotiates the final budget, it could reinstate $600,000 for design of the African Pavilion's replacement.

Jones said such shortfalls make it hard for the park to make long-range plans that will help the zoo remain among top facilities in the world.

Historically, Jones said, the park has had two problems getting enough state money to keep up the buildings and exhibits: It's in Asheboro, 75 miles from Raleigh, out of sight and mind of many lawmakers. And old-timers in the legislature remember hearing that the zoo's early supporters promised in the 1960s -- before it was built -- that the facility would support itself.

"If you give us a million dollars," Sen. Tony Rand, the Senate majority leader, said legislators were told, "we won't ever ask you for any more money."

Most of the 750,000 visitors expected at the zoo this year won't notice the problems that keep Johnny McDonald, plant maintenance supervisor, hopping.

Shrinking Africa

The two continents that make up the N.C. Zoo -- Africa, opened in 1979, and North America, in 1994 -- were built in stages, using different designers, technologies, materials and contractors, all working at the lowest bid. Buildings that house animals get constant use and are subjected to huge amounts of water for the animals, and for keepers to clean the habitats and sustain the foliage that makes the settings look natural.

When it was built, the African Pavilion, with its signature three-peaked tented roof, was state of the art, said Robyn Rousseau, a keeper who has worked in the building for 16 years. Three years ago, 90 animals lived in the pavilion.

The population has dwindled to about 42. Where Colobus monkeys used to climb a giant fake tree, there is a staghorn fern exhibit. At other vacated habitats, visitors simply find signs that read "EXHIBIT CLOSED."

Today, Rousseau said, this kind of space would be designed differently. Exhibits would be divided into separate areas; they would be air-conditioned for the benefit of the animals and visitors. Most of the animals would get more room and, when off exhibit, would be kept aboveground with access to natural light and, when possible, the outdoors.