Dickerson Park Zoo Attendance Tops 226,000 Visitors
Over 226,000 visitors walked into the Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield last year.
The number ranks as the second highest annual attendance for the zoo.
Leaders say more people are coming to the zoo, in part because of added attractions.
They include areas known as 'Tropical Asia', 'Africa', 'Missouri Habitats' and the popular giraffe feeding deck.
Those were made possible by taxpayers.
From a press release...
Springfield, Mo. – The year-end attendance numbers are in for Dickerson Park Zoo, and total attendance for 2012 was 226,009*. 2012 ranks as the second highest annual attendance in the zoo’s recorded history (dating back to April 1975). When comparing only daytime attendance figures, 2012 brought the highest daytime attendance to the zoo in its history.
The series of years with attendance surpassing 200,000 began in 2004 when Dickerson Park Zoo opened a major expansion funded by the voter-approved quarter-cent sales tax for Greene County Parks. The expansion included the popular elevated giraffe viewing/feeding deck; “Tropical Asia” with Asian elephants, tigers and primates; the addition of gray wolves and mountain lions to “Missouri Habitats”; and a primate exhibit in “Africa,” currently home to black and white colobus monkeys.
*Annual zoo attendance is calculated by combining daytime guests and attendance at three evening events – the Simmons First Halloween SPOOKTACULAR, the annual Friends of the Zoo Members Night picnic and Dreamnight at the Zoo.
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