Habitat design is underway at the Akron Zoo, as plans to bring giraffes — along with wildebeests and ostriches — mark its next big expansion.
The new animals are slated to arrive in 2028. When they do, the giraffes will displace Jackson — a grizzly bear that tops out at 750 pounds — as the zoo’s largest animal. Giraffes weigh between 1,800 and 2,500 pounds, said Elena Bell, an Akron Zoo spokesperson.
Bell said she doesn’t know how many giraffes will move to Akron’s Sherbondy Hill neighborhood, but there will be more than one. The animal was selected following a community survey in a process that began in 2019.
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More details about the giraffe habitat will be available in the coming months, Bell said, but she said the $30 million area will be constructed in a previously undeveloped part of the zoo, behind the Pride of Africa exhibit, which opened in 2019. The proposal has been sent to City Council for a conditional use permit that shows part of the zoo’s intentions.
The plan for the giraffe area has been scaled back and will no longer include a small animal exhibit or a children’s play area because of budgetary concerns, Bell said. She said it would still have a family-friendly ride, a merchandise area and bathrooms, but concessions there would be for events, not everyday guests.
Viewing and animal-feeding areas remain part of the plan.
“I expect a lot of really excited guests,” Bell said of the giraffes’ eventual arrival.
Animal hospital remains underway
The zoo is also in the midst of building a new animal hospital, the Tom and Shelley Koutnik Animal Hospital, to help it handle its expanding number of animals. When the Roger J. Sherman Center for Animal Care opened in 1995, Bell said, the Akron Zoo had a few hundred animals. Now, it has more than 2,000.
The hospital, which is expected to open this summer but could be pushed back due to weather delays, will have more space, including specialized areas for birds and other types of animals, and a state-of-the-art surgery suite, Bell said.
Akron Documenter Carol Sparkman first discovered the news about the Akron Zoo adding giraffes at the Dec. 9, 2024 Summit County Council meeting.
She said the zoo tries to do a large expansion every decade or so — the last was Pride of Africa and Wild Asia, which opened in 2021.
“It really does take quite a long time to plan these large expansions,” she said.
Bell said by adding capacity, the new hospital will help to continue to make that possible. The existing hospital will be used as flexible space.
The giraffes will share their habitat with the ostriches and wildebeests. Bell said that, for guests, it will mimic how they might see the animals in the wild in Kenya.