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Vilas Zoo to open new ‘Arctic’ exhibit

Madison residents and students can look forward to a new exhibit at the Henry Vilas Zoo in 2007 called the “Arctic Passage,” built in hopes of immersing visitors in the natural habitat of polar bears and increasing the zoo’s educational value in the community.

“From our perspective this is not just an exhibit — all renovations will preserve the tradition of the zoo as a community asset,” Mark Schemmel, executive director of the Zoological Society, said. “The zoo is an incredible opportunity and an amazing educational experience.”

Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, along with the Oscar Rennebohm Foundation, Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and the Zoological Society, gathered Friday to announce the kick-off of a large-scale fundraising campaign, called the “Century Campaign.”

The Zoological Society hopes to raise $27 million over the next 10 years, $8 million of which will go to a new Children’s Zoo and the “Arctic Passage.”

“We are very proud to be the original leadership in the fundraising of this exhibition,” Schemming said.

In addition to the Rennebohm Foundation’s donation of $2 million, other contributors include the City of Madison, the Swiss Colony foundation and Dane County, with the largest donation of $4.5 million, according to Cieslewicz spokesperson George Twigg.

“The Vilas Zoo is one of those things that made Madison a fun place to live,” Twigg said. “It’s a great community asset and one we’re going to make even better by building this new polar bear exhibit.”

The new exhibit, which costs $9 million, will allow visitors to experience the natural habitat of polar bears and will feature polar bears, caribou, snow owls and cranes. It will also feature a weather station that will be used to teach visitors about the global weather patterns of the arctic. Twigg said he believes the bears will be more than comfortable in the new exhibit.

“The exhibit gives the bears much more room to enjoy themselves and gives them a natural habitat,” Twigg said.

The new Children’s Zoo will include year-round animal exhibits, a walk-through barn and interactive play structures, including a “Swiss Family Robinson Tree House,” all of which will cost approximately $6 million.

The plan for these improvements has been in the making for about two years, according to Associate Director of the Zoological Society Amy Lensing.

While families and children are expected to make up most of the visitors to the Children’s Museum, the “Arctic Passage” is expected to attract people of all ages and from all over Madison, including University of Wisconsin students, just as the museum itself has in the past, according to Lensing.

“It’s really a cross section of people,” Lensing said. “We don’t really track people but we definitely see a lot of students because it’s so close to campus.”

The fundraising campaign for both the polar bear exhibit and Children’s Zoo represent the next phase of more than a decade of improvements to the Henry Vilas Zoo. Past improvements have included the Big Cats exhibit, the Tropical Rainforest Aviary and the Discovery Center.