Spring has sprung and we are preparing to meet the pent-up demand for family fun, awesome outings, amazing animal encounters, inspiring educational experiences and important occasions at one of your favorite places, CNY's nationally accredited zoo.

Friends of the Zoo is extremely excited to help our zoo regain its footing on the road to recovery. But the reality is, we could use a hand!

When COVID closed the zoo for 10 weeks last year, it was the first time we had closed for more than three days in a row and was the longest we had gone without visitors in decades.

The animals noticed. The closure turned out to be an unexpected experiment in how zoo visitors affect our residents, and it proved the animals get just as much enrichment from seeing visitors as visitors get from seeing them.

But that was the only difference the animals saw. Their daily schedules didn't change; their caregivers continued to come to work and, if anything, spent more time here ensuring that every animal and everything involved in their care, feeding and comfort remained in place throughout the lockdown.

Since reopening, we have happily watched the animals perk up and engage with visitors again. We are as overjoyed as they are! But we still need to catch up from 2020's huge loss in revenue. Our 2 ½-month closure was followed by the loss of our usually crowded summer season, whose visitors, concession sales and events bring in the bulk of the revenue needed to maintain the zoo the rest of the year.

The zoo never stops providing the highest quality of daily care for over 700 animals representing 216 species. Our animal care team continues to feed, train, examine, enrich and provide health care for every animal whether we can welcome thousands of guests or none at all.

If you were to SPRING for just one item food here's how it would help close the gap.

*$25 would provide live crickets for our reptiles, amphibians and birds for one day!

*$50 would provide 10 bales of hay for one day of feeding our elephants.

*$100 would buy fruits and vegetables for our residents for one day.

*$250 would pay for sustainably sourced fish for our Humboldt penguin colony for one day.

*$400 would allow us to purchase a two-week supply of Flamingo Pellets for our beautiful Chilean flamingos.

*$500 would buy a week's supply of specialized meat for our tigers and leopards.

Please take a moment to spring into action and make a donation today. We are proud of the zoo's animal care, conservation and education missions. With your help, we can renew your zoo.

Thank you for your enduring support. We could not do what we do without you! Happy spring and see you at the zoo!

Carrie Large

Executive Director

Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo