'Something pretty special:' A look inside the next chapter for the Memphis Zoo
On Sept. 7, 2022, Memphis Zoo president and CEO Matt Thompson took his son to a Twenty One Pilots concert in Nashville for his 18th birthday. The two had floor tickets, and they were standing in front of the stage, waiting for the band to perform, when Thompson got a horrifying text ― there was a man in Memphis going on a shooting spree.
He didn’t know where the man was; rumors about his exact location were flying left and right. But Thompson knew his wife was at a gas station with his other children, and he knew he wanted to get back to Memphis. He felt totally helpless.
The next day, he met with his senior team, which understood the city was shaken to its core. The shooter, 19-year-old Ezekiel Kelly, had murdered three people, just days after the kidnapping and killing of St. Mary’s Episcopal School teacher Eliza Fletcher. As a staple attraction in Memphis, the zoo, they felt, should do something. To carry on as if nothing had happened seemed inappropriate.
So, on Sept. 9, two days after the shooting, the zoo held a free day, waving both the cost of parking and the cost of admission. The offer drew a large crowd; and as Thompson wandered around exhibits, listening to people describe what the zoo meant to them, he came to realize, on a deeper level, an important role it played in the community.
The zoo had prided itself on the quality of its animal care, its immersive exhibits, and the time and resources it had poured into conservation efforts on an international scale. But to many at the zoo that day, it represented more than that.
“It's a gathering place for family, friends, and people that come here to just have a good time and to relax, and think or not think,” Thompson said. “For the first time ever, it hit me ― to that extent ― that this is the role we played at our zoo… That day changed me.”
And Thompson has kept that day in mind as he and his team map out the zoo’s future.
When the zoo opened the Zambezi River Hippo Camp exhibit in 2016, it completed the execution of the long-term master plan it had put into action in the early 1990s with the introduction of Cat Country. Now, it’s putting the final touches on its next master plan. This is slated to be released in late 2023 or early 2024, at which point the zoo will reveal comprehensive details for sweeping new exhibits.
“If we’re going to remain a first-class, world-class zoo, then it’s very important that we keep moving, set the bar high, and keep the bar high,” Thompson said. “And that’s exactly what we’re doing with this master plan.”
Recently, The Commercial Appeal sat down with Thompson ― who started with the organization as a zookeeper in 1995 ― to get a sneak preview of that plan and talk about current challenges facing the zoo. Here are highlights from the conversation.
'Something pretty special'
In the mid-2000s, when the Memphis Zoo opened sprawling new exhibits like Northwest Passage and Teton Trek, Thompson often heard people compliment the new enclosures while asking about another animal's home.
“This is awesome,” they’d say. “But what about the hippos?”
It wasn’t an unreasonable question. At the time, the dated hippo exhibit looked more or less like an old swimming pool. As Thompson said, it was “a relic from the past.”
The hippos ultimately ended up with a pretty sweet deal, serving as the headliners for Zambezi River Hippo Camp, which also boasts Nile crocodiles, okapis, flamingos, and mandrills.
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But now, there’s another large African mammal that could use a new space: the elephants.
If you’ve seen the elephant exhibit, then you know it’s significantly larger than the former hippo exhibit. But it was still built in 1968, and a much larger new home for the elephants is a priority in the zoo’s upcoming master plan.
The entire African Veldt section ― which features not just elephants but giraffes, white rhinos, zebras, and other hoof stock ― is expected to be overhauled, expanded, and renamed, with elephants at the heart of the project.
The completed section would span roughly 12 acres of space already owned by the zoo and include not just homes for the African Veldt’s current animals, but potential new species as well. For example, spotted hyenas are being considered.
The majority of the redone space, however, would be dedicated to the elephants, and in addition to animals, it’s poised to boast a large African lodge with a restaurant.
“You’re sitting out eating lunch on a deck with a panoramic view of elephants and giraffes,” Thompson said. “I think we’re coming up with something pretty special.”
Immersive Exhibits
The African Veldt also isn’t expected to be the only major component of the next master plan.
When the zoo’s aquarium first opened over 60 years ago, it was all the rage, and according to Thompson, the largest inland aquarium in the United States.
“It was kind of a big deal at the time, which is hard to believe,” he said.
There aren’t all that many people fawning over the zoo’s aquarium these days, and one could question whether it still deserves placement in the zoo’s frontal signage, which says “Memphis Zoo and Aquarium.”
But in the new master plan, there is expected to be an exhibit that would potentially serve as a replacement for the aquarium, as well as another older exhibit, the birdhouse, located in a facility that dates back to the 1930s.
“We are looking at replacing the tropical birdhouse and aquarium with a state-of-the-art, immersive exhibit that would anchor the west end of the zoo,” Thompson said.
Ensuring the new exhibits are immersive and engaging is a priority for the zoo, just as it’s been a priority with recent exhibits. In his interview with The CA, Thompson used the word immersive nine times.
“One of the reasons that we do the immersive exhibits, is because you can come to the Memphis Zoo and be transported to China or Africa, or the Pacific Northwest, or the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone,” he said. “Not everyone can afford to travel to those places. So, to be able to come here on a field trip, or come with your family, and see all those places in a day, is important to us.”
Exhibits with an immersive, interactive feel can also strengthen the zoo’s conservation mission, and help guests legitimately learn about the animals. People might not read about a species online. But they’re likely to read a sign about one right in front of them or listen to a zookeeper talk about it.
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“That’s what immersive exhibits do ― they set you up to learn, even though you don’t even know it,” Thompson said.
However interactive the zoo’s new marquee exhibits might be, guests shouldn’t expect to visit them in the immediate future. The estimated combined cost for the two projects is around $150 million, and the zoo is hoping to cover most of this through private donations. That’s a lot of money to raise, so just the start of construction is likely at least a few years away.
And the zoo is gearing up to release its master plan after a challenging fiscal year.
The cost of doing business ― and lettuce
After initially being battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, the zoo surged back in a major way. But in its latest fiscal year, which recently ended, it saw its attendance number decrease.
Typically, the zoo sees more than a million visitors annually. This past fiscal year, however, the number dipped below a million. Thompson theorized the decrease was in part related to the economy, but he also believed weather was a major factor.
The summer, he noted, was “crazy hot.” And the weekends it offered Zoo Lights ― a signature seasonal attraction ― as well as the primary spring break week, were cold and rainy.
Spring break is usually important, too, providing the zoo with a major jolt after a slow January and February.
“Spring break hits and it's like, woosh; we literally go from zero to 60,” Thompson said. “Unfortunately for both Zoo Lights and spring break, it was cold and rainy… Those two things hurt us as far as attendance goes. It does really kind of prove the point how weather-driven we are. Weather can truly mean a great year, a mediocre year, a terrible year, depending upon how things fall.”
And while weather at times kept people at home, operational costs, like the cost of animal food, have risen.
Just take the ballooned price of romaine lettuce as an example. In December, the publication Bon Appétit ran a story titled, “It’s Not Just You, Lettuce Really Is More Expensive Than Ever.” And when you’re a zoo using high-grade lettuce by the crateful to feed an array of large herbivores, that price jump can have a discernable impact.
The price of labor has increased too, and between the rising operational costs and slightly lower attendance numbers, the zoo finished in the red in its latest fiscal year. Recently, to mitigate impacts, it laid off part-time exhibit guide staffers, while retaining the overall exhibit guide program.
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“Our expenses were too high… We had to cut expenses somewhere, and unfortunately, that was that was what we had to do,” he said. “We are a not-for-profit, and we have to make what we spend and spend what we make. It's important to break even at the end of the year.”
'A very political thing'
As the zoo navigates headwinds, it's also looking to see if it will receive more giant pandas from China.
Le Le, one of the zoo's pandas, passed away in February at the age of 24, and Ya Ya, its other, was sent back to China in the spring when the zoo's loan agreement expired.
Whether the zoo reaches a new agreement remains to be seen. Thompson asserted that Le Le and Ya Ya received unbelievable, world-class care, and maintained that the zoo still has a great relationship with the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens.
But when it comes to panda diplomacy, there are politics at play, and right now, relations between the United States and China aren't exactly chummy. The fraught geopolitical climate makes securing another agreement more difficult, and he doesn't know whether the local zoo ― or any American zoo for that matter ― will get more pandas. The only remaining zoos with pandas are the National Zoo and Zoo Atlanta. The National Zoo is poised to return its pandas to China in December, while Zoo Atlanta is expected to return theirs next year when loan agreements expire.
"It's a very political thing with pandas, so we don't know the future there," Thompson said. "Not only do I not know the future of pandas at the Memphis Zoo; I don't know the future of pandas in the U.S."
'The next level'
With another panda loan in question, the zoo has moved red pandas into the enclosure Le Le and Ya Ya once held, and it's planning to add another species to the China exhibit as well.
And whether it receives new pandas or not, Thompson remains excited about the zoo's future.
The lower attendance number last fiscal year, he believes, was just part of “the normal cycle of things,” and he’s confident the zoo will remain a gathering place for community members, just as it was on Sept. 9 last year.
He’s also looking forward to the unveiling of the new master plan.
“I think people are going to be super excited,” he said. “Generations of people have now grown up with these exhibits that we're talking about. So, to see them redone to modern standards and themed very heavily, I think it's going to take our zoo to even the next level.”
John Klyce covers education and children's issues for The Commercial Appeal. You can reach him at John.klyce@commercialappeal.com
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Take a look inside at Memphis Zoo's future
