By Blake Haas
BLOOMINGTON – Thanks to a state grant, Miller Park Zoo is opening a new monkey exhibit at a tune of a little over $600,000.
The new exhibit, built between the Flamingos and the Carousel, houses a male and female DeBrazza monkey and a Red-flanked Duiker (small antelope).
“It has a glass front, for viewing, but it also has a couple of other different viewing areas, so you’ll be able to get a good look at either the Duiker or the Monkey’s pretty much all the time, so it’s a netted exhibit,” said Miller Park Zoo Superintendent Jay Tetzloff.
“We’ve got some grass grow(ing), we’ve got some tall grasses for some landscaping; lots of tree branches and ropes for the monkeys to travel across the exhibit. (We also) have some hollow logs for the Duiker’s to hide in and actually for the monkeys to hide in too, as we have found out over the last couple of weeks.”
Tetzloff said most of the funds came from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Public Museum Capital Grant.
“This exhibit took about a year to complete from that COVID certainly had its hand in it. We have four projects going on right now that are really exciting; our guests are going to love it, the staff love it; it just shows the Zoo is moving forward and providing better animal care and guest experiences than we’ve had previously.”
The project was part of a 2014 state grant that awarded the Zoo $700,000, with $100,000 going towards the final stages of the parking lot project.
Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].
