A flurry of activity in the northwest corner of the Hattiesburg Zoo is preceding the arrival of the highly-anticipated giraffe exhibit at the intersection of Hardy Street and South 17th Avenue.
With dirt work done, pads poured and columns erected, the exhibit should be ready to welcome the new long-necked visitors hopefully no later than the fall of 2020.
“Everything is very much on schedule,” said Rick Taylor, executive director of the Hattiesburg Convention Commission, which runs the zoo. “We’re moving some of the framing, some of the steel columns that will hold the buildings up. Everything is going on target so far.”
Although it’s commonly referred to as simply “the giraffe exhibit” because of its obvious main attraction, the $800,000 exhibit will host much more than those animals. What zoo officials refer to as the “Northwest Quadrant” will develop all the un-utilized land on the east side of Gordon’s Creek, with an additional concession stand, a giraffe feeding station, a plaza overlooking the lake and an event/education pavilion with a capacity for 400 individuals.
Nearby will be a new hyena exhibit, as well as additional bathrooms. Two areas that are currently blocked off to the east and west – just past the Asbury Discovery Center and shortly before the Africa section of the zoo – will be made public, providing access to the Northwest Quadrant.
Construction, which is being done by B W Sullivan Building Contractor of Hattiesburg, is expected to finish in early summer of 2019, but zoo officials will still have a little work ahead of them afterwards.
“We’ll have to get in after they get out, and we’ve got to rig that barn that they’re building for taking care of the giraffes,” Taylor said. “And we’ll have to obviously install a kitchen in the concession stand, so we’re thinking it’s going to be fall to winter of next year before we will begin to see some use of it.
“There is some possibility that, if that is how we land, we may hold off on opening that until the following spring, just because winters are kind of a dreary and wet time and there’s not a lot of activity. But we’re going to look at that and see.”
Initial plans are to start with two or three giraffes, with capacity for up to six.
“We’re trying for three, but knowing the way giraffes are in the zoo world, we may start with two and have to keep adding as we can find them,” Taylor said. “Obviously, we’re going to look as best we can for surplus giraffes that are held in zoos that (another) zoo can’t accommodate from a space requirement.
“Of course, with all that is the timing of it – a giraffe’s going to give birth when they decide to give birth, not so much in a way that we can guarantee a lineup of what we’ve got going and when we want to open. So that’s a big part of the challenge along the way too, is getting the timing together for all the different elements that are going to be required.”
