Detroit Zoo sets attendance record

SANTIAGO ESPARZA
The Detroit News

Royal Oak -- The Detroit Zoo, buoyed by unseasonably warm weather last week, set an attendance record Friday and almost surpassed it Saturday.

The zoo hosted 15,658 visitors April 2, beating the previous high of 14,409 set on July 3 of last year, zoo officials said. On April 3, 15,477 people visited the zoo, officials said.

Zoo officials are excited about the attendance because voters in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties in 2008 approved a 0.1-mill tax to fund the zoo.

"In 2008, tri-county residents voted in favor of a millage to keep the zoo, allowing us to make continued improvements to facilities and guest service," said the zoo's executive director, Ron Kagan. "Now the community is voting with its feet by visiting in huge numbers."

The zoo ended its fiscal year March 31 with 1,285,063 visitors, a 13.4 percent increase over the previous fiscal year, zoo officials said. Zoo membership jumped 12 percent over the same period, zoo officials said. There are 56,724 households who paid to join the zoo.

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