OTTERS, EAGLES, SALMON...OH MY! NEW ANIMALS COMING TO THE SEQUOIA PARK ZOO

 EUREKA, CA- New animals are coming to the Sequoia Park Zoo and with that some new building construction. They’ve secured $2.3 million dollars from the state to kickoff their ‘Watershed Hero’s Project’.
It’s showcasing 3 new animals that are found right here in our local watersheds.
 
Otters, eagles, and salmon oh my. These are just some of the new animals that will be coming to the Sequoia Park Zoo. Zoo Manager Gretchen Ziegler said, "It’s very exciting to get some new popular animals. We never had salmon before, we never had bald eagles, so it will be a new thing for us and the community."
 
But they have had otters before. The old river otter habitat is now home to the porcupines. Ziegler added, "Our master plan always called for a new river water exhibit. We used to have them in the past. They tell a great story and they were very popular."
 
How it’s going to work is they are going to redo the entire entrance to the zoo. They will be knocking down the building that houses the owls and ravens and build a two-story classroom and exhibit. Ziegler added, "As you walk into the zoo to the left will be our otter viewing and otter habitat. It will be much much bigger and more dynamic than our old one used to be."
 
And more interactive, they hope to have an acrylic tube that kids can crawl through with otters swimming around them. Ziegler said, "It will give you the metaphorical impression of walking through the stream. And at the end of that you will come up and see the bald eagles in the trees."
 
The Sequoia Park Zoo may not have tigers or zebras but Ziegler says that’s what makes them unique. Ziegler added, "A lot of people will always say we wish you had elephants and giraffes and lions. We recognize that we are not a big enough zoo to have some of those common animals. But we can bring in the smaller species that do well in our climate."
 
Zoo officials hope to start construction in July and if all goes according to plan the new exhibits could be open by spring 2014.