It all started in 1926 with an abandoned timber wolf and a brown bear that had performed in a circus. The Little Rock Zoo has come a long way since those humble beginnings three years before the start of the Great Depression.
Later in the 1920s, the Arkansas Democrat began a campaign to raise money for the zoo. With those funds, three buffalo were purchased. Little Rock residents donated small animals. Several deer were given to the zoo, and zoo officials used additional contributions to purchase a lion.
"In 1928, the city hired a carnival, and the zoo received the proceeds of its shows," Conor Hennelly writes for the Central Arkansas Library System's Encyclopedia of Arkansas. "The money, about $4,000, was used to help buy animals from other zoos. At that time, the zoo had about three dozen animals, including two alligators. By 1930, the value of animals and buildings in which they were housed was more than $50,000. In 1936, the value was $118,729.
"Attendance climbed from 158,437 in 1947 to 235,817 in 1953. During this period, two lions and two tigers were added. Some animals brought new visitors to the zoo."
Among those attractions was Big Arkie, a 13-foot alligator caught in the swamps of southwest Arkansas in 1952. Almost 3,000 people came to see him on his first day at the Little Rock Zoo, and he remained an attraction for the next 18 years.
Like many of those who grew up in Arkansas, I was a regular visitor as a boy. Even though we lived an hour away, we often would make the zoo one of our stops on trips to Little Rock.
Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott has made zoo improvements part of his plan to revitalize the state's largest city. Additional money for the zoo would come from a sales-tax increase Scott has proposed. Even though I've not been to the zoo much since my sons were young (they're 28 and 24 now), I'm with the mayor on this one.
For Arkansas to achieve its potential, its capital city needs to thrive. And for that to happen, Little Rock must be a place where people come from all over the state to eat out, shop, attend sports events, go to concerts and spend long weekends.
The $70.5 million renovation of the Robinson Center Music Hall, which closed in July 2014 and reopened in November 2016, was a huge step toward ensuring that Little Rock remains a statewide draw. So is the ongoing $142 million transformation of the former Arkansas Arts Center, now known as the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts.
I'm in the office of director Susan Altrui as she makes the case that the zoo deserves a similar investment. After being closed for several months at the onset of the pandemic, the zoo reopened in June 2020.
"People were looking for something to do outside," Altrui says. "Our numbers went above pre-pandemic levels when we reopened last June, and they have stayed high. At one point, we ran out of almost everything in the gift shop and had to drive to Dallas to a wholesaler named Plush in a Rush in order to pick up things to sell.
"People saved money, and now they're looking to spend it. We'll meet our annual revenue goals for the gift shop in the first half of the year."
Altrui has worked at the zoo for 16 years and been director the past four years. She says parents were looking for ways to get "kids' faces out of electronic devices" during the pandemic.
The zoo has more than 500 animals, along with programs that range from what are known as Zoofari camps for children to professional teacher development and partnerships with area school districts.
"Of the 300,000 people a year who come here, 70 percent of them are from outside Little Rock," Altrui says. "Between 10 and 15 percent are from outside the state. We're the only accredited zoo in Arkansas, so people will travel to see what we have."
The November 2019 report of a task force that studied zoo operations noted that the city's investment in the zoo "has been uncertain and somewhat arbitrarily subject to funding cuts, challenging the zoo's ability to commit to more ambitious, multi-year planning and implementation of projects, and undercutting the zoo's ability to build donor confidence and leverage additional support."
The report didn't mince words. It noted that the zoo "has a facility master plan. However, there has been minimal investment in the projects outlined in the plan. With no new major exhibits or programs due to the minimal investment, the zoo offers guests no compelling reasons to visit. ... The zoo's deferred maintenance needs are steadily increasing.
"The staffing model is also challenged. There's an unbalanced mix of full-time and part-time employees, as well as a significant number of full-time position vacancies. This instability makes caring for the zoo and its animal collection challenging. The lack of capital and staffing investment in the zoo places its accreditation status with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums at risk."
The aging facility covers 33 acres in the heart of the city. The zoo's master plan calls for $100 million in improvements. There are outdated habitats and buildings constructed by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression that need to be restored.
"Even a $50 million investment in this facility would return $600 million to the economy," Altrui says. "We have the potential to have 500,000 visitors a year here, and it could be more than that if we do it right by better connecting the zoo to a reimagined War Memorial Park and even to the children's library south of Interstate 630."
Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.