Associated Press
Wed, Mar. 05, 2003
ASHEBORO, N.C. - A group has pledged $2 million to help the
North Carolina Zoo's project to expand exhibits of elephants and rhinos,
the zoo said Wednesday.
The Randolph Friends of the Zoo, a community
volunteer group in Randolph County where the zoo is located, made
the commitment during a Tuesday board
meeting.
The group pledged $1.06 million it already has raised and said
it would raise an additional $934,000.
"This is a major step in the North Carolina Zoological Society's
$6 million elephant-rhino campaign," said Russ Williams, the
society's executive director.
The zoo's elephants and rhinos are
currently exhibited in adjacent 3.5-acre outdoor habitats. Both
species share an off-exhibit holding barn. The new
exhibit will provide larger exhibit areas for both species as well as
separate barns.
The project will create the potential to exhibit
as many as 11 elephants and 11 rhinos of varying ages. The zoo
currently has two elephants and
four rhinos.
Officials said the project also will enable the zoo to
play a role in breeding both species, whose populations are declining
in Africa.
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