Naples, FL - The nonprofit Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens is celebrating the new year with the announcement that the Zoo welcomed 326,435 guests in 2011 – an 8.4 % increase over last year and the highest attendance in its long history. In addition, Naples Zoo now has over 23,000 Zoo Members – a 9% increase over last year.
Naples Zoo Executive Director David Tetzlaff attributes much of the increase to all the exciting changes happening at the Zoo. "Thanks to our board, donors, visitors, members, and other supporters, we’ve opened six feature exhibits in six years.” This year the Zoo premiered the Giraffe Feeding Experience so guests can get face-to-face and hand-feed the world’s tallest animals. And Naples Zoo is now one of only four zoos in the nation where guests can see the wildly popular, fierce African honey badgers. The viral video which rocketed this formerly obscure mammal has reached over thirty millions views. Randall, the creator of that video, even did a custom video about the Zoo’s honey badgers.
"We're so thankful," said Tetzlaff. "An unseasonably warm February had us going into summer behind last year’s attendance. We were not at all confident we would reach another record year. I can’t thank the locals enough for supporting their zoo and recommending a visit to their family and friends."
Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit 43-acre historic tropical garden founded in 1919 that is home to a nationally accredited zoo cooperating in conservation programs both in and outside the wild for endangered species. Naples Zoo offers a full day of family fun and educational programs. For saving their Zoo in 2004, Collier County residents enjoy special benefits.