Adults and kids stare, almost unblinking, at the sleek bodies of giant river otters gliding dreamily in figure eights through their tank.
The human faces are washed of tension or distraction, smiling and wide-eyed, uniformly riveted by what looks like pure animal delight.
The otters are part of the newest exhibit at Providence’s venerable Roger Williams Park Zoo dubbed “Faces of the Rainforest.” Built with the help of a $15 million bond overwhelmingly approved by voters statewide in 2014, the new exhibit opened in November and has been well-received. Zoo attendance in the first three months after the opening more than doubled the same period the previous year.
But the city-owned zoo’s nonprofit operator, the Rhode Island Zoological Society, is hardly resting on its laurels.
A 20-year master plan unveiled in 2015 includes three $25 million phases, with another $10 million still needed to complete phase one. The zoo, the nation’s third oldest at 147, is already raising money for the latter.
And operators hope an economic-impact study underway will support a new bond request they expect to place before voters next year.
While the educational value of zoos is generally recognized, if hard to quantify, local zoo operators know hard numbers on economic benefits could be key to luring the additional $60 million in public and private donations and investment needed to one day push annual attendance past 1 million.
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POPULAR ATTRACTION: Jeremy Goodman, executive director of the Roger Williams Park Zoo, said the zoo is the second-largest tourist attraction in the state among number of visitors, after the Newport Mansions. However, if the mansions are considered individually, rather than as a group, he said the zoo becomes the leading attraction.
/ PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
“A lot of what we do is science, and we believe in metrics, not just opinions,” said Dr. Jeremy Goodman, the zoo’s executive director. “We have always touted ourselves as an economic driver.
“We are hoping the results [of the study] will be obvious that the zoo does have a huge impact, and that the investments of the state and private individuals are helping to turn the state economy around,” he said.
‘SENSE OF COMMUNITY’
Providence contributes $2 million a year to the zoo’s $12 million annual operating budget. Mayor Jorge O. Elorza has no doubts about the zoo’s efficacy in returning value to the city and state. The payback, he said, includes financial, educational, scientific and moral components.
“I spend a lot of time trying to bring people together and to make everyone feel they are part of something bigger than themselves,” Elorza said. The zoo “helps create a sense of community, of something that binds us together. This is what makes a community strong.”
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VOTER APPROVED: Pictured is a Golden Lion Tamarin, part of the new “Faces of the Rain Forest” exhibit that opened in November at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence. The new exhibit was made possible in part by a $15 million bond approved statewide by voters in 2014.
/ PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
Elorza said the zoo, which now attracts 650,000 annually, may be many visitors’ introduction to the Victorian-era Roger Williams Park, with its many revenue-raising attractions: a museum and planetarium, a carousel, the Temple of Music, public concerts, swan boats and a botanical center.
“A good zoo should not just entertain, it should make the community a better place,” said Kristin Adamo, vice president of marketing for the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau.
RWP Zoo employs 25 full-time educators, Goodman said, a number that doubles in the summer, to accommodate kids in zoo camps for all ages, from toddlers to high school students. The zoo sends educators to Rhode Island schools. Conservation talks are offered for adult audiences. The zoo also hosts school groups all year.
“If you go to the zoo on a summer day, you see a rainbow of different camp shirts on kids in every corner of the zoo,” said John Palumbo, a 22-year member of the zoo’s board of trustees and president and publisher of Rhode Island Monthly. “Hands-on learning at the zoo is unparalleled by any other resource in Rhode Island.”
Rob Vernon, spokesman for the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, a nonprofit that represents 200 accredited institutions inside and outside the United States, said he would focus on convincing voters of the importance of a zoo’s scientific mission first.
Zoos “are dedicated to animal welfare,” Vernon said. “They are putting animals back into the wild to contribute to the local ecosystem. A day out with the family is important and fun, but [zoos] exist for a purpose much greater than having animals for people to look at.”
The Rhode Island Zoological Society sees itself as “a mission-based organization,” Goodman said. “Our primary purpose is connecting people to wildlife.”
The zoo’s role in environmental and wildlife conservation is baked into its exhibits and educational programs. But there is a great deal that the public does not see.
The zoo houses animals from more than 100 endangered, vulnerable or threatened species. It contributes money, time and expertise to global projects to protect endangered species. The zoo is the national headquarters for the species survival plan – a formal AZA document – for the American burying beetle. The zoo helps with species survival work for the New England cottontail rabbit and the timber rattlesnake.
The zoo also conducts research on elephant reproduction cycles.
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NEW FACES: At left are giant otters Romo and Fernando, South American mammals indigenous to the Amazon River and the Pantanal, part of the new “Faces of the Rainforest” exhibit at Roger Williams Park Zoo. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
TOURISM BOOST
But the national association, which includes RWP Zoo, also understands the power of economic data in fundraising.
According to “The Economic Impact of Spending for Operations and Construction by AZA Members in 2016,” visitors to Rhode Island’s zoo that year were responsible for “direct spending of $18 million, a total output of $34 million, generated nearly $10 million in personal earnings, and supported 247 full-time jobs.”
The AZA does not rank or compare animal attractions by economic impact. The state with the highest direct spending at animal attractions is Florida with $1.6 billion and the lowest is West Virginia with $1.4 million.
Given Rhode Island’s size, however, the economic impact of its only zoo may be even greater than the numbers suggest, says Brooke Fairman, director of development.
“If the zoo were in San Antonio, Texas, it would not have as much effect [on] the whole state,” she said.
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DRAWING A CROWD: Pictured is a new building housing the latest exhibit at Roger Williams Park Zoo, “Faces of the Rainforest.” Zoo attendance in the first three months after opening the new exhibit more than doubled the same period the previous year.
/ PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
RWP Zoo is the second-largest tourist attraction by number of visitors in Rhode Island, after the Newport Mansions, according to Goodman. And it’s the leading attraction, if the mansions are considered individually, rather than as a group, he says.
Goodman said about 30 percent of the zoo’s 650,000 annual visitors come from out of state, implying additional expenditures on lodging, food, visits to other attractions and entertainment. During the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular in October, the zoo receives visitors from all 50 states, says Fairman.
Adamo, of the convention and visitors bureau, says the zoo has advantages as an attraction for tourists and local residents. It is open year-round. It is a destination for families and kids. Set inside a beautiful, 435-acre park, the zoo is part of an important green space in the city.
The zoo is popular for group tours and bus tours. It hits all the buttons of “experiential tourism,” meaning traveling that includes doing and learning, she said.
Out of more than 400 partners on GoProvidence.com, the visitors bureau’s website, the listing for Roger Williams Park Zoo & Carousel Village is the most viewed, Adamo said. That listing was viewed 17,225 times in 2018.
Palumbo says his company distributes thousands of copies of a Rhode Island Summer Guide at entrances to the zoo each summer.
Mark Brodeur, director of tourism for the state, said a standard industry metric is that each dollar spent by tourists multiplies seven times through the economy.
That includes direct impacts (zoo admissions), indirect impacts (the zoo’s purchases of animal feed and food services), and induced impacts (spending of paychecks by zoo employees), and so on.
Brodeur said, for instance, a single bus tour hosted by a package tour operator, bringing about 45 to 50 people, is responsible for an estimated $50,000 in spending, including lodging, tours and in-town transportation.
Brodeur said RWP Zoo presents new animals and features every year and new exhibits over longer intervals. This is catnip for national travel writers, he said, who are constantly posing the question, “What’s new?”
He said Rhode Island hired a public relations firm, NJF, about two years ago. Since then, he says, the company has pitched zoo stories to the media to the tune of about $50 million in advertising equivalence.
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UP CLOSE: Curator of Education Carrie Hawthorne provides an up-close look at Rosie, a red tegu, as she introduces her to a group of children visiting the Buttonwood Park Zoo in New Bedford.
/ COURTESY BUTTONWOOD PARK ZOO[/caption]
MASTER PLAN
Keith Lovett, director of zoological services for the Buttonwood Park Zoo in New Bedford, echoes the passion of Providence zoo managers and supporters. At 7 acres, Buttonwood Park Zoo is less than one-quarter of the size of the 40-acre RWP Zoo. It has an annual operating budget of $4 million, said Carrie Hawthorne, curator of education. Like RWP Zoo, Buttonwood is city-owned, is going through upgrades to its property and exhibits, and considers itself a valuable resource in raising the cultural and tourism profile of its home city.
Lovett said Buttonwood also is an important tourism destination for the city. Like RWP Zoo, it pays its city back by complementing education programs in the schools, by attracting people who will also spend money at restaurants and attractions, and by hosting events that bring in adults, not just families and kids.
Lovett said smaller zoos such as Buttonwood and RWP Zoo offer career development through internship programs in areas such as veterinarian and animal care, biological science and even food service. “The zoo helps raise awareness of New Bedford as a proactive city,” Lovett said.
But Buttonwood has never had an economic-impact study done, said Hawthorne.
The last economic-impact study done for RWP Zoo was in 1997, says Diane Nahabedian, zoo spokesperson. The one now underway is being done by Thomas Sproul, an associate professor at the University of Rhode Island, for a fee of $25,000.
Nahabedian said zoo officials “absolutely” hope and expect an updated impact study will support more public funding for the zoo. The amount of the planned 2020 bond request has not been decided, she said.
The additional $10 million needed just to finish phase one of the zoo’s master plan will be raised through philanthropy, Nahabedian said.
“The zoo has been raising money in the quiet phase of its capital campaign, which will be going public shortly,” she added.
Still to come in phase one is a new event pavilion beside the wetlands pond, and a new, larger education center and parking area near zoo admissions. The current education building will undergo a major renovation and open as a new reptile house.
The zoo hopes to raise the $50 million for phases two and three of the master plan with a capital campaign, a major gifts campaign and the planned bond referendum.
The second phase of the master plan will improve the entry area with new structures, a new gift shop and several animal exhibits. The plan calls for new Humboldt penguin and California sea lion enclosures, with pools and a shore-bird aviary.
The last phase includes two new primate exhibits, an outdoor play area and a new tiger habitat. The North America exhibit will be revised to feature big-horn sheep, a grizzly bear and moose.
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TEMPTING SNACK: Jennifer Warmbold, lead keeper of Africa at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, tempts Masai giraffe Sukare, 25, with some Romaine lettuce. Next to Sukare is Cora, 2.
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So far, zoo officials are thrilled with interest in the Rainforest exhibit. Goodman said overall zoo attendance from November to mid-February was 29,470, about double the 14,513 visitors for the same period a year ago.
The zoo has reached the borders of its 40-acre property, but officials expect attendance to increase because of the improved exhibits and services outlined in the master plan. The zoo hopes to reach 750,000 visitors by the end of phase one and 1 million by the end of phase two, Nahabedian said.
Future visitors may gaze at tigers and a grizzly bear padding around natural enclosures, snakes slithering, penguins waddling and roaming big-horn sheep. A more-welcoming entrance and a new event pavilion will showcase the latest revelations about nature, if the master plan is realized.
“The zoo is an investment in the quality of life in Rhode Island,” said Goodman, the zoo director. “We are creating jobs, bringing in tourists and giving Rhode Islanders a high-class facility to be proud of. We see ourselves as having a responsibility to help the state succeed.”
