Throughout the sprawling Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, it seems as though virtually everything is in dire need of repair: cracked wooden steps at the mansion, old and leaky roofs, broken gates. For too long, officials say, the zoo's finances have been so abysmal that much of the needed maintenance was simply ignored.
And in a move last week that highlighted how grim the financial situation has become, the zoo's board decided to cancel a plan to take in three elephants from Philadelphia this summer. The reason: The zoo was unable to raise the private financing for an exhibit expansion to accommodate the animals.
Across the country, although zoos are generally healthy and thriving, a slump in philanthropic giving has caused some to scale back ambitious plans to expand exhibits. Limitations on public funding also tell part of the story. But variables as uncontrollable as weather and location are factors in the financial struggles.
For example, the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens has laid off about a dozen employees in the past three months, partly because of a decrease in government subsidies.
In Philadelphia, home to the nation's oldest zoo, government funding for the facility totals 5 percent of its operating costs, leaving the zoo to rely heavily on attendance and fundraising to generate revenue. The zoo's plans to re-create its elephant exhibit fell flat after a huge capital campaign failed to raise funding for the project, prompting the decision to give the animals to the Maryland Zoo.
By contrast, the zoo in Pittsburgh has embarked on an ambitious plan, acquiring land outside the city for an elephant park.
"Exhibits and caring for live animals is not an inexpensive proposition," said Steve Feldman, a spokesman for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, a Silver Spring accreditation group. "They're living collections. So zoos take a very sort of solid approach [to budgeting] for that reason. You don't want to get too far ahead of yourself, because the animals are counting on you."
For many zoos, conservation and breeding efforts - traditionally part of their core mission - are also turning out to be a way to boost admissions. This month at the Louisville Zoo, when an African elephant delivered her first calf, weighing in at 285 pounds, its Web site screamed, "It's a boy!"
