Two new animals at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Manitowoc are now living in their remodeled enclosure.
Sherlock and Watson are North American Coyotes that were brought up from the Jacksonville, Florida Zoo last week.
Curt Hall with the Manitowoc Lincoln Park Zoological Society says it took about a year to get the coyotes.
“So we put out an ad saying we’re interested in a large canid,” he explained. “They (Jacksonville Zoo) responded and said that they have some available and so we had to work out the timeline of the construction of when they were ready, and the zoo was ready to get the coyotes.”
He also says Coyotes don’t do well in the Florida heat.
“When they’re in Florida, they tend to have a lot of skin issues and allergies and the new coyotes were having some of those issues,” Hall says. “Because they were having some of those issues the Jacksonville Zoo was super excited to get them up here.”
The Zoological Society held a grand opening and ribbon-cutting event yesterday (October 5th) right as you enter the zoo, which is where the newly remodeled coyote exhibit is. Coordinator Andy Janicki (JAN-ih-kee) there was a lot of work done.
“Obviously redoing the outlooks, the platform, and the viewing window,” he described. “But what you can’t see is the work on the inside of the interior building. It was kind of a mess in there so we added fencing in areas for zoo keepers to get inside the enclosure.”
Inside work included taking down walls, replacing some old fencing, and repaving the floors.
The entire project cost about $300,000.
Janicki says it’s exciting to have a new animal in the remodeled exhibit, especially after the passing of two Timberwolves about five years ago.
New Manitowoc Lincoln Park Zoo coyotes exhibit ribbon-cutting.
