FORT WORTH — Two baby elephants were born at the Fort Worth Zoo less than a month apart a couple of years ago.
It takes a couple of years to make an elephant; just minutes for poachers to take one.
"We're losing an elephant in the wild every 15 minutes," said zoo spokeswoman Alexis Wilson. "That's 96 elephants a day we're losing."
And that's why a fenced-off 10-acre lot along Colonial Parkway is so important, where the zoo will start preliminary work next year on a new Serengeti exhibit. The zoo is growing into property it's owned for decades.
It needs some legroom.
"In the last five months, we've had three baby giraffes," Wilson said, adding that the wild giraffe population has dropped 40 percent in the last decade, while rhinos disappear at the rate of one every hour as poachers fill demand for rhino horn in Asia.
The zoo can't keep up with killers, but it has gained a national reputation for breeding in captivity.
Executive Director Mike Fouraker briefed the City Council Tuesday on the zoo's need to expand.
"There may not be elephants in the wild in the next generation. We intend to have them at the Fort Worth Zoo," he said. "Many of the animals we are famously successful for breeding are disappearing at an alarming rate."
Private donors already have pledged up to $20 million for the Serengeti exhibit. Utility work on the property should start early next year.
There are no plans yet for what it will look like, but it should draw even more visitors. The Fort Worth Zoo already has an annual economic impact in excess of $120 million.
