New playground equipment has been installed at the Great Bend Brit Spaugh Zoo, but the area isn’t open for public use quite yet, Zoo Director and Curator Ashley Burdick said.
“We need to tie it into the sidewalk so it is fully accessible and then the Zoological Society will have a ribbon cutting ceremony, which we will announce at a later date,” Burdick said. “The playground was made possible by our Great Bend Zoological Society, Toys for Tots, as well a few other donors.”
Features include a wheelchair-accessible swing.
Some of the old playground equipment was put to use in the animal exhibits as enrichment pieces. For example, a red, plastic swing can be seen in the lemur exhibit.
Cougar exhibit expansion
For some time now, city employees have been working on expanding the yard for the cougar exhibit. The concrete was poured in late September and now they are working on the wood framing. “Then we just have to bring in some rocks and put up the mesh,” Burdick said. “If the weather and materials cooperate, hopefully, it will be done by the end of the year.”
Surprise inspection
The Great Bend Brit Spaugh Zoo is periodically inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Burdick said there was an unannounced USDA inspection on Wednesday and the zoo passed with no non-compliant items.
National Bison Day
This Saturday, Nov. 5, is National Bison Day. In honor of the event, zookeeper Katy Schmidt will give a special keeper chat at the bison seating/viewing station on the northwest side of their exhibit.
The bison is the official National Mammal of the United States. They are the largest land mammal in North America, with males weighing up to 2,000 pounds and standing up to 6 feet tall.
The Brit Spaugh Zoo bison exhibit opened in June of 2020, when the zoo introduced Breeze and Gus, who arrived from the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita.
The zoo had a bison exhibit in the past but it closed in 2010 for safety reasons. Breeze and Gus are the offspring of Boomer, who was born at the Great Bend Zoo in 2009 and later sent to Wichita. Planning for a new bison exhibit began in 2016 when the zoo received a grant from the Dorothy M. Morrison Foundation.
