By Joyce Kryszak
Buffalo, NY – Now that funding for the Buffalo zoo's Rain Forest is locked up, zoo officials are going forward with plans to set some critters loose.
The Buffalo zoo many of us remember is slowly disappearing. Cramped cages and austere pens are being replaced with spaces that will look more like a page out of Maurice Sendak's book, Where the Wild Things Are. Zoo President Donna Fernadez sets the scene.
That sounds pretty cool, but Fernandez said it gets even better once you step inside this 16 million dollar wild world.
Or, she said you'll be able to by-pass the cave and take a bridge over the crocodiles to the other side of the rain forest. And here is where she said nature will really be unleashed.
What Fernandez describes is much more than pop-up pages from designer sketches. The money is in hand, the bids for the project are in, and the work is set to begin, possibly as soon as this month.
Once complete in June 2008, Fernandez said they expect to draw year-round crowds over over 400,000 to this tropical animal attraction.
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