Alexandria Zoo celebrates 100 years of operation

ALEXANDRIA, La. (KALB) - On Saturday, Oct. 1, the Alexandria Zoo celebrated 100 years of operation.

The Alexandria Zoo began with just a handful of habitats in 1922 as the City Park Zoo and has grown over the years into an AZA-accredited institution and one of Alexandria’s most cherished attractions.

At the event, zoo-goers got to help celebrate the milestone with live music, face painting, an obstacle course, a bounce house and discounted admission prices.

Zoo director Dr. Max Lakes told KALB the zoo wouldn’t’ be the shining star that it is today without the community’s support over the last century.

”We want to make sure that the community knows that as happy as they are to have this amazing zoo in the community, we are happy and honored to be able to serve them and provide the zoo to them, so this is our way of being able to say thank you back,” said Dr. Lakes. “We know that going into the next 100 years, we won’t be able to do it without the support that we are seeing here today.”

Dr. Lakes also made sure to recognize two special people that had an enormous impact on the zoo.

“1974 is when Les and Lee Anne Whitt came to Alexandria and made this their home and the zoo their baby,” said Dr. Lakes. “So, for that 100 years, 46 of them were with Les and Lee Anne Whitt, and I’m very honored to be the director after them, I stand on the shoulders of giants. The amount of work to get the zoo to where it is is just amazing, you can see the passion flow through it.”

The Zoo’s next big event will be the ‘Zoo Boo’ which will take place on Oct. 22.

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