By LOUISA DANIELSON

For Business Weekly

Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo opens April 22 at 9 a.m. for the 2023 season.

The zoo, 3411 Sherman Blvd., Fort Wayne, opens at 9 a.m. daily. The zoo will close at 5 p.m. each day through April, and at 6 p.m. each day May-July. Watch for updates and buy tickets at kidszoo.org. General admission is $18; ages 2-12 pay $14. Parking is free.

“The team is working very hard to get everything ready,” said Rick Schuiteman, executive director. He estimated about 60 projects awaited completion less than two weeks before opening, but said progress was on pace.

Perhaps the biggest change visitors will see is the renaming of the Asian Trek area, formerly titled the Indonesian Rain Forest. Schuiteman explained that zoo management wanted to include a wider variety of species in this area, like the red pandas that have been waiting for their new home for many months. The new red panda exhibit should be opening near the start of summer and will feature four red pandas, including longtime resident Anne.

Anne and the three new red pandas will have a new home that includes two display areas connected by chutes. These chutes enable the pandas to be together or, if it is necessary, to be separated. Schuiteman explained that they hope the red pandas will have cubs, so they have built a cubbing barn behind the scenes so that mother and cubs can have adequate attention and privacy.

New animals that visitors will see will include a muntjac (like a small deer) and a sloth, named Benedict. Benedict needs warmer weather before he can be outside, so visitors can expect to see him in May.

Old friends that will have new displays will include the tiger exhibit (with new rock work and a pool), the swamp monkeys (with a new glass gallery) and the gibbons.

A new activity the zoo plans to offer is chicken feeding. “Another zoo shared with us that chicken feeding was popular,” said Schuiteman. The Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo planned accordingly and now, “we have 22 chickens ready to go,” Schuiteman chuckled. Chicken varieties will include Rhode Island Reds, Silver Laced Wyandottes and Buff Orpingtons.

Schuiteman explained that goats, chickens and stingrays follow a regulated feeding schedule; the zoo does not want them to have too much of a good thing. Giraffes, however, eat lettuce and this does not affect them in a negative way. “Giraffes can graze all day,” he said.