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" Our mission is to help save species, not just display them." KEVIN BELL continued on page 72 continued from page 68 LEFT: In addition to its exotic animal exhibits, Lincoln Park Zoo features the Nature Boardwalk, a haven for indigenous plant and animal species. BELOW: School and community groups from across Chicago are regular zoo visitors. BOTTOM: As its 23-year-old curator of birds, Kevin Bell—seen here with his mentor Dr. Les Fisher—was the youngest curator in the zoo's history. It's important to remember this is one of the oldest zoos in the United States. The oldest facil- ity we have that hasn't been renovated was last done in 1981, and that will be torn down later this year, yet we started in 1868. The Women's Board has been doing the Zoo Ball gala for 37 years, and they raise money for capital support, for endowment, for programmatic support, and they do an awful lot of work to make that hap- pen. There'll be a thousand people at the gala, and it will probably raise about a million dollars. It's really great to have that constant support. The theme of this year's Zoo Ball is "Monkey Business," because we're building a new exhibit of Japanese macaques just inside the West Gate, where the penguin/seabird house was. They're t he most temperate - climate species, a nd t hey live in Japa n—t hey're t he ones t hat go into t he hot springs in the cold weather in winter, and National Geographic photographs them coming out with ice all around their heads. For Chicago it will be a great year-round exhibit, since most of our pr imates a re inside in t he w inter t ime. We're actually building hot tubs right into the exhibit, in front of the glass, that will look like hot spr ings, so hopef ully t he macaques w ill come down and the people will be able to see t hem a nd enjoy t hat for t hemselves. That w ill most likely be a w inter t ime opening, which is fine for those animals. Sum mer is a n excit ing t ime at t he zoo. We have day camps here throughout the week with a lot of educational activities. And then on the weekends you have people f rom a ll across Chicago; that's when you really see the diversity of our audience. It's not unusua l when you're walking across the zoo grounds to hear six dif- ferent languages being spoken. It's a real treasure for the city—Dr. Fisher always said that Lincoln Park Zoo was the urban oasis in Chicago, a place where ever y com munit y could come a nd get along and have a good time—and I know a lot of our donors feel that way, too. We're the only pri- vately ma naged f ree zoo in t he count r y. For Ch icagoa ns to suppor t t hat , a nd be a pa r t of something that gives everybody an equal oppor- tunity to come and have a great time and a great experience, we're fortunate. The zoo has changed and improved greatly since I arrived. When we went private in 1995, at that time we might have had two people work- ing on conservation science; we now have over 40. We have people working in other places, like t he Serenget i, so we've t a ken a much bigger approach with conservation. Our mission is to help save species, not just display them at the zoo. We wa nt people to lea r n about t hem, to understand the need to conserve them. Other- wise, zoos aren't going to be here, and the species aren't going to be in the wild. So we're now a part of the movement to develop plans to save species by working with people in the field and educat- ing the public that comes in our gates about the 70 MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM SPIRIT OF GENEROSITY