Galloping past a crowd of onlookers, Alan, Cosmo and Brayden appeared to join in the celebration on Friday at the grand opening of their newly expanded habitat at the San Antonio Zoo.
“There’s a lot of energy this morning that they were feeling,” zookeeper Emily Hogue said of the reticulated giraffes romping through the new Naylor Savanna.
Enlarged to provide more room for the African savanna species of animals at the zoo, the enclosure provides twice the space that the giraffes and rhinos had in which to roam previously and three times the space for zebras, ostriches, sitatunga and other animals.
“This is the largest habitat the San Antonio Zoo has opened in its 110-year history,” said Tim Morrow, president and CEO of the San Antonio Zoo. “It’s a setting like this [that] a person can see several varieties of animals together like they are really in the wild.”
The savanna also features a new 2,300-square-foot, multi-story giraffe barn with viewing windows and a lofted luxury lodge where guests can enjoy a sleepover with the animals.
With the opening of the savanna, the zoo is also introducing a new “safari-style experience,” riding with an animal care specialist in the bed of a custom-outfitted Toyota Tundra pickup to feed and interact with the animals.
Northpark Toyota donated two vehicles and South Texas Outfitters designed them for use in the savanna.
The lodge and safari tours will be available by reservation later this month.
Named for philanthropist and board member Susan Naylor, who donated $3 million for the project, the Naylor Savanna has been nearly a year in the making.
“This is the closest thing to Africa that we’ve got on this continent, I think,” Naylor said, standing on a platform overlooking the savanna.
With her donation, Naylor said she wanted to honor her family and the memory of her son, Will Naylor, who enjoyed several visits to Africa before he died in 2007 in a car crash at 8 years old.
“I think he’d be incredibly proud, that he would think this is so cool to be able to bring Africa to kids,” Naylor said.
The large giraffe barn is designed to create space for additional giraffes, including future calves, Morrow said.
“We only have three boys right now so we’re working with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to identify some females to come in so we can start the breeding program,” he said.
On a tour of Spekboom Lodge, decorated in safari-style aesthetic, Morrow pointed out a living space furnished with flat-screen televisions, a trundle bed ideal for children and a primary bedroom with a king-size bed. A patio and expansive windows offer views of the savanna.
On Friday, the giraffes pulled with their long blue-black tongues fresh leaves from one of two newly planted trees in the savanna while construction noise came from another new exhibit underway.
Congo Falls, a new gorilla habitat and event center, is scheduled to open in late 2025.
Plans call for the habitat to house eight gorillas, which already have been identified, and include a band of four young male gorillas, and a family troop with one silverback male and three females, said Hope Roth, vice president of marketing, sales and communication at the San Antonio Zoo.
“Nobody’s ever opened a new gorilla habitat with this many,” she said.
The new exhibits follow a recent building spree at the century-plus, nonprofit zoo. In late 2023, zoo leaders also opened a new $13 million zoo entrance and H-E-B Plaza.
A reservation system for the lodge stay will be made available in the coming weeks, Roth said.
