Zoo Plans Children’s ‘Adventure’

Promising to create “the finest children’s zoo in the United States,” officials have unveiled plans for a new $6.3-million, two-acre facility at the Los Angeles City Zoo that will allow youngsters to climb into an eagle’s nest, crawl through caves and come face to face with prairie dogs, tarantulas, lizards and the like--with protective plastic viewing windows in between, of course.

There will be sheep and cows to pet and cougars to view at a safe distance at the new facility, to be called “Adventure Island.” It is to be paid for with private donations.

The zoo will feature an animal nursery and small-scale replicas of an Old California hacienda, a nocturnal cave, an ocean shoreline, a desert environment, grasslands and a forest, said City Councilman Joel Wachs and Marcia Wilson Hobbs, president of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn.

Work is tentatively scheduled to begin in January, starting with demolition of the present nursery and petting corral. Completion is planned for January, 1988, Hobbs said.

She said the association has raised $4.7 million in pledges earmarked for the children’s zoo and has $2 million in general reserve funds, which could be used to finance construction while the pledge drive continues. The largest grant is the $3 million promised by the Weingart Foundation in June, 1985.