A $1.3-Million Gift for Zoo Gorillas
The San Diego Zoo has received a $1.3-million gift for the construction of its new gorilla exhibit, one of the largest single contributions in Zoo history, Zoo officials announced.
With their gift, Michael and Elizabeth Dingman, former residents of La Jolla who now live in New Hampshire, brought the Zoo to within $1 million of its fund-raising goal for the $11.5-million replica of an African rain forest.
Zoo officials said the gift will ensure that the exhibit will be completed on schedule. Five years in the planning, the new gorilla enclosure is being built now and is scheduled to open in March of next year.
The gift is among the most generous ever received by the Zoo, behind the $3.3 million Joan Kroc gave in 1986 for the Zoo’s Tiger River Exhibit and the $3 million donated by Paul and Ione Harter of Coronado in 1988 for a new facility for research to aid endangered species.
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