SANTA ANA : Zoo Puts Its Hopes on ‘Monkey Island’

With the Los Angeles Zoo to the north and the San Diego Zoo to the south, what does a smaller zoo like the Santa Ana Zoo do to compete?

They get monkeys.

Zoo officials hope “Monkey Island,” a planned, 18,000-square-foot, open-air exhibit, will help bring the zoo to a new level of prominence and increase its attendance.

“We think it’s going to make a tremendous difference,” zoo director Claudia Collier said. “I think it will increase recognition and draw more people to the zoo. We want them to realize what a nice, educational facility we have here in Orange County. People really don’t have to go to San Diego or Los Angeles to spend a day at the zoo.”

Monkey Island will feature the colobus monkey, which comes from the forests of East and Central Africa. The monkeys will live in an exhibit area that will include a waterfall, water moat, a holding and feeding area, pedestrian walks and landscaping. The project will cost an estimated $500,000, said Allen E. Doby, executive director of Recreation and Community Services for Santa Ana.

Doby said this new “state of the art” exhibit is designed to reflect the environment and habitat of the animal and provides more healthy and comfortable surroundings.

An opening date has not yet been set for Monkey Island, but officials hope to break ground by the end of the year. They have not yet contracted to buy the monkeys.

The zoo is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is at 1801 E. Chestnut Ave., one block south of 1st Street and the Santa Ana Freeway.