Utica Zoo Unveils White-Handed Gibbon Outdoor Living Rainforest

The Utica Zoo is unveiling its new White-Handed Gibbon Outdoor Living Rainforest Exhibit.

A ribbon cutting ceremony was held on Thursday.

The new exhibit features over eight times more living space and a glass visitor viewing area.  It's also free of metal bars and chain link, providing the zoo's White-Handed Gibbons "Snowflake" and "Yoda" a modern and natural Living Rainforest.

“The opening of the new Living Rainforest exhibit is a testament to the incredible hard work the Utica Zoo staff and their contractor partners have put in over the last 2 years,” says Mark Simon, Marketing Coordinator of the Utica Zoo. “To see Snowflake and Yoda swing and climb freely throughout their exhibit is truly a sight that needs to be observed first hand, and to be able to provide that experience to our community and visitors is a great feeling.”

The completion of the White-Handed Gibbon Outdoor Living Rainforest is the result of the "We Don't like It Either" fundraising campaign.

The current "Excitement is Building!" fundraising campaign aims to continue the work on the Primate Building, originally built in 1927, to provide a similar Living Rainforest for the zoo's Mexican Spider Monkey

The Utica Zoo was recently accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.