Zoo Breaks Ground on New Rhino Facility

Layout for new rhino facility. Milwaukee County Zoo.

Milwaukee County broke ground on a new $23.1 million Rhino Exhibit at the Milwaukee County Zoo Thursday, which by 2025 or 2026 will allow the zoo to bring back rhinos. The last black rhino at the zoo – Jozi – was transferred to the Oregon Zoo in Portland in 2021.

The rhino project is the third and final phase in the development of the zoo’s Adventure Africa exhibit. The zoo as already built new habitats for elephants and hippopotamuses.

The new rhino facility will replace a deteriorated, outdated habitat built in the 1950s. The new exhibit was designed to give zoo patrons a look at rhinos in a “park-like setting,” the zoo said in a statement.

Construction is expected to finish in fall 2025, at which time the zoo plans to acquire Eastern Black Rhinos. The species is classified as critically endangered, and in 2017 there were fewer than 1,000 estimated living in the wild. In North America, there are approximately 55 rhinos spread across 27 zoos. Their natural habitat is shrinking, and they are hunted there for their horns by poachers.

The rhino facility is being funded by Milwaukee County and the Zoological Society of Milwaukee, the nonprofit that fundraises to support the zoo. The county budgeted approximately $6.9 million for the project in 2024 and is expected to budget another $9.2 million in 2025. The society is putting approximately $7 million toward the project.

Typically, the society covers 50% of major projects, like those in the Adventure Africa series. The rhino exhibit was initially expected to cost approximately $10 million, and the Zoological Society fundraised more than enough to pay for 50% of the project. However, in the time between planning and construction, inflation drove up project costs by millions, according to zoo officials.

The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors debated whether the county should move ahead with the project, given the rising project costs. But the board ultimately opted to include the funding in the budget.