The Sedgwick County Zoo is expected to reach a major milestone this month.
A lot of people visited the zoo this year, so much so that it's on track to set a new annual attendance record.
Zoo director Mark Reed says they’ll hit 700,000 visitors for the first time by the end of the year.
"If the weather is nice on Christmas Day, that afternoon, we could have a lot of people here because it’s not always easy to find that everybody likes football or likes to go to a movie, but everybody enjoys coming to the zoo," Reed says. "A lot of memories are built out here."
Reed credits the arrival of six elephants from Africa and the opening of the new elephant exhibit in May for the high number of visitors this year.
The zoo’s annual attendance record of 654,494 was set in 2009 when a new Asian tiger exhibit opened. The total attendance for 2015 was 581,773.
Reed is retiring as executive director this week.
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