More than half the projects on the Toledo Zoo's updated 10-year master plan list will get under way this year.

Elephants, rhinos, hippos, butterflies, and little humans are all poised at the starting gate now that the zoo knows it will be taking in $8.6 million a year in revenues from the 10-year capital improvement levy voters approved in November.

"We have a very ambitious schedule," said Anne Baker, the zoo's executive director.

While 9 of 13 projects officially "begin" this year, what that really means is design phase work will get under way for projects as exciting as a new children's zoo and as mundane - but equally important to visitors - as new parking lots.

The acquisition of shiny new boilers and other basic repairs will begin immediately, but the first change that visitors will notice is the addition of a butterfly house beginning Memorial Day weekend.

"We're very, very excited about butterflies," Ms. Baker said.

A new facility is being built to house a two-year exhibit that will be the zoo's first that has a link to its successful butterfly conservation program.

The program began in 1998 with what may be the nation's first effort to save a butterfly - the Karner blue - and expanded to other threatened local species, including the purplish copper, frosted elfin, Persius dusky wing, Edward's hairstreak, Mitchell's satyr, and swamp metalmark.

"We've got this phenomenal conservation program. We've got a great education program - we've got a full curricula built around it. But unless you happen to see a Monarch flitting through the zoo, we don't have any butterflies," Ms. Baker said.

Although the zoo is still deciding which species to include in the exhibit, all will be native to the region.

"My guess is a majority of people think that the really beautiful butterflies are in the tropics," she said.

The Children's Zone will be the first major, permanent exhibit completed. Set to open in May, 2009, the new exhibit will be based on the theme, "discovering what it's like to be an animal."

Inspired by the children's zoo at the Brookfield Zoo in suburban Chicago, the $5.5 million project "is not just a petting zoo," emphasized Rick Payeff, director of the Toledo Zoo's department of facilities and planning.

Children may have an opportunity to come in and be keeper for a day, or have some hands-on contact with the inhabitants of an aquarium, or even work in a commissary.

"One reason we really think this whole concept is important is kids are becoming increasingly distant from nature. A lot of urban people now describe a zoo as where they connect with nature, so we really want to engage kids in connecting them to the natural world," Ms. Baker said.

The Children's Zone will be year-round, with indoor and outdoor components.

One key difference from Brookfield is that Toledo does not plan to charge an extra fee beyond the admission price to enter the Children's Zone.

Also on the drawing board this year are the creation of a facility for male elephants - that is, Louie's new home - the expansion of the elephant yard for females, and improvements to the rhino exhibit.

The latter includes leveling the grade so the massive animals don't have to navigate hills that could pose a risk of injury.

The most expensive part of the master plan, at $23 million, are aquarium improvements.

Planning for this begins in 2009 and won't be finished until 2016.

"The plan incorporates gutting the entire interior of the facility and rebuilding it," Mr. Payeff said of the aquarium building. During that time, the fish will go into a temporary holding facility and will likely be off exhibit.

Contact Jenni Laidman at:

jenni@theblade.com or

419-724-6507.

First Published January 30, 2007, 5:45 p.m.