Winter Holiday Section
Page 8 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
December 19, 2016
29th ZooLights feature 1.6 million colorful lights
The Oregon Zoo’s ZooLights — a holiday
tradition for many Oregonians — now
include more than 1.6 million colorful
lights adorning the many paths at the zoo.
The light displays feature life-size animal
silhouettes, moving sculptures, forests of
lighted trees, a light-bedecked train, and
more.
The annual winter ZooLights festival
also features costumed animal mascots
and elves that provide entertainment as
well as photo opportunities for visitors;
musical groups performing holiday
selections; and some zoo animals visible at
night, including the primates, elephants,
mountain goats, leopards, tigers, sea
otters, and more.
Oh, and there’s also plenty of hot
chocolate, elephant ears, and more to
warm visitors while walking the zoo
grounds. This year’s lights illuminate the
holidays through Sunday, January 1.
ZooLights have been featured in
Portland since 1987. It was not a unique
idea, but it was a successful one, according
to a member of the zoo’s marketing team
back in the late 1980s.
“I unabashedly stole the idea,” Karen
Kane wrote in a statement. “I went to visit
my parents in Toledo, Ohio and they
dragged me to the zoo, where I saw
hundreds, if not thousands of families,
kids on dates, grandparents with little
ones, etc., out for a night at the zoo.”
Thinking that what she’d experienced
was a fabulous idea, she called the Ohio
zoo’s director the next day to find out more.
She was told they had borrowed the idea
from the Cincinnati Zoo, which had been
doing it for a few years.
When Kane came back home to
Portland, planning for the Oregon Zoo’s
ZooLights began. In addition to increasing
attendance during the winter, which was
“maybe about 250 visitors on average in
the month of December,” it was a fun
activity for people, she said. “The reaction
of the people was so warm, so happy. They
were delighted, there was a harmony
there. That’s just hard to describe in
words.”
The zoo came up with $5,000 to get the
project off the ground. They found some
lights — “mostly all clear,” according to
Kane — to decorate the “trees in the old
plaza and the walkway down to the ele-
WINTER FESTIVAL. The 29th edition of Zoo-
Lights includes more than 1.6 million colorful lights
adorning the paths at the Oregon Zoo through Sunday,
January 1. In addition to life-size animal silhouettes,
moving sculptures, forests of lighted trees, and a
light-bedecked train, the event also features costumed
animal mascots and elves that provide entertainment
as well as photo opportunities. (AR Photos)
phants.”
In 1988, its second year, ZooLights grew.
Zoo staff and volunteers made displays out
of Styrofoam that had been used as
packing material for a set of chairs and a
kitchen table. They painted the Styrofoam
to look like animals, poked holes in it, and
fed the clear lights through the holes.
From then on, as they say, the rest is
history, and the light displays became
more technological and computerized.
By about 1992, ZooLights featured
around 10,000 lights on approximately 75
exhibits, which were mostly made of wood.
These days, many of the wood displays
have been replaced.
As the event grew, and in keeping with
the zoo’s commitment to sustainability,
many of the lights now include light-
emitting diodes (LEDs), which use only a
fraction of the power of standard holiday
lights. The 2016 display is about 90
percent LEDs, with the total of LEDs
currently standing at 1.44 million.
Over the past five years, nearly a million
visitors have strolled through ZooLights.
“Attendance has been off the charts the
past several years,” according to Ivan
Ratcliff, the zoo’s guest services manager.
In 2014, the zoo set an attendance record
— 213,979 visitors — besting the previous
record set in 2011, when 197,453 visitors
experienced the light festival.
ZooLights can be viewed nightly
through Sunday, January 1 from 5:00pm
to 9:00pm, except for Christmas Eve and
Christmas Day, when the zoo is closed. To
learn more about the display and parking
options, or to purchase tickets, call (503)
226-1561 or visit <www.oregonzoo.org>.
Guests who utilize TriMet to travel to
ZooLights receive $5 off general admission
(proof of ridership is required).
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