A big recognition for the Magnetic Hill Zoo.

It has won the Thomas R. Baines Award, given by Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aquariums.

It recognizes excellence in the area of habitat design and development.

Director Jill Marvin says, “Every year, these awards are given out to any zoo that feels that they have a project that fits within the category and merits the award. They can apply for the award and this year we submitted it and got the very happy news that we had actually won this year.”

The Magnetic Hill Zoo previously won the award for their Amur tiger exhibit, “First time with a tiger and now we’ve won it with our infrastructure projects including our Squirrel Monkey, our new entrance way and our quarantine.”

She adds this project made more room for the Squirrel Monkeys and gave them a chance to be outdoors.

“With this new building, the Squirrel Monkeys can be seen by visitors during our Wild Lights in the evening. Last year, that was a pleasant surprise, and it is a great addition to our Wild Lights this year and it’s wheelchair accessible. This means people can see primates that spend their time indoors when it’s a little bit colder. So it’s a great educational opportunity as well. We have a behind-the-scenes program, learning about how we care for the animals, how we enrich the animals lives, and we often use the squirrel monkeys for that as well,” Marvin says.

It also freed up more space for the Gibbons, who have a growing family.

Marvin says the Zoo is open for the month of November but closed on Tuesday and Wednesday.

This is as they do installations for Wild Lights which opens in December.