Meet the new zoo director

Glenn Goodman has high hopes for the Gulf Breeze Zoo. 

A former general curator at a zoo in Georgia, Goodman was hired on by Eric Mogensen to be the zoo’s new director. Mogensen purchased the former Zoo Northwest Florida from Animal Park Inc., last November.

“Basically, right now, we’re working to get the place cleaned up so we can open it back up to the public,” Goodman said. “It’s been closed for six months now and we’re doing some cosmetic changes to it.”

Such changes included building an 8-foot perimeter fence, remodeling the gift shop, rearranging some animals and working to complete a new Australian outback exhibit.

Goodman was a former employee of Mogensen’s prior to working in Georgia, as was the zoo’s new curator of animals, Kate Wanko.

Wanko used to be the collections manager at Mogensen’s Reston Zoo in Northern Virginia.

“It was kid-focused, mainly a petting zoo,” Wanko said. “Eric is big on school programs and educating the children. I imagine we’ll do a lot of that here too.”

For more on this story, see the Jan. 28 issue of the Navarre Press or subscribe online.