A couple of new animals will soon be calling the Lehigh Valley Zoo home.

And, the two male Masai giraffes, coming from a zoo in Kansas City, Mo., will have a new home at their new home.

Lehigh Valley Zoo recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a new giraffe barn.

“Today is a pretty wonderful day for us,” said Melissa Borland, president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Zoological Society. “I am proud to have a groundbreaking ceremony for our next really big exhibit, one of our first and largest in that category.”

The new barn will feature a day room for the giraffes to hang out in and socialize when it is not optimal for them to be outside, Borland said.

“It will also have a viewing area for guests to be able to see them inside and they will have two bedrooms,” she noted.

In the back of the barn will be a tamer, an item that keeps a giraffe contained and safe while staff perform medical check-ups.

The giraffes are part of the Zoo’s conservation survival program.

“We don’t have the room here at the Lehigh Valley Zoo to have a breeding program but what we are going to do is consistently have pre-breeding animals that don’t have space in other zoos,” Borland said.

“We are going to keep them here until we find a match for them.”

Borland said there are only 37,000 Masai giraffes in the wild.

“So these giraffes really need our support and we do work very hard to have a sustainable population within zoos that support sustainable population in the wild,” she said.

The goal is to open the giraffe exhibit in the fall.

“However, based on the specialty nature of this building, we want to make sure it is right and we also want to make sure the time frame in which it is completed is not late enough in the season that we would be impacting the animals’ welfare to transport them during appropriate temperatures,” Borland said.

Building the barn and bringing the giraffes to the zoo would not have been possible without the zoo’s donors and the community’s help.

“We have received an overwhelming response not only from local corporations but also from the local community itself,” Borland said.

One of the zoo’s contributors donated $100,000 in a matching grant and John Jaindl donated the use of his home for a fundraiser which brought in $66,000.

“We have had other contributors who have given $5,000 or more,” she said.

The Zoo recently received a commitment of $25,000 from both Daniels BMW and Valley Central Veterinary Referral and Emergency Center.

“Outside of that, I also have to mention Danny Essing donated $16,700, the cost to transport the giraffes here to the Lehigh Valley Zoo, in memory of his wife Diane,” Borland said.

Many schools and organizations participated in the Jingle for Giraffe fundraiser.

Lincoln Elementary School collected $2,800 and Schnecksville Elementary School collected more than $1,000.

“Actually with Jingles for Giraffes, people going around with these jars, brought in $10,000 that was very considerable,” Borland said.

The money donated is enough to raise the barn but there is specialty work that goes into the barn, so fundraising efforts will continue.

“We have approximately $200,000 out of $700,000 to still raise and we are very diligent and we will do that,” Borland said.

The Zoo may have some “hard hat” fundraisers during which tours will be given throughout the barn as it is being built.

“We have to give Doreen Carl a lot of thanks,” Borland said. “She has done an amazing job as development director and she has made wonderful relationships with our donors.”

In addition to bringing the giraffes to the Zoo, they are looking for ways to advance their involvement in the community and enhance the overall educational experience.

“This is where also now we are looking at Africa,” she said. “Africa is one of the biggest exhibits we have here in the Lehigh Valley Zoo.

“If you walk through Africa, you will notice there is a lot of chain link fencing,” Borland said. “This is not something that is meeting those goals as a habitat that is closely related to where the animals are coming from.”

The Zoo is finding ways to have a more open exhibit but one that is still very safe for the animals and for the public.

“It is something I affectionately call ‘take down the fence,’” Borland said. “However, as you notice when you walk through Africa, there is not a place to sit and have close encounters with an animal.

“You kind of quickly stroll through it and this is where some of our most dynamic animals are in our entire zoo.”

The Zoo plans to take down some of the fencing where it is appropriate and place other barriers to make sure the animals and visitors are safe and secure .

“That is why Africa [at the zoo] as a whole is our focus over the next year,” Borland said. “But we are going to start with the giraffes.”