Big News: Western Montana May Have a Zoo Soon

Things have been pretty exciting at Z100 this week.

Last month, we shared on The Chris and Ashley Show that we wanted to sponsor an animal at the local nonprofit organization Animal Wonders Inc. We narrowed it down to just the mammals and asked our listeners to vote on the animal we should sponsor.

• Seraphina the Fox
• Huckleberry the North American Beaver
• Gaia the 3 Banded Armadillo
• Chili Pepper the Patagonian Cavy
• Sydney the Brush-Tailed Bettong
• Ping Pong & Boomerang the Sugar Gliders

We tallied the votes and the winners were Ping Pong and & Boomerang the Sugar Gliders!

We reached out to Jessi at Animal Wonders Inc and invited her and the Sugar Gliders to the Z100 studios to bestow upon them the official honor of being the Z100 mascots.

We had the best time.

We learned that Ping Pong is a little crabby and Boomerang loves to eat snacks. You can see in the Reel above that Sugar Gliders do sort of glide through the air, almost like a flying squirrel.

As we chatted with Jessi we learned something very interesting about Animal Wonders Inc. We had asked her about the kinds of certifications required to take care of the 100+ animals at Animal Wonders, and I said, "So, you're technically not a zoo."

And then she said: "We are in the process of becoming an accredited zoo."

How cool is that?!

Jessi explained there's a lot of paperwork involved with accreditation, which they will do through the Zoological Association of America. While she said they are prepared in terms of animal care, they are working on the paperwork and then there would need to be a site visit as part of the accreditation.

We asked her to keep us posted on the process so we'll let you know when it's official. Congratulations to Animal Wonders, Inc!