A ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday marked the completion and official opening of the “Amur Tiger River Valley.” A number of donors who invested in the project, Minot Chamber of Commerce representatives and others attended the ceremony.

“To make this project a reality takes a lot of work,” said Becky Dewitz, zoo director. She said it is one of very few cat habitats in the nation with an overhead catwalk.

The new habitat is part of a $6.2 million project for the zoo’s African lions and Amur tigers. The tigers now have 21,599 square feet of habitat. Their former habitat was 1,350 square feet.

Jennifer Kleen, executive director of the Greater Minot Zoological Society, the zoo’s nonprofit support organization, said the tiger habitat has three separate yards for the tigers with additional dayroom space. There are also overhead catwalks, fountains, pools, glass viewing and green foliage.

Eloise Ogden/MDN Visitors to Minot’s Roosevelt Park Zoo watch from a pathway, in the distance, one of the Amur tigers taking a dip in the pool in the new Amur tiger habitat at Roosevelt Park Zoo, Minot, on Wednesday. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Wednesday officially opening the new habitat.

The zoo’s “New Habitat for a New Century” centennial capital campaign has about $900,000 available for the renovation of the former cat habitat for leopards. The capital campaign will continue to raise about $1.6 million more for that project. The project is expected to cost about $2-2 1/2 million.

The projects are being done in conjunction with the zoo’s centennial celebration in 2021.