Calgary Zoo eclipses million visitor mark for 2021

Calgary Zoo parking lot entrance. (file)

The Calgary Zoo is celebrating a significant rebound in attendance this year after it was forced to close the gates to visitors for nearly two months in 2020.

Despite the late-2020 departure of the giant pandas that were on loan from China and the ongoing pandemic-related safety measures, officials say the zoo welcomed more than one million visitors this year.

Calgary Zoo attendance in 2020 was 734,682 visitors.

The zoo unveiled Dinosaurs Awakened, complete with 26 animatronic creatures, earlier this year and expanded Zoolights for the 25th anniversary of the annual event.

The Calgary Zoo set its attendance record of 1.48 million visitors in 2018, the year Panda Passage opened.